Update as of 12:00 p.m. on Sept. 14:

Wi-Fi connectivity has improved for many University of Maryland students after outages caused frustration this week, the Division of Information Technology announced Wednesday.

IT hasn’t acknowledged a concrete cause of the issues yet, but “DIT engineers and IT vendors continue to work to ensure reliable wireless connectivity,” according to the division’s website.

The division will post the next update at 1 p.m.

Original Story:

While University of Maryland students have taken to social media to express concerns about the campus’ Wi-Fi problems this week, the Division of Information Technology hasn’t acknowledged a concrete cause for the issue yet.

“We are working to provide a response, and we will reach out as soon as we can,” said Alex Tirdil, a Network Operations Center employee. The campus has been having Wi-Fi issues since Monday, an IT help desk employee said Tuesday.

On Twitter, the IT service desk wrote Tuesday, “We’re still having issues authenticating onto the wireless network. We’re working to determine the cause, and have engaged the vendor.”

Similarly, on Reddit, an IT employee addressed concerns on Tuesday from students and suggested using Ethernet connections to access the internet.

“I strongly encourage you all to use your Ethernet connections and labs in the libraries for any critical work while this issue is being worked on,” the employee wrote. “The wired network is running like normal, so you should have no issues on that front.”

Despite the efforts to resolve the problem, many students haven’t been able to connect their mobile devices or laptops to the internet.

“It’s been inconvenient because you’re a student — you need to spend as much time as you can being productive,” said Ethan Parker, a sophomore finance and information systems major. “And since everything is geared towards the use of technology, when it is not working correctly, you become unproductive.”

Parker said the internet problems affected his economics class, where students usually use Turning Technologies software to answer clicker questions.

“With the Wi-Fi problems, we weren’t able to login, so it really hampered our ability to be as involved in class as we want to be,” he said.

Sophomore computer science major Ifeanyichukwu Iyke-Azubogu expressed similar concerns.

“I have homework, and I can’t get it done,” Iyke-Azubogu said. “I have to install MATLAB, and I can’t do that with my Wi-Fi, so I have to get an Ethernet cable for that.”

In one of his classes, the teacher had to adjust the lecture to accommodate the lack of internet connection, he said.

“Most of the time, I think [the Wi-Fi is] OK. It’s a little bit spotty sometimes, but it’s just been really bad lately,” Iyke-Azubogu said.

This story will be updated as information from the DIT becomes available.