What’s Wrong with my UB Internet??

Have you had PC problems lately? I know I have, and defiantly on more than one occasion. First it was the typical fifty pop-ups per computer session. Than it was the mysterious links in my profile. As the pop-ups increased, so did random viruses. My favorite was the one that kindly informed me that “It” knew how to control my whole computer. Then after informing me this, “It” popped out my CD-Rom drive. Now I am no computer expert, but I did know that my computer was not possessed. It just was completely infested with viruses; so many that eventually I couldn’t even open Internet explorer or Microsoft word. As if this is not enough, last week I purchased six months of unlimited music downloads. I mean, six months of unlimited downloads is a wonderful thing…that is if you can use it! So when I learned that we no longer can download music or games, I decided to head to the source…to find out what is exactly going on with our internet, how UB is going to help us fix it, and how we can prevent future viruses. And of course, when I can download music.
David Skica is the head of the IT department at UB. He informed me that many, if not the majority of, students were experiencing the same problems as I was. He also gave me a very good explanation as to why the ports that allow us to download music were shut down. “The ports were shut down because students were not able to get access to the net to do things like homework and check their email.” Skica added, “students were getting really upset because, how do you explain that to your professor? It’s like saying…Oops… my dog ate my homework.” David Skica has a very good point. After all homework is more important than music.
I also found out that the University has a policy that student’s personal computers are their responsibility. The university does however do its best to provide the best and fastest possible network. So, you might be asking how do we fix our computers now that they have so many viruses. David Skica explains some new services that will be provided for students. “Right now I am bringing in a local vendor to show up at Carlson Hall, where students can bring in their computer to get repaired.” Sounds great to me! But there is a downside. This service will cost about 65 dollars an hour (ouch). So, David Skica assured me that there is a cheaper and quicker way. “We are getting a CD-Rom that will cost much less money, between five and ten dollars that can be available in the bookstore. All you have to do is put the CD in and it should be able to clean the computer.” So there are some options students have to clean their computers.
David Skica’s suggestion to fix this problem in the future is to clean your computer. That way things won’t have to get to this point. “A lot of the responsibility is on the students. There can be 200 people in a resident’s hall, and 195 of them clean their computers, the five people who don’t can infect everyone else in a matter of seconds,” Skica informed me.
So clean your computers folks!! Doing so will help the network tremendously, and the ports will be turned back on. The IT department will also update students on when the CD will be out, and other tips on taking care of your PC. As an added bonus we are now getting wireless Internet in Knights End Caf and the library. This should be available in a few weeks (look out for announcements). If you have any further questions or concerns you can contact David Skica at dskica@bridgeport.edu or by calling X4605.