Talk:Longwood University Sucks/Computers, Internet & Viruses

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Play nice

This site welcomes a discussion about the content its users have contributed. If you feel you had a different experience at Longwood, or have something to say, speak up! You should add it to the talk pages (like the one you're on right now).

But DO NOT make personal attacks. If you attack any of the other users on this site, your comments will be removed and you may be blocked from bluwiki indefinitely. We're not here to flame eachother.

Thanks! --Sam Odio 15:47, 25 October 2006 (EDT)

Discussion about Computers, Internet, & Viruses

Defense of Longwood's Policy on Viruses

Regarding Sarah's comments on the main page:

Of course, not making students responsible for their own computers would cause the university many problems. Such as the infamous blaster virus that crippled networks around the world in the fall of 2003, it was also responsible for shutting down Longwood's internet access for 2 weeks at the start of the semester. The RTA's that this site so curiously bashes were responsible for cleaning off 5,000 Computers before internet access was restored. If you follow this link http://www.longwood.edu/helpdesk/support/protectingyourpc.htm you will see how you can prevent yourself from getting in trouble. If you do the following 4 things you WILL NOT have any problems, and hey, even if you do get a virus, you won't get in trouble because these are all things that are easily provable.

1. Set a password for your login 2. Keep your computers up to date via windows up date (Automated) 3. Keep your virus scan up to date and leave it enabled (Automated) 4. Run spybot once a week or so

In finishing, don't sit here and try to make it seem like Longwood is trying to ruin your internet access or that they're big bad network nazi's. Those 3 steps are simply to teach you personal responsibility, which is something most people lack these days. --Special:Contributions/71.114.73.86

Defense of Sam's attack on Longwood's IT

Regarding Longwood not allowing wireless networks:

Hate you burst your bubble sam, but I've seen this stuff at other colleges. The thing that most students forget about is Security and Bandwidth. Security is a liability, You don't have wireless because they know students won't secure it and they know that unauthorized people would use it. If other people use it, it's gonna eat up alot of bandwidth, and we all know that costs money. It's completely unfair to compare UVA to Longwood, given that UVA has an endowment of 3.5 Billion and is a more tech savvy schol than longwood. This is comparable to buying a pinto because you think it's a sportcar, I mean, only a dumbass would do that. You're not a dumbass, sam, are you? --Special:Contributions/71.114.73.86

Thank's for the personal attack. Try another one and you'll be blocked from the site.

Regardless, I'm going to go ahead and call BS here. My tuition at Longwood was about the same as my tuition at UVA. To say that the two products can't be compared, based on prices, isn't accurate - and it isn't fair to prospective students, who are tasked with comparing schools. My advice to prospective students - given the prices are the same, go somewhere else (like UVA). You're getting a better deal at a school where the Administration tries to accommodate the students.

Because, the truth is, UVA gives you freedom to explore and learn about IT, and Longwood didn't (at least, not while I was there). Maybe they don't want to dedicate the resources. That's fine - but it's indicative of the Administration's general lack of interest in serving the students. Bottom line - if you want to explore IT on your own, don't go to Longwood. --Sam Odio 14:17, 20 February 2008 (EST)

While the personal attack is uncalled for, I can see the point the original poster is trying to make. UVA's endowment is actually 5 Billion dollars. found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._colleges_and_universities_by_endowment . Longwood isn't listed but when I graduated last year I think I remember hearing it was somewhere around 45 Million. So we can see that even though tuition prices are the same, 1% of interest on UVA's endowment per year is still larger than Longwood's endowment, and I'm sure it's at least 80% their operating budget each year. The point is, it's not that longwood (in respect of their IT dept.) doesn't choose to accommodate students with their wants when it comes to IT, it's that they just don't have the adequate resources in place to do so. And in retrospect they do accommodate students somewhat, I had no problem running a personal website. They just didn't want me running any type of money generating operations off my server, but that's understandable, if I were enterprising enough to turn a profit, I can pay for my own stuff. I'm sure there wouldn't be a problem if students weren't so ignorant when it comes to technological needs, but then again you could use that line of thinking to justify not needing a police force. If I desperately wanted wireless as bad as it seems you did, I would have just ponied up the 20 bucks a month and had unlimited data through my cell phone plan and done that via ICS. How did UVA compare to longwood when it comes to bandwidth, did they throttle you back for usage like VT or other colleges do? (Think I read at VT you used to get 5 gigs a month, then they slow you down to 128k Up/Down) Did they have the student side of the network totally detached from any administrative servers? These are all factors that matter. Longwood doesn't throttle, and I believe their network is entirely connected, which may be part of the reason why they don't allow wireless(You know, for security purposes).

A Point of Interest

I can't say that I agree with the majority of the IT policies that LU has in place, but if you're "into computers and tech" you can very easily get more than one computer onto the campus network. For that matter, you can do so wirelessly - assuming proper hardware configurations on said computers - via ICS as the above poster mentioned, but you don't even need to spend the money on a mobile data plan. I think I ended up with two of my own and three of my friends all connected through one ethernet port when we were working on homework one night (in Curry).

Further, it's not uncommon for schools so disallow routers on their campus networks. I'd say a majority of the universities I've seen have a policy in place like this.