| Quick Information | |
| Wireless Coverage | Coverage Map | Adding Coverage |
| Policies | Acceptable Use | Security Policy | Wired vs. Wireless |
| Registration System | Maintain |
| SSID | OSU_Access | OSU_Secure |
The OSU - Network Services wireless strategy involves deploying a campus-wide wireless network with these goals:
Oregon State University provides consolidated wireless network access in many campus locations through the OSU Wireless Network. The OSU Wireless Network allows students, staff, and even visitors to easily setup and use wireless devices on campus.
See How it Works if you would like to know more about the technical details of the Wireless Network.
OSU Students and Employees
Most buildings now have wireless network access. If you'd like to find out if a specific building has wireless network service, just go to the interactive campus map and click on the 'WiFi' link (in the 'Quick Links' section, at the top of the map).
You will want to set your computer to "Obtain address dynamically" (which tells your computer to use DHCP). Your computer will then acquire an address on the registration network that will allow you to permanantly register your computer on the wireless network. You will need your ONID credentials to login and register your computer.
Once you have registered your computer in Maintain, you will have full access to the wireless network within 10 minutes.
Visitors
Any OSU student or employee can use their ONID credentials to temporarily authenticate a visitor's computer via the login box on the Wireless Network welcome page. Departments may also choose to register visitors in their own zone in Maintain.
The Oregon University System (OUS) is in the process of implementing a reciprical authentication process, which will allow anyone from one of the OUS institutions to use the wireless network of any one of the other universities. If your parent institution has already set this up, you can log in to the OSU wireless network by simply picking the name of your university from the 'Provider' drop-down list (on the Wireless Network welcome page) and typing in the same username & password you use at your home institution.
Conference Guests
Departments at OSU may create a conference account to be used by event attendees for wireless access. The cost is $15 per event, charged to a departmental index code. To register: Conference Wireless Registration (Note: Requires ONID authentication.)
Department laptops
Department laptops can be registered in Maintain by the Departmental Computing Administrator (DCA) and they will automatically have access to the Wireless Network.
If your computer's wireless adapter is already registered, you will have access to the wireless network. If only your wired adapter is registered, you will still need to register your wireless adapter in order to get wireless access.
Your access to the wireless network can be revoked if you do something that violates the AUP that you accept before registering. If you see that message, please contact security (@) oregonstate.edu.
Departments interested in adding wireless coverage to their building need to contact OSU Data Services at telecom (@) oregonstate.edu. Data Services welcomes these inquiries and will guide departments through all stages of implementation. Like all OSU network-connected equipment, wireless access points must be operated in a secure fashion as described in the network security policy. All installed access points must be enterprise-grade equipment capable of the specific security, logging, and management requirements of the OSU data network.
Can 802.11 wireless networks supplant traditional wired networks?
With wireless internet connections in coffee shops, in our homes, in airports, and on our cell phones, many people are excited about wireless coverage on OSU's campus. On the surface it seems like an outstanding alternative; it looks like it is easy, it looks like it would save money on wiring, and it adds a whole new dimension of mobility to computing. Unfortunately, not all of that is true. While it may look easy, it can be quite complicated with signal interference and the lack of inherent security. While it looks like wireless would save money on wiring it actually still requires wires for the wireless access point transmitters. Wireless does add a whole new dimension of mobility, but it also adds some inconsistency and unreliability.
Particular to the inconsistency and unreliability, we can draw analogies to the world of telephones. We are all familiar with cellular phones and traditional wired phones. We know that coverage can be spotty and the quality is generally low with our cell phones, but given the mobility of them some of us can not live without them. At the same time, most of us would not completely rely on a cell phone and still prefer a wired phone on our desks. We know from experience the trade off we are making between the two and most of us opt to have both technologies for different reasons.
When it comes to data networks, the same basic issues apply. Transmitting through air at the frequencies used for wireless networking can be inconsistent and unreliable. It can be affected by the weather and is affected differently by different construction materials. It is particularly bad at penetrating green foliage, which of course we have a lot of in outdoor spaces. Not only is wireless considerably slower than most wired, wireless also gets slower as more people try to talk to the same access point and as you get farther away from the access point you are currently talking to.
Given all of this some of us may still be willing to accept the trade offs and go completely wireless, but it should be clear that there are trade-offs to each technology. Wireless is not a replacement for wired networks, but it is very convenient and useful and I for one will want both my wireline and my wireless.
Jonathan Dolan
Associate Director, Network Services
