Growing up in an era dominated by technology and the internet I always thought the internet was everywhere. That it was just something that was kind of there. Throughout the years I have learned that the internet actually does not exist everywhere (shocker). Certain areas may have a weaker signals, some internet providers have stronger connections than others, and some places just do not have internet. When thinking about my own personal usage of the internet and how I access it I think of WiFi and also my cellular service through my phone. I know that WiFi has to be set up by a company so that you can access it through the various technological devices wherever you put it. It is usually something physical that can be seen. For my cellular service I know that one has to pay a telephone provider such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, as well as many other options to access the internet wherever you are regardless if there is WiFi or not. However, this is not always true as there are several places you do not have cellular service.
After walking around my college campus I was able to learn more about where my internet comes from while at school. As pictured below, there are several of these round white objects that are attached to ceiling scattered around every building, room, and area of campus.
These objects, to my knowledge, are what gives us students access to the Internet. Being physically closer to them may increase your internet speed slightly. These are placed in classrooms, in the library with several across every floor (pictured above), and almost every building on campus. This ensures that every person has access to Internet that is on the campus. This is especially important as W&L is an extremely rural school where at times it may be difficult to have high speed internet. I think these internet routers have wires going into them which can be seen in the picture above which connects them to a greater system. I think these larges systems of wires are hidden above ceilings and unseen places but there are a large amount of them across campus.
An area on campus I sometimes struggle to have WiFi access is in my locker room. Certain parts of the locker room you cannot access the WiFi particularly in one corner that is far from the main part of the building. I think this is because we have no routers in the locker room and due to it not being an academic building there are not internet routers placed as frequent.
Pictured below you can see what I use at my home to access the internet. This rectangular box gives internet throughout my house. At the beginning of the year we were having issues with our internet going down whenever it rained outside. This issue has since been solved but shows you how fragile your internet can be if you do not have the right set up and right provider.
