A new wireless data network is in place at Davidson College this fall, giving students, faculty and visitors improved high-speed network access for computers and other Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as Apple’s iPhone. But even as the new campus service begins, the free PAW-NET wireless network downtown is on the fritz, possibly because of a lighting strike.

Davidson students who arrived late last month found an expanded and faster wireless network powered by 32 transmitter/receivers around campus. Mur Muchane, the college’s head of information technology services, said the new network reaches much of the 100-acre campus. It replaces an older system that added wireless access building-by-building.

“I don’t think that the future of computing is sitting behind a desk,” Mr. Muchane said in an article on the college website. “It’s in devices like the iPhone, where you can have it on you at all times. As a campus, we have to be prepared for that new world. Students will have the technology, and we didn’t want to lag behind student expectations.”

The Davidson network covers nearly every building and outdoor area on campus, including sports fields. It doesn’t currently reach Elm, Oak, Phi, and Eu halls or offices across Main Street and Concord Road from the campus.

PAW-NET PROBLEMS

Meanwhile, the town’s PAW-NET free public Wi-Fi network downtown has been off-line in recent days. “We sort of stumbled on this over the weekend,” town spokeswoman Sara-Lynne Levine said.

The problem may be related to a recent lightning strike, she said. Nucentric, the town’s outside IT consultant, is investigating. “There’s a problem and they’re aware of it and I’ve asked them to let me know,” she said.

The town hired Nucentric a few months ago. It has taken over day-to-day technology duties once handled by information systems director Jeremy Campbell, who took a corporate job in Charlotte in February, Ms. Levine said. Joe Eshleman had handled some of those duties part-time from February until May, but he has since left to return to graduate school.

Davidson also in in the midst of a search for a consultant to help with an overhaul of the town website, Ms. Levine said. The town’s 2007-2008 budget includes about $35,000 for the work, which would include expanding the range of transactions that residents can complete online instead of coming to town hall.