By Staff Editorial

Access denied Riverside City College’s lack of easy wireless access is a burden to students (Wikimedia Commons)

By Staff Editorial

In recent years, wireless Internet has become an accessible platform available in places like Starbucks, McDonalds and International House of Pancakes.

However, for Riverside City College, the process is not as easy as it should be.

In most of the places listed above, logging on to the Internet consists of only a few simple steps.

Users pick the network they wish to be a part of, log on, accept its terms and conditions, and voila, they have access to go on a digital trip to wherever their imagination might take them.

For the Wi-Fi network at RCC, the process proves to be much more of a hassle.

In 2006, RCC underwent the proper improvements in order to launch its first Wi-Fi network at Moreno Valley College.

Ever since then though, if students wanted a safe and secure network to go on while they did school work, they had to actually sign up just to be a part of RCC’s network.

The application can take up to 48 hours to process, thus making it an unnecessary hassle to go through.

Imagine what would happen if users had to sign up 48 hours in advance every time they used the Internet. The world would come to a stand still.

It seems much easier just to handle business at home or to drive over to the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot and sign onto its secure network.

The UC Riverside, allows students a much easier way to sign onto the Internet. It provides three secure networks users can log onto from anywhere on campus.

With that being said, why does RCC make it so difficult to log onto its Wi-Fi network? Who knows?

Nowhere in the contract to become a student does it say students have to pay for their RCC network.

It seems to give administration more digital paperwork to process, which not only makes it a hassle for students, but for administration as well.

The digital age has been a permanent fixture of students’ lives since the start of the 21st century.

Every technological device available has the capabilities of logging on to a wireless network.

It’s inarguably the way to stay connected to everyone and everything.

Even the city of Riverside has developed a Wi-Fi access program where residents can easily find the SmartRiverside network and logon.

Unfortunately, RCC falls inside a non-covered area so prospective users are out of luck.

Here at RCC, students want their Wi-Fi served up like they want fast food—quick and easy.

All currently enrolled RCC students should be able to log in with only their student ID and nothing more. Having an application process that takes one to two days sounds a little absurd.

It’s time for RCC to join other colleges and universities in the 21st century and participate in the Internet age, because it is behind in the game.

When it’s so easy to go anywhere else and sign on to Wi-Fi capable networks, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be that way for the students here at RCC.