DeKALB | Before NIU began using Cisco Clean Access Agent for Internet connections in residence halls, there was more damage done to students’ computers, said Jim Fatz, director of Information Security and Operations.

“Prior to Clean Access, it was not uncommon for residents to have wide scale damage to their systems, loss of data or compromise due to the negligence of a single person bringing a dirty device onto the network,” Fatz said.

Clean Access Agent is the software that connects students to the web in the residence halls and ensures Internet security.

Not all students like Clean Access, dealing with login issues or the necessary virus protection needed for it to run.

“I would have to say that the Internet security could be a little bit better,” said Phil Jones, senior political science major. “I feel that it has a lot of restriction on a lot of things we have right now that we can’t have full access to.”

One example of restriction, Jones said, is being able to download music.

Phil Valentini, freshmen nursing major, said the Internet connection is not bad, but finds it a pain to be forced to use NIU’s virus protection and not his own.

Eric Erwin, junior industrial engineering major, said he dislikes that one has to log in everyday.

Not all students, however, have problems with Clean Access.

“I think it’s OK,” said Sam Michelau, sophomore health promotions major. “I’ve had a couple of viruses and I have just taken it to tech services, and they’ve been able to take care of it for me, so it’s alright.”

Henry Martin, junior business management major, said he hasn’t had any problems with Clean Access Agent, but doesn’t like the virus protection he’s given by NIU. Martin said he feels his security could be better.

Fatz said not all security software will be compatible with Clean Access.

“The Clean Access process is not vendor specific when it does the analysis; it supports most well-known operating systems and anti-virus software,” he said. “But it does not support all software; the provider of Clean Access, as would be true of any vendor of this type of product, needs to make a best guess as to what will be the most prevalent types of software it will see.”