{"id":859549,"date":"2026-09-25T00:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T00:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/859549\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T00:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T00:00:18","slug":"packed-with-power-how-a-suitcase-restored-internet-in-menasha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/859549\/","title":{"rendered":"Packed with power. How a suitcase restored internet in Menasha."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two months later,  the Fox Cities are still dealing with storm damage from this summer. When one area lost internet connectivity, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wiscnet.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WiscNet<\/a>&#8211; a local non-profit that provides internet access and other technology services to member organizations &#8211; made a different connection to try to help. <\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re about to see how a suitcase helped the school district on its journey back to power.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s unpack this: the internet is for more than just your computer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were completely in the dark,\u201d Greg Kehring, supervisor of tech and innovation for the Menasha Joint School District, said.<\/p>\n<p>When storms hit Menasha in July, they knocked out power and the internet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to kind of scramble,\u201d Kehring said.<\/p>\n<p>Kehring says the phone system, HVAC, scheduling, and even some school door locks rely on internet connectivity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery single door (at a new school) has a card reader to get into it. Even that is connected,\u201d Kehring said.<\/p>\n<p>With the new school year approaching, the district needed some help.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The attitude around here at WiscNet is this is just what we do,\u201d Rich Turiel, chief technology officer for WiscNet, said.<\/p>\n<p>WiscNet sent emergency internet kits up to the Menasha School District and the city. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are the WIFI routers you can set up the mini network,\u201d Turiel said.<\/p>\n<p>The kits are housed inside of bright orange roller suitcases. They  include the routers, hotspots, a satellite dish, solar battery packs, and more. They allowed the district to regain internet access, while it waited for a permanent solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything is going super smoothly,\u201d Kehring said, noting that the internet is back on for the new school year. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an orange suitcase packed with internet access, but Turiel says it\u2019s a way to lighten the baggage that comes with a storm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust to be able to serve our membership and to be able to give back to our members in these communities when they may need us,\u201d Turiel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two months later, the Fox Cities are still dealing with storm damage from this summer. When one area&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[174,74],"class_list":["post-859549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-internet","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}