La Voz

Expansion of campus-wide wireless internet access is still in the works but is up and working at the learning center and the Kirsch Center.

The plans for campus-wide wireless internet, also known as Wifi, was initiated two years ago.

"We know it's the student's top priority," says Vice president of finance and college services, Jeanine Hawk. "So we've tried to make it our top priority in terms of technology."

Plans for expansion will run through a series of three phases. The first phase will start Wi-Fi for the learning center, Kirsch center, campus center, administration Building, student and community services Building and the science center.

Phase two is set to be in areas such as the S quad, L quad, advanced technology center and the performance hall.

All the other areas of the school are placed in phase three. plans of adding Wi-fi in the parking lots are still being discussed.

The wireless internet project has progressed at a slow pace because district technological staff had to learn an unfamiliar product and figure out how to work with two management systems that must coincide with each other to function properly.

Another factor slowing the process is the fact that the district network engineers had to be taught the functions of the new system as well as take care of their other responsibilities.

"They don't just work on one project; they have so many to work on," says director of systems and networks for the district Sharon Lucie.

"They work on the entire network to ensure that the network is working properly, but they are also responsible for security."

A lot of technicalities went into setting up a network including configuration and assigning network addresses to all installed access points.

After that, the networks go through a testing stage.

The Learning Center is in a "beta test mode" meaning the technical staff is using the data to understand the amount of network usage expected and to fine-tune the system.

The testing will also aid in expanding Wi-fi throughout the whole school and in finding and fixing all the glitches that arise in the learning center.

Completion of the entire project for both de anza and foothill Colleges is estimated to be finished roughly around 2010. phase one is estimated to be complete by the end of 2008 while phase 2 is estimated to be complete within the year 2009.

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