Viruses, Impulse cause inconsistencies

Students all over campus are suffering from slow Internet access, while others have no access at all. Impulse is the new computer program that is forcing all computers on the campus network to have updated patches and antivirus programs before they can access the Internet.

The program is a positive step towards eliminating the threat of new viruses.

Some students, though, foresee the inconsistencies in Internet access getting worse before it gets better.

“I can’t even get on (the Internet),” said Kathy Shannon, a freshman psychology major. “I can’t do my work. I can’t take tests, I can’t write papers and I can’t do speeches. It’s a game of chance.”

Tarah Gibbs, a freshman English major, said that her classes were being affected by the irregularities.

“It’s frustrating because I can’t do research on the Internet,” Gibbs said.

But according to Chad McDonald, the chief information security officer for GC&SU, the speed of the Internet is slowed because of the overall bandwidth being shared between student Internet traffic and virus traffic.

The downloading of Impulse to computers is causing headaches as well. Daniel Shay, a freshman majoring in general business, said, ” I’ve installed it a couple of times, and it doesn’t work.”

The Internet’s inaccessibility has angered students, but some see the bright side of Impulse and the preventative measures taken by SERVE and the Division of Technology Services.

Steven Rowland, a sophomore majoring in pre-pharmacy, said he can already see the benefits of the new program.

“If they can keep people from getting viruses, (do) whatever works,” Rowland said. “It’s actually gotten better in the past few weeks.”

Preventing viruses was the primary purpose behind Impulse, explained McDonald.

“It’s to make sure the network is safe for students,” he said.

Impulse was originally intended to debut at the beginning of the semester. The release was delayed because of technical problems but was pushed up from the delayed starting date because of viruses.

“Technical difficulties pushed it back to October 8th or 15th, but this huge surge of viruses made us have to act,” McDonald said.

Jeff Delaney, the manager for Client Support Resources in the Division of Technology Solutions, said the appliance Impulse will not hinder downloading of songs. More importantly, Impulse will lower the risk of students getting infected by viruses while surfing the Internet.

“The threat is great all the time,” Delaney said. “The Internet is a risk.”

Free anti-virus software is available to all students on campus through http://patch.gcsu.edu. For questions or concerns, contact SERVE at 445-7378. For more information about the virus w32.spybot.worm that attacks Windows 2000 computers without the latest security updates or a Service Pack 2 installed, visit http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.spybot.worm.html .

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 7 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry