Internet outage disrupts campus

MVNU lost all internet connection for most of the day Wednesday, impacting classes and on-campus jobs.

At 11:55 a.m., Information Technology Services (ITS) announced that the MVNU network was malfunctioning and that no one could access external websites and most internal sites.

An ITS email said the department’s infrastructure team “determined that the issue was related to our firewall.” The firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls network traffic, allowing or blocking access based on predetermined security rules.

However, many did not receive this email because of the network malfunctions and were unaware of the problem.

Among the things that couldn’t be accessed were the MVNU portal, Moodle, and student email accounts. Students, faculty and staff could not access outside internet sites either.

Without the connectivity, some professors canceled their classes or changed their lecture plans. Other students and University employees headed for local restaurants, coffee shops or other businesses where they could connect to free wifi and continue to work.

Art and the Human Identity with Dr. Kevin Hawthorne was one of the classes that adjusted and changed plans. Hawthorne passed back tests, but did not go over any new material in class.

Senior Annelise Rohrer and a large portion of the student body were not aware of the internet problems yesterday afternoon.

“I spent 45 minutes in the library thinking it was a problem with my laptop and trying to fix it,” she said. “I realize that the situation was not intentional and that Motherboard and ITS were trying to fix it. I just wish I would have known earlier.”

Freshman Abby Fairless was frustrated as well.

“It was a setback not being able to get on the internet when we needed to for classes,” she said.

Although most classes were still in session, some students were not able to do their on-campus jobs.

“My boss texted me saying no one had to go into work for admissions because of the wifi being down,” junior Hannah Berg said. “We all have to work more on Thursday because we couldn’t go in today.”

The internet outage came at an especially bad time for faculty and staff, the first day back from the midterm break. Midterm grades are due today.

The campus-wide Internet was working again around 5:30 p.m, granting students, faculty and staff full access to all online sites.