Isaac Fick|Marlin Chronicle
On Oct. 7 at 11:24 a.m., The Malbon Center for Technology sent an email to campus, saying that there was an outage of the network services on campus.
“We noticed [the CPUs] were running very high that day,” Greg Skinner, chief information officer of the Malbon Center, said.
“We actually saw it before the network went down and immediately started looking into it … so we were already troubleshooting it when it happened,” Skinner said.
The Malbon Center distributed an additional email at 12:26 p.m. stating that the network was restored shortly before 12 p.m.
“The reason the CPUs were running high was that … the vendor said that … there was a known problem that they had in their operating system, and so they provided a patch,” Skinner said. “So we scheduled it that evening to put that patch in.”
That evening, at 4:51 p.m. The Malbon Center sent out an email communicating that the update was expected to begin at 9:30 p.m. and end at 11:30 p.m.
According to the email, “This will impact incoming and outgoing Internet access including VPN and campus phone services.”
Elliot Flystra|Marlin Chronicle
“I had to figure out ways to get Wi-Fi off campus … and I didn’t get to properly study for my exam, which made me have a lower grade than I wanted,” junior Baylee Brown said.
“We’re supposed to be able to turn in assignments on time and do things that we’re paying our tuition for,” Brown said.
“I was in the middle of doing homework … and I couldn’t use my laptop,” sophomore Abigail Boeckman said. “I lost three pages of a history assignment that I could not get back.”
“I can’t think of a semester where we’ve had reliable internet,” Brown said. “The weather’s affecting it or they’re having outages or scheduled downtimes.”
Brown believes that the outages are at inconvenient times, “whether it’s … late before midterm season or finals season.”
“I am always playing a guessing game as to whether or not I’ll be able to have access to the internet and turn in my assignments,” Brown said.
Brown outlined the lack of alternatives for students. “We have a lot of commuters, we have a lot of locals, but we also have a lot of people that are coming from across the country,” Brown said.
“When you live in a gated campus that is far away and extremely difficult to access … public transportation or sidewalks to just get places with Wi-Fi, I think it creates bigger issues than people see,” Brown said.
Skinner explained the reason for these updates, stating that, “the majority of the time, when there’s an update that needs to take place, it’s because of a need that’s passed down from a vendor.”
When there is a zero day vulnerability, which means that there was a vulnerability in the network published the same day, Skinner described what happens. “We don’t announce because we don’t want to tell anyone that we’re vulnerable… because then you’re telling the world you have six hours, eight hours to attack us,” Skinner said.
“It isn’t always at maybe the best, the ideal time, but in those situations … you need to move,” Skinner said.
On Oct. 10, the Malbon Center sent out another email, explaining that there would be two more planned updates. As outlined in the email, the update on Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. affected internet access, while the next update on Oct. 14 at 10 a.m., which was during fall break, did not.
Skinner described that the Oct. 11 update was a continuation of the initial Oct. 7 update. The reason for the time between updates was because, “we were in continued conversation with the vendor and what they wanted us to apply that patch further,” Skinner said.
“That Monday [Oct. 7] was the first time in the four years I’ve been here … that I recall where the network went down midday unplanned,” Skinner said.
“When we’re thinking about our network, we’re thinking about speed, reliability and security,” Skinner said.
The Oct. 14 update was not connected to the Oct. 7 outage, according to Skinner. “We had planned work more on the reliability front over a month in advance,” he said. “That Monday was a good opportunity, considering faculty, staff and students were off that day.”
There are two internet service providers used for campus internet, Skinner said. The work done on Oct. 14 was intended to balance the two providers. “That work involved three different companies just to make sure that it was collaborative,” Skinner said.
Skinner explained that the three companies included the two internet service providers, along with a third company, “that was also helping us with the configuration.”
“Whenever you’re trying to have two networks, they have to … talk to each other,” Skinner said. “That’s why we had contacts from each internet service provider.” He mentioned that when it comes to the reliability of the network, having those two internet service providers is important, in the potential case that one provider goes down.
Skinner added that The Malbon Center aims to support the University, looking out for the community, faculty staff and students.
By Isaac Fick