Issue date: 4/10/07 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Susana C. Segovia

Despite complaints and difficulties, NT officials say that ResNet, the Internet provider for NT's residence halls, provides quality service.
Jaci McGinn, Wichita Falls freshman and Crumley Hall resident, said that ResNet randomly shuts down and that sometimes it is easier to go outside and get the wireless service.
"When we were registering for classes last semester, not only did ResNet go down, so did My.UNT.edu," McGinn said. "People who had wireless Internet went outside to get service, but it was still difficult to get anything done."
Scott Joyce of the business services staff said that Data Communication, the company that supplies the network for ResNet, put in new software during Fall 2006 that made students sign in every time they got on the Internet, which caused many students to complain.
"We get several complaints from gamers," Joyce said. "People will be playing a game like Warcraft and they will get kicked off, and they have to sign back in before they can keep playing. This usually gets them upset."
ResNet tries to respond to trouble tickets, formal complaints by e-mail or phone call, within one week if they cannot help over the phone, Joyce said.
"Most of the time, people call very upset, and they don't want to hear us say 'I don't know,'" Joyce said. "If a student has put in a trouble ticket and we can fix it, we will. We might need to send a technical expert out. If we can't fix it then we send it to Data Communications to fix it."
Joyce said that some students do not respond to phone calls by ResNet to fix the problems, and after a week they erase the ticket.
"In cases like that when parents call complaining, we can pull up the trouble ticket log and show where repeated attempts to call were met unanswered," Joyce said.
Charles Fuller, assistant vice president of business services, said that ResNet is used because it is the best fit for connecting students to both the Internet and the university.
Fuller said that University Courtyard apartments dropped ResNet as its Internet provider because they wanted a different type of service, such as wireless Internet.
Officials at the apartments confirmed that they were no longer going to have ResNet as its Internet provider, but declined to comment.
On the networking Web site Facebook.com, there are eight anti-ResNet groups with more than 350 members between them, including a group started by Kevin Hickman, San Antonio freshman and West Hall resident.
"I started it because one weekend before spring break I missed three assignments for my Web classes because when I went to use ResNet, it went out on me," Hickman said. "I think ResNet is reliable as Internet is going to be. But it has many problems and needs to be worked on."
ResNet offices are open hours are Monday through Friday and are located at College Inn Room 51.
"From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., someone should always be there to answer calls," Joyce said. "There are times when it will roll to the voicemail because the lines are busy. We only have two lines and usually the more experienced technicians are at the dorms working on computers."

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