Students in this day in age use the internet quite a bit, from recreation to studies to getting in contact with a friend; it’s become a vital part of their lives. It’s for this reason that Erik Crouch, senior technician at ITS, wants to make sure students are connecting to the right network when they want to use their devices. “Some students are making a mistake when they see the available wireless networks. We know it can be confusing, but we have three campuses we have to serve,” said Crouch.

Crouch went on to explain what each available connection is used for and which one students should be using when they need to use the internet.

“When students connect their devices they should be connecting to the ‘Washburn’ network, though they’ll also be able to see the ‘WashburnGuest’ and ‘WUPrivate’ networks,” said Crouch.

The ‘Guest’ network is for visitors to the Washburn campus, people like parents, vendors and members of the general public.

“The problem with students connecting to the ‘WashburnGuest’ network is that it works by allowing a connection for 3 days but then you’re banned for 5 days to prevent people from the public just sitting around using our system,” said Crouch.

Crouch also explained that the ‘WUPrivate’ connection is for equipment that is owned and operated by the University itself. A majority of the devices that connect to it are laptops and control equipment. The ‘WUPrivate’ network will not grant access to unauthorized equipment and to save themselves some frustration they should not even bother trying to connect to it.

The process to connect a device to the Washburn network is relatively simple. To connect a device, a student just needs to open a web browser and try to connect to any website that isn’t washburn.edu. They’ll be redirected to a registration page where they’ll need to input their MyWashburn username and password. After this is completed, students just need to simply reboot their device when prompted to do so. Alternatively, phone and table users can manually turn of their phone’s WiFi for a full two minutes, then turn it back on. “The Washburn WiFi seems to work very well for the majority, but there are some places across campus where it’s pretty bad,” said Tai Bushbom, a Washburn student using the correct WiFi connection.

Crouch explained that his major concern was that in few weeks of a large number of students were using the wrong network. “In the first few weeks we had about 500 students make that mistake,” said Crouch. In recent weeks the number has gone down, but not reached zero, though.