Software problems have repeatedly shut down the CTEC and course description Web sites for the past week, hindering students who are trying to research classes before Winter Quarter registration.

Senior Assistant Registrar Nedra Hardy said she was unsure when the problems began, but accessing the CTEC and course description Web pages has been a problem since last week.

Hardy has personally received about 15 to 20 complaints, but said she does not know the total number of complaints received by other registrar officials.

As of Tuesday afternoon, neither the registrar nor Northwestern Information Technology knew what was causing the problems.

NUIT has implemented a temporary fix and users should only experience momentary problems, said Tom Board, director of technology support services.

NUIT told the registrar’s office on Monday night that the problem was fixed, but the Web pages went down later that evening, Hardy said. She repeatedly checked the course description page Tuesday afternoon and had no problems accessing the site. But Hardy did notice that the CTEC page was down Tuesday afternoon and immediately called IT, she said.

Hardy said NUIT is working diligently to fix the link to the CTEC page.

Although he is not sure what the problem is, Board said NUIT officials know the problem is software-related.

Board speculated that the problem might be a result of heavy traffic on the Web pages. Another possibility is that the software is being pushed beyond its design limit.

“(This is) certainly a problem that we need to fix,” Board said.

Hardy said CAESAR has not been affected by the recent problems because it is on a different server than the course descriptions and CTECs.

University Registrar Suzanne Anderson will meet with Hardy and four or five IT officials next week to discuss the problem and make sure the Web pages are “not going down when the students need it most,” Hardy said.