Backstage WiFi

[derekleffew]

This article may be pertinent: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/14/colleges-begin-to-get-a-taste-of-super-wi-fi/ . It sounds like super wifi makes good use of the white space the FCC took away from our wireless mics.

He said Super Wi-Fi requires no additional equipment for most devices and can have a range of up to five miles (eight kilometers) compared with 350 feet (100 meters) for traditional Wi-Fi.

Sign me up!

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Answer to the poll:
Free wifi without a password to slow, ad-ridden network
Free, better wifi with a password to registered hotel guests, but still not optimum.
Paid, very fast wifi with password for those willing to pay $20-100 per day.

 

[zmb]

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Answer to the poll:
Free wifi without a password to slow, ad-ridden network
Free, better wifi with a password to registered hotel guests, but still not optimum.
Paid, very fast wifi with password for those willing to pay $20-100 per day.

Or tether to a phone that has an unlimited data plan and is within at least 3G coverage. Often easier and better than hotel WiFi if you're with someone who already has cellular data covered by their company. My hotel experience has been a combination of free, with password, and slow.

Disney has an amazing Wifi network inside the parks now. Isn't the fastest, but covers everywhere and prioritizes the ability to get a connection. No sign in or terms page either, it just works.

Also, what frequencies might Super Wifi work on and how can I get a computer that will support it? I got a new laptop over the summer that only goes up to the N standard and not the faster and better AC standard.

 

[sdauditorium]

Ours does require a Security Key to access, but once they have the key, they're all set. We don't have the volume of folks coming in that we're concerned about bandwidth limitations. We do have a separate Wifi network for our LS9 and the like that doesn't broadcast and has separate credentials.

 

[SteveB]

Ours does require a Security Key to access, but once they have the key, they're all set. We don't have the volume of folks coming in that we're concerned about bandwidth limitations. We do have a separate Wifi network for our LS9 and the like that doesn't broadcast and has separate credentials.

OK, so what I'm basically seeing is that the assorted ITS offices at all these facilities seemingly don't have problems providing internet access via WiFi that is segregated from the main systems.

So it's essentially what we've known all along in that our ITS head is essentially being obstinate in not wanting to be bothered in setting up a useful system for us.

I'll write up a proposals using examples as found here.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Amiers]

I wouldn't say obstinate. Is it possible that you facility is rather large and being able to provide Wifi for the whole building would be difficult to budget. I am sure you have a hardline network in for an office but if not that would mean coring/trenching to the building hiring in a fiber company to run the fiber and terminate it. Now if none of that even comes close to home then well I would call ITS lazy not stubborn

 

[SteveB]

I wouldn't say obstinate. Is it possible that you facility is rather large and being able to provide Wifi for the whole building would be difficult to budget. I am sure you have a hardline network in for an office but if not that would mean coring/trenching to the building hiring in a fiber company to run the fiber and terminate it. Now if none of that even comes close to home then well I would call ITS lazy not stubborn

As note, the system in question would be a single WiFi router located for backstage use.

The facility is currently undergoing a major expansion. In the process the 5 existing fiber optic cables had to be cut, spliced and path re-located. The contractor then proceeded to falsify the test data and got caught, thus the FO system (and in litigation) is off-line and we are running a building with about 50 users on one single Cat5 line gaff-taped between buildings (since last November).

But it has been prior to this that our ITS office, even with functioning FO lines, refused to install an open WiFi router for backstage use, claiming they could not make it secure. As well they were unable to setup the box office system that allows secure credit card ticket purchasing to the software used by the office. This resulted in the general manager having installed 2 DSL lines from Verizon. One was backstage and had reasonable connection speed thru it's WiFi, but for reasons not clear to me, the house IT person recommended we drop the DSL (Verizon business DSL is expensive) and instead move to a Clear 4G WiFi system. This is OK for one or two users but is unacceptable for more then two. Thus and once the FO systems comes back on-line, we will be making a case to have the college get better WiFi installed. Probably another year or two.

 

[Amiers]

Well that is very unfortunate on all accounts. I would move to say the IT office is being lazy by not temping in something a bit better then CAT5e strung between buildings. I would go so far as to just DIY router until IT gets in gear.

 

[blindbuttkicker]

I know this might be a bit of a different situation, but at my old high school: secured wifi using server/client authentication (student/faculty login) and you had to go and manually "talk" to the authentication server (this is a high school network and has both authentication and handshaking protocols in place as i've toured the It Areas before as a student) in the IT Closet via opening Port 80 manually, and then doing an open proxy and then re-authenticate to keep the server happy otherwise it'd kick you if you didn't login and stop "talking" to you until you said "hey im trying to talk to you" again XD after you got through that server, it passed you over to the wireless VLAN Switch and you're in, then after a while, authentication server would come a knocking and say "who are you" again by requesting user credentials again and it would redo your connection (do a handshake) to make sure your not spoofing your MAC Address, otherwise it'd auto-ban you and never speak to that MAC again and the IT Staff and school admins would become very unhappy because the system would then auto-alert. haha

College Campus: unsecured wifi but login through a splash screen, though they have a secured one, but they don't let students use it (I call BS on that piece of **** grrr hah) I run a VPN and a software client that hides me from the rest of the network so my IP/Mac/network awareness is changed/blocked upon successful connection and all incoming connections are ran by the client first before they hit my laptops OS so Windows cant say "I'm here" so in case a virus or something is on a Machine in the network (scanned the network and about 190+ devices at any given time usually) so I do that to keep me protected because I'm an IT Nut lol so I appreciate my privacy and don't want the campus to see my emails and logins for websites, which is nice because even college IT cant access my history as its under 256 AES encryption and a random key gen every time I hit refresh on a webpage.

Church: two Linksys routers (one downstairs one upstairs) connected to wireless gateway via 2 cables (1 for up 1 for down), connected to VLAN Switch, connected to TWC modem. under Class A internal for wifi use. Secured connections on both (different passwords using WPA2-AES) but password can be found if asked through church office or staff member, passwords changes every few months or so depending. Internal staff network access restricted outside of wired network. wireless accesses internet only. Gets good reception in general area of main building of church and front of sanctuary, but beyond that it drops out.

 

[AxlD]

Something that my school does. Since we often have outside events come in
This suggestion would take some set up depending on the IT people.
We have 3 networks
Staff
Student
Public
Staff and Student are password protected
and public is open. staff and students can go to the IT member and get the Wifi on their phone.
And the public is open to any guests that come into the space. The public Wifi is also shut off over night and when there are no events happening.

 

[kevlar557]

Most places I go to make us pay for WiFi, even if we're working there? Luckily everyone that works for my company has a 4G phone and MiFi, so we typically dont have to worry too much about the client providing internet.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

The system Blind is talking about is likely 802.1x authentication, which won't even let you associate to the access points unless you have crypto credentials for the network. It's very spiffy, as long as all your clients are compatible, and you have enough infrastructure (and staffing) to support it...