Campus WiFi

Rew

Do any of the Irish Colleges have a full campus wide WiFi network?

Winters

DCU have one.... although I dont think it covers the full campus yet, just some of the main areas. I think its on the 802.11b at the moment but its going to be upgraded to .g and also have it full campus wide.

Rew

But at this moment in time it only covers parts of the campus yeah?

Ryaner

Yeah the dcu one is only partly covering the campus. The wireless g network is meant to be turned on before the end of this semister I'm told.

blorg

UCD have at least a partial network in Belfield and Carysfort - in Belfield it covers at least some of the residences and the new undergraduate school of business. Have a look here for more speculation. I know for sure it covers at least one of the residences as my brother had it while he was there. Seems to be open access ;-)

Rew

Thats grand was just wondering is anywhere had total coverage I know DCU, UCD and Trinity have partial coverage.

Ryaner

It is quite unlikely that you'll find somewhere that has total coverage. Most are aiming to have the main parts covered but I do doubt that they'll bother trying to cover everything on campus as cost would be too high

Rew

Not really wireless AP's are cheap these days, so campus size is the main factor. The reason I asked the question is because I installed 18 accesspoints in IADT as part of a research project. they are going to print material say its the first campus wide WiFi net in an irish college and I want to be sure its true. The 18 access points and an external antenna for cover a large outside area caost approx €2000 inc VAT whic is about the same as a decent work staion for a lab.

IADT have coverage of pretty much everywhere on campus bar a few halls and stairs.

Ryaner

Ok thats very impressive. Wireless b or g btw?
As for the likes of dcu getting full coverage. Very unlikely the net will cover everywhere and in the ca building one side isnt covered due to interference atm but they meant to be fixing that soon

Rew

3Com 11b gear, any 11g gear iv ever bought as been **** and has ended up being sent back. If you want higher data rates 11a is a better standard then 11g IMHO.

We have 20 Dell Axim x3i's handed out to students for a trial. Have a look at http://www.nomadireland.org

Ryaner

I've got a netgear wireless g network in my house which runs at 108mps. New Super g stuff which is pretty sweet. Clearly not ideal for collages as it currently can on be only super g mode or std b and g mode.
The wireless a stuff has bad distances and is usually lower than the spec they post. The fact it's on a difference band tho tends to help cut out interfence in work places which why it seen alot there.
Sweet project you got there too :P Any chance of one of those Axim's?

Rew

I dont like the non-standard stuff in general. Support is non-existant for any thing other then 2k and XP so Linux and PDA's are stuffed. The quality of the G cards was very poor in general. I do alot of out door wireless links and the G has never really cut it, bar one short G link that gave decent thru put.

As for the distance suff that depends a lot on your building. My office is big and can be covered by 1 or 2 AP's coz the walls are almost made of paper. Also most of the AP's are only 32mw output but some have 100mw output which makes a big diferance. Same goes for the cards.

The X3i's are pretty dam sweet pitty they arn't the new ones with Bluetooth as well. They are smaller and lighter then you expect as well. Coding for them is a bitch esp Java. We have an open source JSP fourm/boards cut down for the PDA screen looks great very useable, and the full PC version is still viewable, would be intresting idea for Boards. The wireless range is about half what you get on a laptop but it does the job. They seem slow at times but if you turn off the power saving they are actually fairly bloody nippy. I have used em for read/writing mail and browsing the web during long boring meetings. Bit more discreet then a laptop appart from the blue light on the top that flashes like a bloody Garda car

I attached the press release to go with the trials (PDF, Zipped)

seamus

Originally posted by blorg
UCD have at least a partial network in Belfield and Carysfort - in Belfield it covers at least some of the residences and the new undergraduate school of business. Have a look here for more speculation. I know for sure it covers at least one of the residences as my brother had it while he was there. Seems to be open access ;-)

Yeah, UCD have a few access points around the college. Mainly in places where students are most likely to have their own machines (Residences, Commerce faculties - for some strange reason there's one in the new Vet building). It's basically open access, but without the proxy settings, you won't get anything but the UCD home page (Although if you look hard enough, they're not difficult to find ). Access is limited, so it's purely http and https access, and you won't be able to even see most of the rest of the college VLANs.

I don't about plans to extend it college-wide, but it may be doubtful since they're going to be allowing students to plug laptops directly into the network from next year, without having to register their MAC addresses. I assume it'll operate on the same restricted VLAN principle.

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by Rew
If you want higher data rates 11a is a better standard then 11g IMHO.

Don't forget for OUTDOOR use on 5.8GHz you have to register with Comreg.

11b is so compatible.
11g only works over short distances in ideal conditions otherwise you fall back to 11b - it's a bit like a 56K modem on a noisy phone line.

Stephen

Carlow IT have a wireless link between their own campus and saint pat's in carlow town, reportedly getting a full 11 mbps (directional antennae). They have a very very short-range WiFi AP on the top floor of the LRC building. Apparently this is on purpose (?).

Rew

We just put in a Redline link between 2 buildings in WIT. Getting 36 mbits (3600 KB/s actual thru put) Should actually be higher so e are querying it now. Its very impressive gear.

Rew

We got a mention on ENN today...

http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=9395730

Scholars study effect of PDAs on students
Friday, February 20 2004
by Anthony Quinn
in association with

A technology trial on a Dublin campus is examining how wireless devices impact on the way members of a group interact.


A group of students and their union officers at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) have been given Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs designed to provide them with new ways to communicate on campus. Participants are also no longer dependent on access to library and computer lab facilities to retrieve information. The trial is being run by the Nomad group, which has brought together psychologists, technologists and designers.


The unusual experiment will see the Nomad team look at ways in which the wireless technology will alter group dynamics, specifically examining "social capital" or the sense of belonging that individuals within a group feel.


The psychological aspects of the usage of wireless technology during the trial are being examined by Centre for Creative Technologies and Applications at the IADT. The Software Technology Research Centre (SToRC) at Dundalk Institute of Technology created software and interface designed to support the activities of the student union. The Telecommunications Software Systems Group (TSSG), based at Waterford Institute of Technology, delivered the wireless network and system platform.


"This project has been very interesting because it looks into the psychology and the actual social gains made from technology," said research assistant at the Waterford-based Telecommunications & Software Group Andrew Betson.


"From my own point of view as someone who is dealing with the technology, working with psychologists has brought things back down to earth. The focus has been on real people and is end user based," he said. "Location-based services could be used to create a map of friends on a big campus," he told ElectricNews.Net.



Initial analysis of wireless usage patterns suggest that people who don't know each other aren't likely to SMS each other because it is quite a personal form of communication. However, an on-line forum format has proved far more popular among these people, with debates going on over various issues, according to Betson.



"We are not purely interested in technological gadgets or short term novelty value but in designing successful technology that can enhance people's quality of life by fulfilling their needs," said IADT psychology lecturer Dr. John Greaney.



The Nomad group was formed to look at software applications in an Internet context and the challenges posed to the software development community in building these next generation software services.



A wider wireless trial involving more than a 100 people is to be launched by the Nomad group by the end of 2004.

Ryaner

Congrats man. Looks very promising def.

raster

http://www.ucc.ie:8080/cocoon/cc/ltu/mitc/ucc-map.gif

Rew

http://www.tecnet.ie/news.php?category=News&id=143

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/35853.html