Although Wi-Fi routers in Chamisa Village were updated over the summer of 2017, some New Mexico State University students still have complaints about their connections.

According to Anthony Kennedy, a Resident Assistant at Chamisa Village and Mechanical Engineering Major at NMSU, the Wi-Fi in Chamisa Village before the summer of 2017 “was pretty terrible. It was really weak. It was tougher to reach rooms.”

David Fraga, who works in ICT Enterprise Network Operations, stated that there were many complaints about the Wi-Fi in Chamisa before the update. “We managed to get funding and provide AggieAir over at Chamisa,” he said. According to Fraga, before this “big infrastructure change…students had to provide their own AP[access points]s.”

Ron Flores, who works at NMSU’s ICT Technology Support Center, said that wireless routers were first put into every room in Garcia Hall, and then in Chamisa Village over the summer. “We used to have problems like all the time at the beginning of the semester,” he said. “Now we have no problems at all, because the wireless routers in the rooms are run by us… it’s way more efficient now.”

Although the routers in Chamisa Village have been updated, a large number of students still find the Wi-Fi difficult to work with. Michael Kuechmann, who is studying Agriculture & Community Development at NMSU, says that, ““It’s been like this for about the whole year… Last semester and then continuing this semester. I know last year it was better, but I didn’t live in Chamisa. So as soon as I made the move to Chamisa it was noticeably worse.”

Bryce Rewalt, a Journalism and Mass Communications major who also lives in Chamisa, said that “I find myself having to… log off of the wifi and then log back on several times…so like, when I’m in bed at night too, I notice it’ll go out, and I switch back and forth between—there’s AggieAir and AggieAir WPA2, so I switch back and forth between those and sometimes it’ll work.”

Not always being able to connect to Wi-Fi can make it difficult for students to complete homework assignments and projects, especially when some coursework is only available online.

On the other hand, Zach Ryan, a student at DACC and a Student Aide at NMSU, states that the Wi-Fi is now “…pretty decent, way better than it was last semester. There’s some times when it’s slow, but [at] most times it’s at normal speed.” “I haven’t really had anybody call down to the desk to…say that there’s a problem,” continued Ryan.

Still, many students find that the Wi-Fi at Chamisa Village is not as easy to use as they would like it to be. Alyssa Tirado, who is majoring in Special Education, said that “…last year I was able to use my own router which made my Wi-Fi pretty good. Since last semester, I wasn’t able to use my own router, the Wi-Fi has been pretty slow. And sometimes it doesn’t work. I know that they put routers in Chamisa rooms which was supposed to help.”