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| Network service problems explained |
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| Written by Shkamb Qavdarbasha | |||
 Photo by Ralitsa Golemanova The network service interruptions in the Skaptopara Residence Halls during the past month were caused by a range of problems including power cuts and student misuse of resources, Latchezar Filtchev, director of the Office of Communications and Computing (OCC), said. Filtchev said the main cause for the network problems were the power cuts. "When the electricity at Skaptopara 1 is [cut], the network and telephones in Skaptopara 2, the New Academic Building, and the library are disconnected also," he said.
The short interruptions of the internet connection came as a result of power cuts in Blagoevgrad, student representative to the Information Resources Committee Atanas Dyulgerov said. "When the voltage changes, the system breaks, and the protectors stop the system from working," he added, referring to the parts of the network equipment designed to protect it from power surges. Filtchev added that power cuts are not the only cause of network service interruptions. Misuse of the network by students and poor maintenance of the personal computers are additional reasons for the network problems, Filtchev said. "There was an attempt by students to consume more bandwidth. These attempts for avoiding restriction affect the entire student network," he said. Filtchev said when such cuts happen late at night little can be done until the morning since the OCC staff's working hours are during the day.
Furthermore, the system implemented this year for early connection of computers to the Skaptopara network is partly to blame for the interruption of services. Within the first month of the semester, 738 computers were connected to the Skaptopara network, which increased the traffic. So far, there are a total of 767 computers connected to the system. Currently the internet connection on campus is distributed on a priority basis. Computer labs and classes have the highest priority, followed by administration and faculty use. Whatever extra bandwidth is not used by these groups is free to be used by students. Another problem is the state of the personal computers connected to the network. Some computers are infected with viruses and do not have proper protection, Filtchev said. This leads to system instability. Since the OCC have no control over these computers, there is little they can do to help in this aspect. "I'm far from the perception that the system is perfect," Filtchev said. He added that the OCC is "tuning and working" to improve the system through accumulating experience. Senior Bledi Celiku said he thinks the connection certainly could be better as it crashes all the time and is too slow. "It's not that it stops you [from working] but it slows you down." The SG and the OCC have been working on writing a document to help students solve simple problems with their computers, Student Government Senator Giorgi Mariamidze said. Filtchev explained that, among other things, the document will contain information on how to connect Mac operating systems to the network. These guidelines will be distributed to the students next week, he added. The SG is planning to ask AUBG to change the current internet provider. The current provider is too expensive compared to others, Mariamidze said. The proposal is still under development.
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