"the OSA Wi-Fi network is in constant use, causing it to crash fairly often. But how does that happen? And what is being done to fix it?"-- Isaiah Kahn, 7th grade
OSA has a wi-fi problem. But before we get to that, it’s important to understand how Wi-Fi actually works.
Contrary to popular belief, Wi-Fi does not stand for Wireless Fidelity. “IEEE 802.11,” had been the original name, but when the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) consulted a branding company they decided that “Wi-Fi” was a much more accessible name. WECA then also changed its name to the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2002, three years later. The reason the two often get confused is because there was a promotion attempt by the Wi-Fi Alliance where they used the tagline, “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity.” Wireless Fidelity is different from Wi-Fi, though they are similar.
The way Wi-Fi works is that when somebody does something on the internet, their device translates the request into binary code which it then turns into radio signals, which it sends to the Wi-Fi router. The router turns it back into binary code and searches the internet for what was requested, and then gets the data back through a hardwired internet cable. This happens until whatever was asked for has been fully loaded. This whole process usually takes a very short amount of time to complete.
So what’s been the issue behind all of OSA’s internet crashes?
“There are a number of reasons,” explained David Smith, OSA’s Director of Technology, "but in the end I think the primary issue this time was actually a bug in the operating system for the network hardware. We had been trying to narrow down the potential causes and this unfortunately is very complicated, only happened when the demand was high, and I was partially dependent on the skills of an outside network consulting company.”
Smith continued, “Just over a week ago, we found a bug report from the network manufacturer that matched our symptoms pretty well and applied it on 1/20. Ever since we applied this update we have not had to restart the network. Outside of this particular issue, the hardware which runs our network was installed in 2012 and yet our demand on the network has increased significantly. The primary reason is that we have gone to a 1-to-1 student/Chromebook deployment and we have increased student headcount.”
There are also multiple Wi-Fi networks for OSA. If someone were to look at all Wi-Fi networks inside the OSA building, they would see OSA-CRBK, OSA PRIMARY, OSA Guest, and OSA ARTS (in no particular order). The reason for this, as Smith explained, is to “provide different content filtering policies for different users/student programmatic needs.” It does not affect how much the Wi-Fi crashes.
Many students have had issues with the Wi-Fi going out during times where they needed to use their Chromebooks. “[The most inconvenient time the Wi-Fi ever crashed was] probably when I was procrastinating for a Telegraph article a couple months ago and the Wi-Fi went down on our biggest work day so it didn’t allow us to write anything,” said Kai Vejsada, a 7th grader in the Literary Arts Sub-Pathway. “We kind of missed our biggest deadline.” Vejsada also said that he definitely thought that the Wi-Fi was crashing more than last year. “Last year it was only crashing once or twice but this year it’s been crashing, like, every day,” he said.
Smith confirmed this. “At the beginning of the pandemic we provided a Chromebook for every student,” Smith said. “The students are all back on campus and all using those devices. In addition, more and more curriculum is online with higher quality video (both academic and artistic) [causing the wi-fi to crash.]”
Along with students, teachers have also had many issues with the Wi-Fi going down when they need it. “It affects me deeply every time [the OSA Wi-Fi crashes],” said Amelia Whitcomb, the teacher of the Business of the Arts class and co-teacher of middle school and high school Literary Arts.
“I depend on Google Classroom for my classes, both in Lit Arts and academic classes. It’s almost exclusively online work because of the reliance on Google drive for students. I often use film clips and slideshows so when it goes down it seriously impacts my student’s ability to work and my ability to teach them.” Whitcomb also says that she has developed some ways to work around it. “[When the Wi-Fi goes down] sometimes I’ll have students work on paper if they can or I will use the board, but most often we end up having to pause instruction and work all together and have a game day until it restarts.”
Smith says that they do have a plan to fix issues with the Wi-Fi. “The Administration has allocated funds to do a full replacement of all network equipment,” he says. “Some additional funds are available from the Federal government but those won't be received until April 2023. There are also some significant supply chain issues which are resulting in long wait times for purchases of this type of equipment to arrive. Once all the equipment arrives (currently estimated [around December 2023]) then we would schedule an installation.”
