The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News September 24, 2004

Delays cripple CIT network
Viruses from last year may be the cause of hiccups

CIT technicians are currently working round-the-clock to fix a series of computer bugs which have led to massive delays on the campus servers this week.

Students began experiencing difficulties with the campus network last Thursday, when reports started coming in regarding spotty and unpredictable connections. Center for Information Technology Director John Bucher and his staff, however, believe that the real problem emerged on Saturday and they have since been working fervently to find an explanation.

“We’re in quite a quandary as to what is going on here,” said Bucher.  “We do know that this is a centralized problem and one that is much more persistent on North campus than on South.”

The CIT staffers are frustrated and perplexed, though a major component of their anxiety stems not from this isolated incident but from the major computer crisis that Oberlin suffered last fall, when the network was invaded by an influx of computer viruses that caused the system to experience a meltdown.

To clear the network of all of these viruses, every computer on campus, including students’ personal computers, had to be brought to the CIT office to be carefully scanned and decontaminated.

“This breakdown has left battle wounds,” Bucher said, attributing at least some of the consequences of last year’s episode to this current one.

However, Bucher says that he and his team are making progress, having at least eliminated some of the causes they had initially suspected were involved, such as invalid connections and improper wiring.

Overall, he blames their inability to find the root of the problem not on their lack of skill but rather on the fact that, as technology advances, computers are becoming so complex that it is more difficult than ever to correct glitches when they arise.

“People think we’re not working on it, but that’s not true at all,” he said. “And if people do start to see improvement—even inconsistent improvement—it would be good for us to know about.”
 
 

   

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