Talk:Wireless Network
From SPSU Wiki
- Under AP locations, room numbers would be helpful so that people know where to sit closer to.
- Someone get IT department to let us know when the Student Center gets wifi. That would be awesome!
- My name is Ted and I work for in the IT department on campus. I have made some edits to the wiki including corrections to the Vista claim (we do NOT support Vista at this time). I also added the Student Center under AP locations and added a configuration guide for Intel ProSet wireless. I also corrected the wireless client. We have officially reverted back to SecureW2 as our main client.
- Added and changed some things in the Intel ProSet Wireless card portion. Gateways are affected, too; also added a note that I've had more success keeping several tabs (roughly 4) open and less success leaving only one open. Added a line that it seemed less of a problem where the signal is strong.
Moved Discussion from SPSU Campus Wireless
The original article SPSU Campus Wireless follows:
More than a year ago we proudly announced a new wireless port in the Center for Teaching Excellence. Our expectation was that this would be a strong draw for faculty to visit the CTE. But over that period we have observed a single instance of a faculty member accessing the CTE’s wireless port.
This indicates that there are aspects of the wireless issue that have not been revealed or resolved. I would like faculty to comment on one or more of the following:
- Do you use wireless in your work on campus? If so, what are you doing? If not, why not? - Is there potential value for teachers and students in wireless technology on campus? How would wireless be useful to us? What would you do with wireless technology that you cannot do now? - How does our campus wireless resource compare to that other nearby institutions? - Is wireless technology a priority for our campus? Should it be? - Is the state of wireless on our campus a negative, positive, or neutral factor in student recruiting/retention? - What must happen to bring the state of wireless on our campus closer to the optimal state? - What is the explanation for the proliferation of rogue wireless points on campus? - Other aspects of wireless on campus.
Khopper 16 November 2005 13:23 (EST)
The original SPSU Campus Wireless discussion follows:
I Use Wireless Elsewhere, But Not Here
I do not use the campus wireless network for two reasons, one my own and one hearsay.
In addition to being a faculty member here, I am a student at another university. I absolutely require wireless access there, so I've been reluctant to allow ITD to install their security client. I am afraid it will interfere with my other access. (I do not need a special client where I am a student; I simply registered my MAC address with their OIT. I did that with a Web form, and they email me a link to renew my access every six months.)
My students use a server located on campus to do their homework. They tell me it, and other campus facilities, are inaccessible from the wireless network. One student described wireless access as "basically useless except for surfing the Net."
While I have no doubt that what my students told me was true at the time, Mr. Haygood's remarks below prompted me to put my assertion to the test. Using his instructions, posted elsewhere on the Wiki, I was able to configure my SPSU-issued ThinkPad to attach to the SPSU wireless network, and am able to reach all the campus resources I normally use. I apologize for the misinformation.
However, I remain convinced that the problem did exist as I described it, and that many people still believe it exists.
I had to walk over to Building H to perform this experiment because the software on my laptop insisted on attaching to a much stronger signal from an "unapproved" AP in Building J!
I suspect wireless technology as implemented at SPSU is at best neutral with respect to attracting and retaining students since it cannot formerly could not be used to get access to those things students should be most interested in, namely the teaching and learning resources of the campus.
It is likely that people install rogue access points so that they can get access to their "stuff" on campus wirelessly. They may also do it to avoid having additional software installed on their machines or to get higher speeds than are available from 802.11b.
I've already recounted my experience where I am in school. A colleague told me of visiting a two-year college in Georgia with two logical wireless networks, one for visitors to the campus and one for students, faculty and staff. Perhaps he will describe it here.
Bob Brown 16 November 2005 13:54 (EST)
I do NOT use it here, since I have a wired outlet :)
I do have an SPSU-issued laptop, and a wireless card, but most of the time I have my laptop hooked in my office. I have heard bad stories from our students, so I have never tested our wireless setup (plus, I use Linux, and I wasn't aware, until recently, that it was supported. Jim informed me it is and he uses it from Linux).
BTW, that was one of my main issues, that support is only announced for Windows; now that Jim has told me we can do it on Linux, I know I can bug him when I need to, but I'm not sure if our students are aware. Several students who use BSD or Linux complained to me they can't use it on their laptops, since they didn't know other OSes were supported.
I use SPSU Wireless All The Time (From a Student's POV)
You probably see me in the Atrium on Mondays and Wednesdays between 11:30 AM and 12:30 PM sitting next to J151. All of the school's servers are accessible, at least the ones I use (IO, Userweb, MSDNAA, CSE7), and of course normal TCP/IP access to the Internet.
I don't even use SecureW2.. my wireless card has native support for EAP-TTLS. However, access in the student center would make me use it more, since I tend to hang out there in the mornings. The network is quite stable, and fairly fast. I tend to connect at 11.0 Mbps (802.11b's maximum), and connect to the Internet at speeds ranging from 6.0 Mbps synchronous to 11.0 Mbps synchronous.
The connection is easy to use if you have SecureW2. Instructions are available, and it doesn't interference with anything else if you have Windows XP and is using its native client, from past expereince, XP keeps every connection separate in its settings.
If anyone wants an interview in person, just ask. Monday or Wednesday, 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM.. Justin Haygood.
Justin Haygood 16 November 2005 23:10 (EST)
Well, I Can Reach On-Campus Resources
Based on Mr. Haygood's remarks, I performed the experiment, and he is correct. I've revised my own remarks above. I apologize for the misinformation.
Bob Brown 17 November 2005 18:35 (EST)
where wireless would be useful
I use wireless at home, but in the office I use a wired connection. I would like to have wireless access in rooms where I frequently have committee meetings - conference rooms, J-151, M-100, and H-320.
Alan Gabrielli
Wireless beware
I am an alumna of SPSU (Fall 2005 graduate) and I was warned by a computer lab assistant NOT to use the wireless network on campus because of viruses. He stated that your laptop would be attacked within an average of 38 seconds of connecting to the network. So, I have not brought my wireless enabled laptop to campus for that reason alone.
Joy Leake
I haven't been attacked by anything as of yet, and my firewall logs don't see anything suspicious trying to attack my laptop. But as always (and as common sense dictates these days), I have a software firewall and real-time virus scanner running at all times when on Windows XP.
Justin Haygood
No love for the Macs?
Recently, I tried to set up my PowerBook G4 on the network, but my efforts proved fruitless. I followed the instructions on JHaygood's page on the Wiki, but still had no access. I'd really like to be able to get on the network while I'm at school so that I can print documents and upload files to WebCT Vista.
Love for Linux, and 802.11abg
I recently purchased a new laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505, comes with onboard 802.11a/b/g trimode card). Apparently, our new wifi network ("hornet" instead of "spsunet") supports all 3, and the card is well supported on Gentoo Linux (with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~86) with wpa_supplicant! Nice
Justin Haygood
Linux runs great, added Intel ProSet setup guide
Thank you Justin for adding the section on setting it up for Linux, you supplied the one part about PAP that I wasn't able to figure out. I added a section for Dell users with Intel Proset wireless cards on how to set it up without installing Secure W2 in case anyone wishes to use that instead of the windows manager.
Ubuntu Network Manager Fix Tutorial
I added a tutorial to get the network manager to work for the school network. I figured it would be good to add this since Dell now ships with Ubuntu Linux as an option and I think we will start seeing more and more students using it on their laptops in the future. Improvements still need to be made to the wireless network however, as even with the new network manager the network can cut in and out unexpectedly. This may, however, be just because of the fact that the new network manager is still beta and probably has a few kinks left to iron out.
