Due to the ongoing issue of interrupted Internet service in the dorms, the Observer decided to investigate the two main causes. One cause is due to virus attacks. The college of engineering buildings come under attack 20 to 100 times per day on average and up to 3000 times at most. Therefore, University Administration is trying to prevent viruses planted by hackers. The university has implemented a system whereby an automatic three minute shutdown of the Internet occurs whenever an attack is detected. Since all on campus dormitories are located in the area of the engineering building, the automatic shutdowns include the dormitory buildings as well. Furthermore, student activities within the dorms increase the danger of virus attack which in turn leads to more shutdowns. For example, students who access P2P or Web Hard sites, which are particularly vulnerable to infection, make it more likely to cause service interruption.
Another cause of Internet shutdowns is due to Internet routers. The university gives each student one port when they move into the dorm. However, as the number of electronic appliances requiring Internet service such as smart phones and PCs has increased students have begun to use their own routers. If students put their routers into a WAN port without being fully aware of the instructions, this can cause errors which could lead to re-directing to strange IP addresses, which in turn leads to a slow-down in connection speed and interruptions in service. Currently, the university recommends that students use switching hubs and they have put up notices in all the dormitory buildings to that effect.
Students should obey the rules posted on the university administration notices. Moreover, the university should not only post notices on the bulletin board, but it should also promote the issue by broadcasting the proper usage rules actively.