News: Meeting with HP WiFi representatives

On the 19th of March, a meeting was arranged between members of HP team (responsible for provision of WiFi in campus) with students. There were three different sessions arranged so as to reach out to more students. The following is a summarized version of the discussions that took place in the second session, (2 pm- 3pm).

The session opened with the HP Team requesting students to put forth their problems with the currently existing WiFi.
Students raised questions about the following:
Poor WiFi speed in hostel and connectivity;
Bad signal in corner rooms of hostels;
Authentication problems;
Laptop’s operating systems affecting the WiFi connectivity.

The HP team answered all the questions with technical answers, assuring us that authentication problems can and will be solved shortly. They continued to say that our college has around 600 access points, a large enough number for the campus. However, for good strength and connectivity at all places the number of access points has to be increased. While WiFi provision in hostel rooms is the ultimate goal- students may have to settle for WiFi access along their corridors, closer to the router in their hostel. The complex geometry of hostels and corner room inaccessibility cause the difficulty in providing WiFi to those rooms (Which is why first year hostels that are more rectangular in geometry get better WiFi strength than other hostels). The only solution to the bad signal- they asserted is to increase access points.While this may be worked upon, the short term solution suggested was the limiting of HP WiFi to one device per student.

Following the meeting, an email was sent to all students of college to their web-mail id, with instructions to register one device’s MAC id. The mail says that the device given first priority will continue having WiFi access, while the second and third priorities will be suspended from the facility till it has been improved upon. The full email is given below:

“Dear Student
As a part of improving the Wi-Fi services, the CSG has decided to register your devices’ MAC Id. Please follow the link below and register your devices (up to 3) in the order of preference.
http://info.nitt.edu/loginmac/
The first device will be Wi-Fi enabled now, and the remaining devices would be enabled a little later.
Also, there is an optional feedback form, which you may fill-in.
Kindly finish the registration process LATEST BY March 24, 2016.
Thanks
Dr. Ramakalyan Ayyagari
Head, CSG
—
Thanks & Regards
Octagon Computer Center (24×7)
Computer Support Group
National Institute of Technology
Tiruchirappalli – 620015, India
Phone: 91-431-2503803″