Students living on campus are now enjoying faster online service thanks to a technology upgrade which began mid-May and was completed by the end of July.

“We completely took out all of the equipment that was in the residence halls, which was about five years old, and put in all new equipment,” Ashley Jarrell, manager of the Office of Information Technology, said. “We’ve made some other changes as well that should enhance the network, and students should notice a big difference when they return in the fall.”

The new equipment provides the user with 100 megabytes connections, which is much faster than in the past.

“They now have 10 times the speed that they did before,” Bill White, a systems analyst at OIT, said.

However, White said residential students will only notice a difference if they are surfing campus sites.

For the first time, OIT can also shape traffic and impose rate limits.

“Before 10 to 15 users dominated the link,” White said. “The rate limit is there to make it fair for traffic going outside of the university.”

White added that the rate limit only applies to non-university Web sites.

For student protection, OIT is blocking hackers who give viruses.

“OIT can block certain network ports to prevent hackers getting into the machines,” White said. “We are protecting students from the outside world.”

About 3,000 students are currently using the system, but more are expected. White and Jarrell said students have given OIT positive feedback on the upgrades.