Internet Access

Internet Access

There can be no denying that steady internet/wifi access is essential in 21st century education, and especially in virtual learning! While there are no easy solutions in many situations, there are a variety of steps that an individual/family can take to improve their internet connection. Some potential solutions are listed below. If these do not adequately meet your needs please feel free to reach out to the GOMHS Library.

Problems with Obtaining Internet Access

Here are some potential options that a family could take when looking to obtain internet access. If none of these are possible solutions for you then please contact the GOMHS Library to see if anything else can be done. You might also want to consider notifying your child's teachers and grade-level dean to explain the situation and look for potential solutions.

• Request a hotspot from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System by filling out the application on the EBR Technology website. Fill out the application for each EBR School District student who needs one and is under your care.

• Cox2Connect: See if your family is eligible for afforable home internet thorough this program.

• Consider connecting to the following community hotspots:

  • EBR School District community hotspots: Many (not all, but many) school parking lots have been turned into community hotspots. The main parking lot at GOMHS is one of them!! Follow the instructions for connecting while maintaining social distancing in your car if you are looking for a steady wife source.

  • BREC wifi: Many of the parks have open wifi that you can connect to.

  • East Baton Rouge Parish Library System: During the spring pandemic shutdown the library system extended its wifi out through the parking lots so people could maintain social distancing while accessing the internet.

  • Many businesses (ex. fast food restaurants) have extended their wifi to their parking lots.

Problems with Weak/Not Reliable Internet Access

We have all been there. Everything seems to be working just fine and all of a sudden the internet stops working. There are many potentials causes and solutions to this problem. Please recognize that many times pinpointing exactly what the problem is is difficult since so many variables affect the internet. Watch Mrs. Anding's video below to start brainstorming how to fix your particular problem. If those do not work, then look for further suggestions below!

Possible variables to consider adjusting:

• Where are you located in relationship to your internet router? Get closer to it if possible.

• How many devices are connected to your wifi at any one time? The more devices that you have the slower your internet will run. If there are enough devices on the wifi it will eventually not work at all.

• Can you work offline in some way? Chromebooks can be set up to work offline. If you like to listen to music while working, consider downloading some music and listening to it offline rather than streaming it at the same time.

• Close all tabs on your device that are not absolutely essential. The more tabs that are open the more data you are using at one time.

• Check to see if the program you are using is experiencing issues that have nothing to do with your internet connection and everything to do with the program itself. (ex. Nearpod outages)

• Do you need to update your device in some way? You might need to clear the browsing history or update your Chrome Operating System.