Until then, teachers and students will continue to deal with any problems with the OSA Wi-Fi in the best way they can.
Contrary to popular belief, Wi-Fi does not stand for Wireless Fidelity. “IEEE 802.11,” had been the original name, but when the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) consulted a branding company they decided that “Wi-Fi” was a much more accessible name. WECA then also changed its name to the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2002, three years later. The reason the two often get confused is because there was a promotion attempt by the Wi-Fi Alliance where they used the tagline, “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity.” Wireless Fidelity is different from Wi-Fi, though they are similar.
The way Wi-Fi works is that when somebody does something on the internet, their device translates the request into binary code which it then turns into radio signals, which it sends to the Wi-Fi router. The router turns it back into binary code and searches the internet for what was requested, and then gets the data back through a hardwired internet cable. This happens until whatever was asked for has been fully loaded. This whole process usually takes a very short amount of time to complete.
So what’s been the issue behind all of OSA’s internet crashes?
“There are a number of reasons,” explained David Smith, OSA’s Director of Technology, "but in the end I think the primary issue this time was actually a bug in the operating system for the network hardware. We had been trying to narrow down the potential causes and this unfortunately is very complicated, only happened when the demand was high, and I was partially dependent on the skills of an outside network consulting company.”
Smith continued, “Just over a week ago, we found a bug report from the network manufacturer that matched our symptoms pretty well and applied it on 1/20. Ever since we applied this update we have not had to restart the network. Outside of this particular issue, the hardware which runs our network was installed in 2012 and yet our demand on the network has increased significantly. The primary reason is that we have gone to a 1-to-1 student/Chromebook deployment and we have increased student headcount.”
There are also multiple Wi-Fi networks for OSA. If someone were to look at all Wi-Fi networks inside the OSA building, they would see OSA-CRBK, OSA PRIMARY, OSA Guest, and OSA ARTS (in no particular order). The reason for this, as Smith explained, is to “provide different content filtering policies for different users/student programmatic needs.” It does not affect how much the Wi-Fi crashes.
Many students have had issues with the Wi-Fi going out during times where they needed to use their Chromebooks. “[The most inconvenient time the Wi-Fi ever crashed was] probably when I was procrastinating for a Telegraph article a couple months ago and the Wi-Fi went down on our biggest work day so it didn’t allow us to write anything,” said Kai Vejsada, a 7th grader in the Literary Arts Sub-Pathway. “We kind of missed our biggest deadline.” Vejsada also said that he definitely thought that the Wi-Fi was crashing more than last year. “Last year it was only crashing once or twice but this year it’s been crashing, like, every day,” he said.
Smith confirmed this. “At the beginning of the pandemic we provided a Chromebook for every student,” Smith said. “The students are all back on campus and all using those devices. In addition, more and more curriculum is online with higher quality video (both academic and artistic) [causing the wi-fi to crash.]”
Along with students, teachers have also had many issues with the Wi-Fi going down when they need it. “It affects me deeply every time [the OSA Wi-Fi crashes],” said Amelia Whitcomb, the teacher of the Business of the Arts class and co-teacher of middle school and high school Literary Arts.
“I depend on Google Classroom for my classes, both in Lit Arts and academic classes. It’s almost exclusively online work because of the reliance on Google drive for students. I often use film clips and slideshows so when it goes down it seriously impacts my student’s ability to work and my ability to teach them.” Whitcomb also says that she has developed some ways to work around it. “[When the Wi-Fi goes down] sometimes I’ll have students work on paper if they can or I will use the board, but most often we end up having to pause instruction and work all together and have a game day until it restarts.”
Smith says that they do have a plan to fix issues with the Wi-Fi. “The Administration has allocated funds to do a full replacement of all network equipment,” he says. “Some additional funds are available from the Federal government but those won't be received until April 2023. There are also some significant supply chain issues which are resulting in long wait times for purchases of this type of equipment to arrive. Once all the equipment arrives (currently estimated [around December 2023]) then we would schedule an installation.”
Until then, teachers and students will continue to deal with any problems with the OSA Wi-Fi in the best way they can.
