Cisco Clean Access Denied

Dan's Downside, Daniel Kulick, issue 15, Opinion - By Daniel Kulick on Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 04:00

During this JanTerm, I was shocked to find that after the time of 10 p.m. I could not access the Whittier College server through Cisco Clean Access Agent. This happened twice within the first week, and I assumed the issue was temporary and would be fixed along with the power outage. The following week, I had Internet up to Friday, and again I received an error message from Cisco Clean Access.

In the past, students have reported Cisco Clean Access errors to the Information Technology department, who then reported that the problem was with students’ computers, not the server. This was notably an issue with Apple computers. I feared the same problem happened to me and I would need to take my computer back to the Apple Store for maintenance. On Friday, Jan. 14 myself, and several other residents within the Harris dormitory, along with the rest of the school, experienced Internet connection failure.

We know in the past that power outages could be due to a power saving plan with California Edison. So I wondered if perhaps the issue was the same or if Whittier was performing scheduled maintenance or just plain shutting the system down. That is not what grinds my gears either, what really grinds my gears is the Information Technology’s lack of response or even warning that such a loss of connection would occur. The first week the Internet was back on the next morning, the second weekend of JanTerm there was no Internet from Friday through the better part of Saturday, prompting me to call that same day. It is a wonder why IT will not make itself more available to students in question, especially on matters that affect the entire school.

When I asked IT of the situation yesterday, I was told that there was an issue with the generators powering specific systems associated with IT, only after calling, e-mailing and visiting their office several times. Why were we, the students affected by this loss of Internet, and not even informed of this beforehand or afterward as we were informed of the power outage?

Many students living on campus will not know the reason the Internet failed unless they read this column, or their friends tell them. What will IT do in the future to make sure this does not happen again? IT has stated that the necessary repairs were made, and connection has not faltered since then. However, I am still not convinced that our Internet is secure.