I am thinking about buying a laptop this summer and I was curious if there are any plans for wi-fi(802.11b) on campus or in any buildings. I was not sure if anyone had information about this. Furthermore, does anyone have suggestions for a thin-and-light that has good battery life and decent performance around or under $1500? I think I will wait till the end of the summer and see what Centrino has to offer but I would appreciate your input.
Well, yes there are plan for wireless on campus.
Currently, the Library has a wireless network, and we are told that within the next year the EB will have wireless.
But, the question is what kind of firewall will OIT put up.
Oh, they did finally get that up and working? 802.11b, I assume? Any special settign required to use that? I have a PDA and laptop that I'd like to be able to use in and around the library assuming the signal leaks a bit (crosses fingers).
Thanks for the info Anonymous. :-)
There is initiative to install more wireless (802.11b) access points on the SIUE campus. Right now the only supported area is on and around the first floor of Lovejoy Library. They even have laptops (http://www.library.siue.edu/lib/) that you can use in the library. Everyone should try this out and voice their opinions. If you would like to see more wireless on campus contact the people in charge. Contact Telecom (http://www.siue.edu/TELECOM/) at 3373 and Student Government (http://www.siue.edu/KIMMEL/studgovt.html).
Wow! I had no idea! Wireless throught campus would be sweet and with a pre-existing network and the wide open space on which to post relatively cheap transmitters, I think this campus has great potential for it. Now if only it would happen within two years...
Finally! A reason for my peice of crap P133 laptop to exist! :-P
--Beanie
Well, last semester, the Science building had two networks just for macs that "didn't exist" , the library had at least one, and the engineering building had two that "didn't exist". (Ask around...you'll be suprised at the answers you get)
What was interesting was that yesterday, (7-2-03) around 7:45pm two more networks came online in the EB (one called NOBLEAIR, another called wireless) and I was able to pass internet traffic over NOBLEAIR for about five minutes before somebody enabled WEP and turned off IP traffic
So, the question is, what is the purpose of disavowing any knowledge of the wireless network? Granted there are security issues, but aren't those issues present with the wired public terminals in the labs?
Or even more so, if you give students access to the school's network, what makes a wireless user more dangerous than a wired user?
i wonder if that kid they caught trading child pornography in the woodland computer lab would have been a lot harder to locate if he was wireless. he was led away in cuffs spring '02, but of course there was nothing about it in the alestle until the summer...
I never heard of this arrest. I only heard of the one from Courgar village. Anyways, if he was on a wireless, all they had to do is triangulate his send signal. However, I don't think SIUE has the tech to do that. All though, I think the FBI would be more than happy to help out in this case, or whoever does the arrest.
Jon
I haven't heard that anyone has been denying their existence, but I do know that OIT has restricted their access.
ECE has had some wireless hubs for a 3 or 4 years. When CS purchased wireless hubs for the robots to communicate and some wireless cards for the Department Laptops that is when OIT became "concerned". They began restricting access by MAC addresses.
OIT has been promising wireless networks around campus. But they first wanted to test one out to determine policy and procedures for administration and access. The first was to go in the Library on a trial basis. I assume it is being tested now.
I don't remember hearing about the one in cougar either, but you're right about the school not having the equipment.
I imagine if they did, OIT would have a field day.
Quoteall they had to do is triangulate his send signal
It's not easy to do that. If you were a hacker on the internet using wifi, using someone else's hub, there is a very high probability you wouldn't be caught, considering the obvious that you go about trying to at least cover your tracks. Why do you think hackers are so happy about wifi?
QuoteMatthew wrote:
So, the question is, what is the purpose of disavowing any knowledge of the wireless network? Granted there are security issues, but aren't those issues present with the wired public terminals in the labs?
quote]
No they are not. Using a wired terminal you are an ordinary user guarded by all the premissions set up by the adinistrator.
If you use your own laptop with a wifi card you are the administrator of the machine and you can send anything you want to the network. It means that you can also fake MAC addresses so if you are clever enough you won't be caught at all.
So a wired access can be restricted (unless you tap in with your own laptop), it's much harder with wifi.
Hi, has SIU implemented a wireless network on campus? Can someone access the network from their apartment and from campus classrooms without interruption of service? Thanks
QuoteNo they are not. Using a wired terminal you are an ordinary user guarded by all the premissions set up by the adinistrator.
True, but the dorms are wired networks of student-owned machines. You are the admin on your own box, and part of telecom/OIT's responsibility is to prevent the dorm-dwellers from wreaking havoc on the rest of the network.
Quotehas SIU implemented a wireless network on campus?
From my experience, sorta-kinda. I can get a weak signal from my dorm room, and a stronger one if I wander around the halls, but those are student-owned routers that I am picking up. Thanks to dstumbler, I have found a couple of school-owned access points--there is one near the computer lab downstairs in Bluff Hall, and I've picked up a few in the EB (including the aforementioned NOBLEAIR). All of them, however, are WEP encrypted.
--Beanie
The only building that has an official wireless network is the Lovejoy Library. I do not know how it is being managed, but I suspect it is limited by registered MAC addresses.
There are a some "legal" wireless hubs in the Engineering Building. Nobelair being one, and 3 hubs that provide wireless access for the robots. The CS department has a handful of wireless cards for their laptops that are given access to the hubs.
There is a plan to put a wireless network in the Engineering Building, but the timeline for that is anyone's guess.