Dorm wireless upgrades

Knowing how important wireless is to our students, we’re proud to share news of major upgrades in Metropolitan Hall–the largest suite-style dormitory at Widener–and Boettner Hall. Our networking team outfitted both dormitories with all-new wireless equipment this summer. In addition, we made upgrades in Moll and the first-year student quads: Cann, Hanna, Howell, Grasselli, Kapelski, Thayer, and Turrell. In our tests, the improvements we made in the second group of residences more than doubled connection speeds.

Our efforts are certainly not over, and much work is still ahead of us. We are pleased to be able to make these improvements, and hope our students enjoy better connectivity in their residence halls in 2017-18.

Did you know…

….for the approximately 2,000 students in residence halls, we support connections from, on average, 8,000 devices?

A major piece of wireless network architecture is not only having coverage (no “dead zones”), but also having having enough capacity when people congregate in specific locations. These patterns vary day-to-day, minute-to-minute.

Be sure to let us know if you experience connection issues in a specific location, especially when you notice that the problem is a recurring one. We can work to fill in gaps over time.