By: Travis Archie
As of now the university is about 90% complete with the installation of their newest Internet system supplied by Aruba Networks.
Aruba Networks is a networking company based out of Sunnyvale, Calif. The company started up on February 20. The company has international presence in Europe, Africa, The Middle East, The Americas, Asia-Pacific and Japan.
It was about two months ago, when Gardner Webb students, faculty and staff faced the challenge of Internet loss for close to two days. Their internet provider at the time, RST, located in Shelby, N.C., had experienced a cut in their fiber optic lines. This caused an Internet outage that not only affected the Gardner Webb campus but also other businesses in the area that were contracted with this company.
This event led to Gardner Webb venturing to Time Warner Cable for temporary Internet access. Now Gardner-Webb has made another switch to provide better service for the students, faculty and staff.
For the most part students have been adjusting to the new network pretty well. Freshman Makenzie Lee said, “The new Wi-Fi allows me to pick up a signal in areas that I couldn’t before.”
Instructions on how to connect to the network called GWUwireless was sent out in an email by Assistant Vice President for Technology Services, Didi C. Ledbetter.