Expansion of campus-widewireless internet access is still inthe works but is up and working atthe learning center and the KirschCenter.

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

“We know it’s the student’s toppriority,” says Vice president offinance and college services, JeanineHawk. “So we’ve tried to make it ourtop priority in terms of technology.”

Plans for expansion will runthrough a series of three phases.The first phase will start Wi-Fi forthe learning center, Kirsch center,campus center, administrationBuilding, student and communityservices Building and the sciencecenter.

Phase two is set to be in areassuch as the S quad, L quad,advanced technology center and theperformance hall.

All the other areas of the schoolare placed in phase three. plans ofadding Wi-fi in the parking lots arestill being discussed.

The wireless internet project hasprogressed at a slow pace becausedistrict technological staff had to learnan unfamiliar product and figure outhow to work with two managementsystems that must coincide with eachother to function properly.

Another factor slowing the processis the fact that the district networkengineers had to be taught the functionsof the new system as well as take careof their other responsibilities.

“They don’t just work on oneproject; they have so many to workon,” says director of systems andnetworks for the district SharonLucie.

“They work on the entirenetwork to ensure that the networkis working properly, but they are alsoresponsible for security.”

A lot of technicalities went intosetting up a network includingconfiguration and assigning networkaddresses to all installed access points.

After that, the networks go through atesting stage.

The Learning Center is in a “betatest mode” meaning the technical staffis using the data to understand theamount of network usage expectedand to fine-tune the system.

The testing will also aid inexpanding Wi-fi throughout thewhole school and in finding andfixing all the glitches that arise in thelearning center.

Completion of the entire projectfor both de anza and foothillColleges is estimated to be finishedroughly around 2010. phase one isestimated to be complete by the endof 2008 while phase 2 is estimated tobe complete within the year 2009.