Photo: Cisco Manageable Switches (left) and Unifi Access Points (right) Photo Courtesy: Suryaraj Timsina

Internet connection problems are always infuriating, especially when you are a Computer Science student. Until a few weeks ago, the whole college had been facing internet issues. Many changes were made but somehow the needs of the students were not satisfied. So, the IT Department of the college was looked down upon at that time for not being able to meet the needs of the students. It does not sound good to be regarded as one of the best IT colleges in Nepal with poor internet connection. Therefore, a week ago the IT Department had a meeting with the college Chairman, Mr. Rudra Pandey. This meeting became a turning point for them and the entire college.

According to the IT Department, though everything was planned many months ago, somehow the plan was not put into action. After the meeting, everything was transformed. The club was able to buy all the devices and set them up. Hence, the internet connection in the college is getting better these days.

A member of the IT Department, Suryaraj Timsina, has given his opinion about the internet connection problem and how the department is constantly working to solve the internet problem.

“Actually everything was set ready for buying new devices. We had researched about the devices and we had also consulted with different vendors and network consultants. Papers for the final purchase order for the devices were also prepared and we were waiting for the final decision of college to make an approval for sending purchase orders to the vendors. Because of some emergencies, it was put at halt and the earthquake also caused the purchase to delay. After earthquake, when college started, the problem with the wireless internet was still there, but there were less number of users of wireless internet, so problem was not so noticeable. We were constantly following up to the college management, but couldn't receive decisions for different reasons. 1. The first week they wanted to focus on normalizing the day to day activities. 2. College had been shifted to temporary locations, so they had not decided the permanent locations. Once it would be decided, they would send us decision to buy new devices. We were waiting and luckily a decision was made to have a meeting with Rudra Sir. We had meeting on July 2, 2015 Thursday. Since we were facing the common issue of poor internet access, we asked for the final decisions to buy new devices. He called the management team and asked them to purchase new devices immediately on the very next day. After the completion of meeting, we were asked to buy the new devices. We sent purchase orders to the vendors of CISCO Manageable Smart Switch and to the vendors of Unifi Access Points. We received new devices on Saturday. By the end of Sunday, all the new devices were installed.  We considered the first week July 5 to July 10 as the testing and observation period. We received many feedbacks till that date; we didn’t receive any such complaints as we used to receive before. At present, connectivity to the wireless internet is working properly but there is an issue with the bandwidth.  We will still be continuing the observation of performance of new devices this week. If they work fine, we will expand the wireless access to some more locations inside the college premises and will also work on increasing the bandwidth. Furthermore, we are planning for making the wireless access available 24/7 by installing batteries for backup. After that, internet users can work even if there is no electricity and no generator operation.” Suryaraj Timsina, IT Department

The thought of having these smoothly operating facilities by our side soon is fascinating. Wish you all the best IT Department. Keep going!