The dorms are a lose-lose situation. We have 100% coverage, but the dorms require more support than any other buildings, when things don't work (it's Wireless, after all) we get flooded with calls (especially from mommy and daddy) AND then the students bring in their own devices (against the Acceptable Use Policy).
I'm kind of liking the Wild West approach, if the DHCP situation can be controlled. -Brian ________________________________ From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] on behalf of Garry Peirce [pei...@maine.edu] Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 3:17 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in dorms 2 cents from someone in a similar boat. Unfortunately, some of our campuses have been unable to support ubiquitous wireless in dorms due to cost. In some cases they have only common areas covered. That being the case , with wireless being the preferred access method along with a lack of local campus policy in this regard they’ve understandably connected SOHO wireless routers. Some our of ResHalls caused us significant problems on the wired side at the start of this semester. Although we enable L2 features (such as DHCP snooping/DAI/SG,MAC limits) we weren’t able to corral an issue until implementing blocking of unknown unicast (cisco UUFB) on the ResHall subnets. This being a wireless forum, I’ll omit the details but in a nutshell, the issues were ICMP redirect/ARP-amplification related and would intermittently peg the attaching campus router’s CPU. I think efforts to search&fix offending devices or train students is entering a never ending battle. As cheaper devices will not have A radios (not that many clients will either….) co-channel interference is likely common. Add in interference , ex. assuming a fair # of microwave ovens, and I’d think their wireless experience is less than spectacular with no one to reach out to for insight/support. I feel such devices in ResHalls add an unmanaged infrastructure that not only underserves the users but may also have consequences for the managed infrastructure it connects to. I suppose by allowing them to use such devices, one can remove themselves from wireless infrastructure/client support, but I’d rather be in a position where we could supply the needed wireless service in a managed way and avoid their need to use them. From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Ray DeJean Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 11:04 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in dorms All, We don't currently provide wireless in our dorms, and our official policy is to not allow students to bring their own wireless devices. We don't actively enforce this policy though, and as long as the students' device isn't causing problems, they typically don't hear from us. (We do provide at least a 100mbps wired connection to each student). We are considering changing our policy to allow BYOD (bring your own device) in the dorms. I know lots of students already BYOD, but we're not policing it. We're considering the costs associated with deploying our Aruba system to all the dorms, and the fact that students are going to BYOD anyway. Rather than fight them, allow it. We'll secure our wired network obviously, but also have workshops and online instructions to show the students how to properly connect and secure their device. Of course we realize the interference issues that may arise in a crowded 2.4ghz space... The University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.housing.wisc.edu/resnet/gameConsoles.php) already has a policy like this in place. Just looking to hear from other universities who have or are considering a policy such as this. thanks, ray -- Ray DeJean Systems Engineer Southeastern Louisiana University email: r...@selu.edu<mailto:r...@selu.edu> http://r-a-y.org ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
