In an effort to improve WiFi on the campus, the Division of Information Technology will make changes to this university’s wireless network that will require a few early-morning Internet outages in the next month.
DIT has scheduled the outages of the university’s network to occur between 4 and 6 a.m. on the next several Tuesdays — Oct. 28, Nov. 4, and Nov. 11, according to an email from the DIT to the university community. University WiFi may be available during some of this time, but there could be numerous interruptions to connection during these off-peak hours.
The first two outages will affect all campus WiFi, but Nov. 11 outage will mainly affect wireless service in academic buildings, according to the DIT email.
The planned changes will allow DIT to replace old equipment and test new equipment, Phyllis Johnson, DIT’s communications and marketing director, wrote in an email. The new equipment will help provide better-performing and more reliable wireless service.
DIT is also adding more access points to improve capacity of this university’s wireless network, which is one of the largest in the country, Johnson wrote. In addition to 5,300 access points already available, DIT established 50 outdoor access points in the summer, Johnson wrote, and will continue adding more in the fall.
“Many years ago, most network traffic came from desktops or laptops connected via Ethernet,” Johnson wrote. “Today, students, faculty, and staff choose to perform a greater share of computing tasks on mobile devices. In addition, many students, faculty, and staff have multiple Internet-connected devices. We are constantly working to improve UMD Wi-Fi to keep up with demand.”
With these changes, she wrote, students should experience more seamless WiFi connectivity across the campus.
