Huntsman Hall does not have the wireless Internet capacity to meet increasing demand -- and students are paying the penalty.
Increased use of the building's wireless network has resulted in difficulty connecting and slow connections in recent days, and administrators have hastily improvised a solution.
Wharton School Chief Information Officer Deirdre Woods said that Wharton computing officials first detected an issue with the wireless network late last week.
The problem was confirmed after several students contacted the Wharton Computing and Information Technology Department's consulting office to complain about difficulties accessing the network.
Woods said the problem stems from high usage rates.
"Problems are occurring because the capacity of our wireless service is less than the demand," she said, adding that a maximum of 350 students can access the wireless network at the same time.
Wharton freshman Simran Bhatia said the problem is definitely noticeable.
"Wireless in Huntsman has been a real hassle over the last couple of days," Bhatia said. "It's difficult to access and sometimes cuts off in the middle. I know a lot of people that have had problems."
As a short-term solution to the problem, the wireless access point used in Huntsman has been isolated so that it cannot be accessed by users in other locations.
Typically, this network extends to buildings such as Steinberg-Dietrich and Vance halls, where usage is lower.
Woods said that this has redistributing the users of Wharton wireless more efficiently -- and the strain on Huntsman has eased considerably since.
Professors who teach in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall said they have not noticed any changes.
"I have not experienced any problem in the past week," Operations Information Management professor Balaji Padmanabhan said. "At work, often I use my Ethernet connection directly. ... I do use the wireless network when I'm taking my laptop out, but I don't recall having any problems."
Woods said that Wharton has never experienced a problem with its wireless network in the past, though demand has been rising steadily in recent years.
"Every year, more students have more wireless devices that access the network," she said. "The strain on the network is especially high at this time of year."
Woods added that computing officials will continue to closely monitor the network to ensure that there are no further problems.
"We are going to a keep a really tight eye on it," she said. "It's a stressful time for students and we want to help alleviate rather than add to their stress."
Plans for a more extensive upgrade to the Wharton wireless infrastructure are also in the works, according to Woods.
"We will be, at some point, upgrading our wireless access points totally," she said. "That will be a big job."
However, Woods said that she preferred not to implement such an upgrade during the semester in order to avoid a disruption in wireless access.
"We want to make sure we do this when it is the least inconvenient to students," she said. "If we can solve our problems throughout this semester with less disruptive short term solutions, then I would prefer to do that."
Wharton officials are not the only ones focusing on such initiatives.
Last month, Penn President Amy Gutmann announced a $700,000 plan to extend wireless Internet access to every dorm room in each of the 11 College Houses.
The system is expected is to be in place by the beginning of the fall 2006 semester.
