Aside from an Internet shutdown due to a power outage in Bokjeong that occurred last year, poor Internet connection is not often a problem at SIS. In the past month, however, SIS has experienced Internet malfunctioning twice due to technical difficulties in the IT department. While poor connection did not severely disrupt student learning, many struggled to adapt to the poor Internet connection.
The first time the Wi-Fi failed, one of the pieces of hardware in the Internet line coming directly from LG malfunctioned, leaving the school without Internet connection for about an hour. In order to fix this problem, the IT department obtained temporary hardware to replace the dysfunctional piece, and successfully addressed the problem.
According to Paul Kang, IT coordinator, the second time the Internet failed had more to do with student behavior than with technical malfunctioning. Many students managed to get hold of the password for “SIS Staff” Wi-Fi and consequently began using the Wi-Fi network designated for staff members. However, because the SIS Staff network only has 500 available IP addresses that are renewed every 24 hours, an excessive number of users may easily incapacitate the network. As a result, the Internet shut down after a three-day weekend from Oct. 3-5 when a flood of students and teachers entered the network at once.
“[Students] mainly use the network in order to access iCloud and Facebook,” said Yoon Lee (11), junior class president. “Some of them also enjoy the exclusive IP address, which allows for faster browsing and downloads that are not possible on the ‘SIS Student’ network. Students can be incentivized to use the ‘SIS Student’ network if it is free of such restrictions, and if the Wi-Fi is sped up and kept at five mbps or higher.”
Changing the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) password may not help secure the network, as doing so has failed before. The IT department continues to consider possible solutions to student usage of the staff network, but does not anticipate any other major Wi-Fi problems in the future.