I am back on the blog to complain... just vent, I guess... Improving the school's network infrastructure, we got a very good proposal from D-Link and went for it. They proposed a robust network, with high-end switches and business class access points and VLANs for improved security and control. We started working on instalation six months ago, and DLink assured it would take less than week to set things up... it's been six months and things still don't work too well... Four DLink technicians have come and gone... without being able to fix things...
We asked for a 100% wireless coverage on campus and let DLink figure out what we needed. They installed, configured and things work well in the wired network. Wireless is still a mess. In my office, I get disconnected from the web between 10 and 20 times a day (about every half hour) and it's impossible to have a good connection for a sustained period. I cannot watch a half-hour streaming video without restarting my network card to be able to connect again. Different areas of the school have similar problems, including not being able to connect at all, Youtube videos not working when they need them in class (for some reason, videos appear unavailable and then available again when connected from home), educational software disconnecting (Carnegie's Algebra Tutor) due to network trouble... It's been a big issue that doesn't allow our teachers to work online with their students without wasting half the class troubleshooting or simply having to change their plans and not use computers. This is causing enormous dissatisfaction and resistance with technology. And it's out of my control.
DLink and their technicians have stumbled through trial and error for months... with no permanent solution. We even had someone working from Chile...
I know networks are non-trivial... but six months to get 15 access points to work well?
HELL!
