Re: 1999 Called, They Want Their Bandwidth Back
Last Thursday I posted an email I sent to the Emerson College IT department. I got two responses the very next morning.
The first email is from “the messenger” who replied to my email sent to the help desk. The second email if from Neil Davin, the manager of technology support services at Emerson College. Both emails addressed my problems and concerns in good humor.
Ryan,
My guess is you’re a WLP major. Am I correct? I’m in the graduate
program for Writing and Publishing.There are several sub-divisions under the umbrella of Information
Technology, thus I will have to direct various points of concern to
different people in order to properly investigate these issues. So, dare
I say it, be a little patient.I’ll try to consolidate your concerns into a moderately concise
response, lest this email mirror your epic-length, Melville inspired
message - which, to be honest, I found somewhat amusing given that it is
Friday and the snow is quite lovely.Regarding your ongoing frustrations connecting to ECMobile, firstly, I
apologize. I would have to suggest bringing your Macintosh into the Help
Desk so we can ensure all of the settings are correct. It is not
uncommon for there to be a missed step, or some other easily fixable
system-level problem. I agree the metaphorical uroboros of eternal
authentication can become quite infuriating, especially if there is no
available LAN connection as an alternative. In the meanwhile, in case
you haven’t already, you should run all Apple system updates, and
“repair permissions” from within Disk Utility. Also, what version
(exactly) is your OS?Secondly, if you want to tell me, very specifically, where you have
continuously encountered ECMobile failures (”everywhere” or “it always
sucks” is generally not helpful), I will speak with our Networking staff
immediately to check on the appropriate APs.I am going to alert our Lab Operations staff to the decreased
functionality of the print kiosks near the Help Desk. Keep in mind that
these will always run slower than the machines in the labs - they are
the oldest, are set to be replaced this summer, and are completely
cluttered due to the high level of traffic. I wouldn’t be surprised if
the cache contained thousands of accounts at this point. We’ll reimage
them this weekend to see if it helps.Additionally, those printers are set to be replaced as well. The reason
they are slower is the obvious - they’re servicing up to three thousand
students so, respectively, their lifespan is shorter. Literally, they’ve
become the squeaky wheel. Typically, the print station shouldn’t take
such a long time to log in (certainly, four minutes is extreme). I am
wondering if this is something you’ve experienced throughout the
semester at Emerson, or if this is a recent problem. We’ve been having
Networking issues since last week, forcing our wonderful Systems Analyst
to forgo his entire weekend, including President’s Day, to work towards
resolving the multifaceted problem.Anyway, please let me know how you want to proceed specifically
regarding your Macintosh, which should definitely be able to get on our
network.And let’s not exaggerate - it is 2001 who has been calling, not 1999.
Best,
“The Messenger”
I know that “The Messenger” responded to your email earlier today on
behalf of the IT Help Desk, but I do want you to know that I received
your email and take your comments very seriously.In addition to what Alex wrote, I want you to know that your email
brought to my attention the need to alert students who are printing at
the print kiosks to the advisability of saving email attachments to the
Local Workspace and printing from there. Printing from the Local
Workspace (which is on the hard drive of the computer you are working
at) greatly improves the speed with which a document will print, as it
involves much less network travel. There are instructions for printing
on the wall above the print kiosks, but they do not address the subject
of printing email attachments. Those instructions will be updated soon
to include that information.It may seem counter-intuitive, but I do like getting complaints from
students, as much as they make me wince at times, for they usually
identify areas in which IT can make improvements, and we at IT really do
want things to go smoothly for the end users. Thank you for taking the
time to let us know of your experience; your email will lead to better
service in the future.