2008 Woodie Awards
University's Internet issues resolved
Katie Broderick
Issue date: 4/6/06 Section: News
Officials say the UTC Internet system is back to normal after several outages in the past few weeks, including last Saturday. However, summer upgrades may impact the way some students use their university e-mail.
According to Monty Wilson, assistant vice chancellor for information technology, software difficulties that debilitated the university's e-mail in mid-March have been eliminated.
"Everything is up and working as it should be. We've replaced the software with problems, and the system works better than before," he said.
However, Wilson said Saturday's outages were a result of hardware malfunctions, as one of two main network controllers failed and there were issues when the working controller did not take over properly. Internet services were down for about three hours, but parts have been shipped in and replaced, and these issues have also been fixed.
Wilson said the technology department does not usually like to perform major upgrades and repairs during the semester as it impacts students and faculty, "but when it breaks, fixing it as quick as possible is the best way to go usually."
Emily Denton, a Franklin, Tenn., junior, said she has had minimal difficulties with campus technology services before this semester, but she has been frustrated several times in the past few weeks.
"I was really annoyed when I went to the library this weekend and couldn't check out a book because the library was practically shut down without their computer system," she said.
Wilson said: "If we had all the money in the world we could almost guarantee that the system never goes down. However, I think lower prices and a hiccup now and then is better."
Many e-mail upgrades are made during the summer months. For instance, Wilson said his department will be working this summer to make sure students are certain to receive their UTC e-mail.
"At the request of departments that contact students, like the bursar's office, admissions, and financial aid…we will restrict forwarding to off-campus accounts," he said.
According to Monty Wilson, assistant vice chancellor for information technology, software difficulties that debilitated the university's e-mail in mid-March have been eliminated.
"Everything is up and working as it should be. We've replaced the software with problems, and the system works better than before," he said.
However, Wilson said Saturday's outages were a result of hardware malfunctions, as one of two main network controllers failed and there were issues when the working controller did not take over properly. Internet services were down for about three hours, but parts have been shipped in and replaced, and these issues have also been fixed.
Wilson said the technology department does not usually like to perform major upgrades and repairs during the semester as it impacts students and faculty, "but when it breaks, fixing it as quick as possible is the best way to go usually."
Emily Denton, a Franklin, Tenn., junior, said she has had minimal difficulties with campus technology services before this semester, but she has been frustrated several times in the past few weeks.
"I was really annoyed when I went to the library this weekend and couldn't check out a book because the library was practically shut down without their computer system," she said.
Wilson said: "If we had all the money in the world we could almost guarantee that the system never goes down. However, I think lower prices and a hiccup now and then is better."
Many e-mail upgrades are made during the summer months. For instance, Wilson said his department will be working this summer to make sure students are certain to receive their UTC e-mail.
"At the request of departments that contact students, like the bursar's office, admissions, and financial aid…we will restrict forwarding to off-campus accounts," he said.
