Framingham Returns Wi-Fi Access to Teachers, Staff, Students

Framingham teachers, staff, and students should be able to log in to a free, public wi-fi at the Framingham Public Schools, post school vacation week, said the Framingham Public Schools Technology Director.

Just before midterm exams at Framingham High in January, the public school district terminated access to all public, free wi-fi in all schools. That meant that teachers or students using personal tablets or laptops no longer had access to the Internet or their Google documents. Only approved Framingham Public Schools issued computers or Chromebooks could connect to the wi-fi for free.

Neither staff, students nor parents were informed of the decision to cut wi-fi access on January 14.

On Thursday, Feb. 11, a day before students and staff left for February vacation, a new public wi-fi system was unveiled in a soft launch said Technology Director George Carpenter.

Monday night Carpenter told the Framingham School Committee”we have taken a good first step” in providing wireless access back to staff and students.

He said the next step is “continue to secure“ the system against Malware and viruses.

Framingham Patch was the first media outlet to report on the termination of the wi-fi access in January.

The public school district said it experienced “denial of service attacks” and thus needed to terminate wi-fi access.

In late January after staff, students and parents complained about the lack of a free, public wi-fi at the schools, the district created wi-fi hot spots in the library and the cafeteria for high school students and staff to use, with password logins.

Now Carpenter said students and staff should be able to bring their own devices (BYOD) and use the free wi-fi access again.