It is nearly two weeks into the school year, and junior accountancy major Ben Dayton still doesn’t have a computer in his residence hall room.

Dayton had trouble downloading the Windows XP Service Pack 2 required for the new Clean Access software. His computer would freeze half-way through downloading the software.

“Some people got done with it in 10 minutes when they already had SP2; [for] some people it takes all day.” Dayton said.

Dayton brought his computer to ResTech Aug. 21. ResTech told him it would take about two weeks to repair. He said he thought there was much less hassle to set up the Internet in the residence halls last year.

“It took two minutes last year, and from using my roommate’s computer I haven’t seen any difference in performance,” Dayton said.

For some students it was the hassle of downloading several programs that was the biggest annoyance.

“I literally had to download at least 30 updates to XP, plus an SP2 package for XP, and then McAfee,” said Brent Ferrari, a freshman computer science major.

Students who have spyware or viruses may have a hard time downloading Clean Access, said ResTech coordinator Jan Gerenstein. In past years, many residents were without computers for weeks at a time due to infection or being denied access to the NIU network because of system vulnerabilities. These are situations ResTech is trying to avoid, Gerenstein said.

“The number of residents who are being required to install Windows updates is a clear indication to us that many machines were vulnerable when they arrived on campus,” Gerenstein said. “Which makes us all the more happy we’re using Clean Access.”

Clean Access registers the computer network card address, checks Windows machines for vulnerabilities, enables a firewall and directs residents to download McAfee VirusScan software, which is free through NIU.

Students have a number of problems loading Clean Access due to other complications as well. Some students don’t have a valid Z-ID password, which is needed to log in to Clean Access. Other problems students run into are other antivirus software, illegal versions of Windows or trying to install Windows updates on a computer infected with spyware.

ResTech has received many phone calls for computer problems, but that’s not uncommon for this time of year. Not all repairs are in relation to Clean Access.

ResTech has taken 289 resident computers. So far ResTech has resolved more than 250 network connectivity problems, which were on-site visits to student rooms, and has resolved more than 2,500 problems over the phone.

“It’s a learning process for all of us,” Gerenstein said. “As we troubleshoot problems and learn more about how this works, as well as the problems residents are having, we will be able to provide better support and documentation.”