Hidden in the wing of the library, Matthew Liacos, works behind the closed doors. The official title of Mr.Liacos is the Network and Systems Administrator. Liacos is in charge of supporting the technological infrastructure of the entire district. The Triton Voice investigated more about what Liacos’ daily responsibilities are and his role in the Triton community.

As you walk through the hallways of Triton, you may not notice how much work and dedication goes in to the technology we use as students everyday. There is technology everywhere you look; classrooms, hallways, the library, and more.

Behind all the abundance of technology, there is intelligent workers that set it all up and nobody seems to know who they are. You may catch a glimpse of him in the hall every once and in while, but this article mainly focuses on the tricky profession he has mastered.

“I mostly handle supporting the backend infrastructure, which provides connectivity to  each classroom, phone, computer, printer, and each access point in the ceiling for wireless” said Liacos.

With only three workers to go around for all five schools in the district, heavy responsibility falls upon Liacos as the leader of Triton’s Tech team, overseen by Deb Jones, the director of technology. Liacos handles mostly behind the scenes issues with the network.

“For the most part, they call me Oz, I sit behind the curtain and work my magic” said Liacos.  

We asked students from our school if they knew any information on the the network administrators. Most of the students had little knowledge of the effort of this profession.

“I sometimes see them in the office near the library, that is really all I know” said sophomore, Meaghan Riccio.

“I know that he is a electrician guy who helps out in classrooms that need help with their networks” said Julia Boyle, junior.

“I’ve seen him come into classrooms to fix the computers, but I have never have had a conversation with him” said Kiley Hughes, sophomore.

“I know that he does technology stuff, that’s about it” said junior, Maggie Bowen.

“I didn’t even know there was a room next to the library” said junior, Maddy Pfingst.

The Triton Voice looked further into what exactly Liacos does throughout his day.

“It’s designing and implementing new technology, but it’s also fine-tuning existing technology, making sure things are running smoothly. We get lots of influxive bandwidth, and adjust things accordingly, making sure things don’t get bogged down with too much traffic. We also look into suspicious things, like viruses and stuff like that” said Liacos.

Some students are curious about why their is a content block on certain websites and what is allowed to be searched. Liacos explained.

”We have legal obligations that we are required to comply with. For anybody that is a minor, we have to restrict them from certain websites. There is stuff out there, and stuff that minors should no be seeing, at least with equipment and internet service that we provide” said Liacos.

Liacos talked about the rumors and conversations he hears Triton students dramatizing  about how they are always being watched on the school WiFi and how there is no privacy in our own technology.

“It is all automated. Nobody is watching what you’re doing, what websites you’re clicking on, it’s something suspicious. It will go through our firewall, which blocks the bad stuff, or the needless stuff, like Instagram and Snapchat. It triggers off the keywords, anything that’s going to be profanity, drug related content, weapons, and stuff like that. It’s all along the lines of a safety precaution,” said Liacos.

Overall, there is a lots of hard work that goes into keeping Triton the up-to-date school that we attend everyday. Just because the community doesn’t see the network administrators on a daily basis, doesn’t mean Matthew Liacos isn’t a huge role in our everyday lives.