On Nov 5, 2013, at 2:30 PM, Max McGrath
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Are others offering an SSID for faculty, an SSID for staff, an SSID for
students and an SSID for guests? Or something completely different?
We are doing something completely different. Our Meru wireless
controllers are advertising two SSIDs -- one on 2.4 Ghz and the
other on 5 Ghz. Both are open and unencrypted. Everyone is
advised to buy a 5 Ghz-capable device, and our network coverage
for 802.11a has been in place and debugged for 14 years now.
Anyone on the 2.4 Ghz SSID is informed that the coverage is
best-effort, with no guarantee of useful connectivity. (Meru's
single-channel architecture can work miracles on 2.4 Ghz, but
a bag of microwave popcorn is unstoppable.)
On the back end, all of the AP's tunnel back to the Meru
controllers. The controllers call to PF whenever a device associates,
to determine which VLAN that device should be switched to based on
MAC address. I don't know if this VLAN switching by MAC address
is unique to Meru or of other wifi systems support it as well,
but it works flawlessly for us and eliminates the need to have
clients change SSID when registering devices or needing to
switch VLAN.
Encryption on institution-owned devices to institutional data resources
is handled on the client via OpenVPN tunnels, which also provide a
single-solution encryption system for faculty that works on the same
devices from public hotspots and home wifi networks. We treat our
campus wifi as if it is a huge public hotspot, and leave privacy up
to the individual user. No access to institutional data resources
is provided to non-institutional-owned clients via wifi.
We do plan to put up a secure SSID for institution-owned devices in
the near future, which number a few hundred out of the 4,500+ "active
nodes" that we currently have managed by PF...
-Arthur
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arthur Emerson III Email:
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Network Administrator InterNIC: AE81
Mount Saint Mary College MaBell: (845) 561-0800 Ext. 3109
330 Powell Ave. Fax: (845) 562-6762
Newburgh, NY 12550 SneakerNet: Aquinas Hall Room 11
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