Imagine finally heeding those update reminders and updating to the newest operating system, only to find that when you turn your computer back on, it cannot connect to the internet. Later, when you take your computer to the ITS Help Desk, they tell you they must wipe it, and your whole world slowly crumbles around you.
Why would this happen to such a well-meaning UNC student, you ask? The NAC agent.
The NAC agent causes trouble for many students. That trouble leaves this board questioning its efficacy and necessity. But what is the NAC agent, and why do we, as students, have to have it on our computers when we live on campus?
According to UNC Information Technology Services, the NAC agent is “a proactive, end-user networking solution for wired and Wi-Fi connections that identifies potential problems on a computer before it accesses the network.” Sounds helpful, and perhaps necessary, yet it seems students who want to get around the program, perhaps to use file-sharing services which are flagged as “potential problems” by the program, can and will.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The NAC agent was installed in all residence halls in May 2010. There was a time when living in a dorm at UNC did not necessitate the little purple box telling you can only connect to the Wi-Fi in seven-minute intervals.
If the NAC agent was eliminated, students would be able to do their homework (or watch Netflix) with ease. No longer would they have to knock on the door of the residential computing consultant who lives in their building at 11:30 p.m., complaining that their computers will not connect to the internet, endlessly clicking on that little purple box.
