Have you ever been doing your homework and been suddenly stopped by internet buffering? Have you wondered why? Maybe you heard someone around you blame it on Albert, the service that monitors and sensors the content on our Chromebooks. Well, it may shock you just how little of the issues you’re seeing are actually related to Albert.

In the last few years, Albert has become the boogie man. Common problems such as slow internet connection, blocked websites, long wait times in unblocking sites, and basically anything else you can think of have been blamed on the program. 

Has this ever happened to you? You’re trying to complete an assignment or a project and find a website that looks super helpful. You go to click on it and are met with the familiar ‘This Site is Blocked’ page. You think, why would they even block this? It seems like a credible site. Well, despite what some may think, Albert doesn’t block websites for no apparent reason. Sites with keywords that have been flagged will be blocked, but it’s not as simple as that. Sometimes a site will be blocked because of the advertisements it displays. Our administration can’t guarantee that certain sites won’t show content that would be inappropriate for students to be exposed to. This is why many sites that seem innocent at first glance are blocked. Advertisements, other articles displayed on the site, links that may be embedded in the article, etc. all may display content that isn’t appropriate for students to be viewing on their school-issued Chromebooks; so blocking them – even if it seems like it’s for no reason – is the best choice.

Another myth regarding Albert is that the base for the company is in the west, so our requests to unblock sites take so long because they have to be sent to another company to get unblocked. While this used to be the case, now, the majority of sites are blocked and unblocked manually here, at Ledyard High School. Sites take multiple days to unblock because sometimes appeals won’t be seen until later in the day or the next day. And even then, the site has to be thoroughly looked through and cleared before it can be unblocked. This is to ensure the safety of students. 

The last problem Albert has taken the blame for is slow wifi. This has nothing to do with Albert and has everything to do with people not shutting down their Chromebooks. When you leave your device on for a long time, your RAM cache fills up, leading to a slower-running computer. This is why sometimes your Chromebook gets shut down by administrators. Wifi hotspots are also to blame for slow internet speeds. When you turn your Chromebook on in one classroom and connect to its wifi, your computer will try to stay connected to that hotspot, even when you go to another room. As a result, your wifi may be trying to work from halfway across the school, leading to some delayed service. The final reason service may be slow is that the entire West Coast starts waking up and starting their day a few hours into our school day. Suddenly, millions of more devices are online and the internet services need a while to recover from this. That’s why from 10-12 a.m. our service gets spotty – not because of Albert.
Albert is really not that bad. With Albert, our school can keep all students safe from inappropriate and unsafe content. Unblocking and blocking sites can be done manually in Ledyard, and save time, and it has no effect on our wifi or service. Next time you hear rumors going around the school, second-guess them before you believe them!

Keeley Bell, Staff Writer

Junior Keeley Bell is a staff writer for the 2023-2024 Colonel Newsmagazine. She enjoys hiking, camping, listening to music, gardening, and immersing herself in nature.