Network maintenance was performed April 24 to move Bradley’s network system behind a new firewall, which is one phase in a multi-step plan to broaden network bandwidth and increase speed of campus internet.
Last Friday’s maintenance included moving the “living zone” network, which encompasses residence halls and apartments, behind the new firewall. The same was done with the “learning zone,” which includes academic servers and labs, this morning between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.
“I’m really happy to have this equipment, and I think it does move us forward,” Sandra Bury, interim associate provost for information resources and technology (IRT), said. “The old firewall is old. This is a newer generation and newer technology.”
Bury said the work to move all of the network zones should be finished by July 1.
However, after this phase is complete, the IRT department will be unable to continue moving forward with other improvement plans due to lack of funding.
“It’s about a five-year plan with the funding,” Bury said. “Without the funding, we don’t know [when it will be complete].”
Bury said the IRT Department was able to fund part of this phase, and it received additional funding from the university.
“We put a plan out there for the administration to respond to, and as they are considering all of the priorities of the university, we will talk about resources and funding,” Bury said.
Bury said discussing funding for this project is an ongoing process. However, she said she does not think decisions will be able to be made with an interim associate provost, interim provost and interim president.
“I would expect that we aren’t going to have significant funding on such a big initiative until we get the permanent people in place,” Bury said. “When we have new leadership, I’m quite sure it will be discussed again, along with the other needs of the university.”
Additionally, Bury said she does not have enough reports about slow or failed wireless connections to bring these issues to the attention of the administration.
“I hear every once in a while that students are frustrated so often that they just don’t even report it anymore,” Bury said. “If we don’t get the reports, then I don’t have any data that I can take to the administration and say, ‘The students are having this experience.’”
Bury also said the IRT Department has tools to fix some problems related to slow network connection.
“When we learn about problems then we can try to increase the availability in a certain area by adding access points, and we are willing to do that,” Bury said. “We really do take action when we can. But, if we don’t get those reports, we can’t fix anything.”
