Some Ohio University students have targeted a culprit for wireless connection problems in their dorms: personal routers.
Students are turning to router use in the residence halls to more easily connect to the Internet, but others say the routers cause more problems than they fix.
“I think a lot of the times I have trouble using the Internet around my building because of the people with routers,” said freshman Nick DeFrancisco. “I’ve had a paper due and have had to walk to the library instead of working in my room. … It’s not fair.”
Laptops being used on residence-hall floors with personal unsecured routers automatically connect to the router’s wireless access rather than OU’s wireless system, said Sean O’Malley, information technology communications manager.
When this happens, students no longer have to log in with their OU usernames and passwords. However, they could be unknowingly implicated by any illegal activity the router’s owner is doing, such as file sharing, O’Malley said.
The presence of routers in residence halls could explain Internet connection problems.
“(Routers) can create performance problems if lots of people inadvertently connect to the personal router instead of the OU router,” O’Malley said.
OU’s Office of Information Technology has tried to ease the struggle of getting on the Internet by offering free use of Ethernet cords in some residence halls.
However, some students said that Ethernet does not always work, increasing the appeal of having their own password-protected, router-supported Internet.
“I would never get a router, because it wouldn’t be fair to everyone else,” DeFrancisco said.
O’Malley said his office sees on average 20 cases a year dealing with personal routers, but the office does not confiscate anyone’s personally owned equipment.
Evan Swingle, a freshman studying pre-veterinarian science who came to OU with his own router, was one of this year’s cases.
“My girlfriend goes to OU and has always complained about the Internet,” Swingle said. “So I figured I’d bring my own (router).”
Swingle had the router in his room for only three days before removing it because of neighboring students’ complaints. His router name gave him away, and he promptly removed it.
“I figured, if it was against the rules, I didn’t need it anyway,” Swingle said.
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