Hi Mike, We offer 5 and 2.4 everywhere, in our academic buildings and the dorms. That was one benefit to upgrading our whole campus at once, we ended up with the same dual-radio APs everywhere.
However, roaming between the two bands shouldn't be an issue for clients. I see clients that connect at both bands do that without any problems. Maybe someone that has some 2.4 GHz only areas can speak more on that though. Matt Barber Network Analyst Morrisville State College 315-684-6053 -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Dickson Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 10:03 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless-only in residence halls Matt, If you are offering 5GHz in the res halls does that mean you are also offering 5GHz in your academic buildings? We are using AP-65's (a/b/g) in the academic buildings. We are considering AP-125's for the res halls. We have not enabled 802.11a on the AP-65's yet, mostly because we still have about 100 AP-60's scattered in the field. These could not offer the 5GHz band. The real question I think is, are there "frequency roaming" issues with connected devices that connect at 5GHz in one building (i.e. res hall) to a building that only offers 2.4GHz? Do typical wireless clients/cards adjust quickly to this or is there a sloppy/slow reconnection process? Mike Barber, Matt wrote: > This is similar to our approach. We push the 5 GHz as much as possible. > Between the microwaves, Xbox 360 controllers, Bluetooth, and everything > else, the 2.4 GHz in the dorms is a tad unpredictable. > > We sell dual-band 11n adapters in our bookstore, educate helpdesk > visitors, and I am always testing how things look in the field. The > great majority of the time, things work perfectly fine. When it > doesn't, I will typically work directly with students to figure out why. > Flipping some adapters to prefer 5 GHz (or only use 5 GHz even), or even > suggesting that the microwave not be sitting 6 inches from a laptop > typically takes care of things :) > > Matt Barber > Network Analyst > Morrisville State College > 315-684-6053 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Hector J Rios > Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 7:19 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless-only in residence halls > > I forgot to mention that as well. In almost all of the rooms that we > went into when we were doing our surveys we saw a microwave oven and an > occasional 2.4GHz cordless phone. We spoke to Res Life and explained to > them the impact that such devices could have on the wireless network. > Having a dual solution is great because the 5GHz band is less crowded. > But unfortunately many wireless adapters tend to prefer the 2.4GHz band. > Disabling the 2.4GHz would be wonderful, but the reality is that there > are still a lot of legacy devices out there, so you have to support > them. We even considered offering 2.4GHz at 2Mbps only, hoping that this > would discourage users from using 2.4GHz altogether and opt for 5GHz. > The issue here is how to get users to adjust settings on their end so > that they only use 5GHz. Currently we have opted to attempt to "educate" > our users on how wireless works, how certain devices can have > detrimental effects on the network, and how small modifications to their > adapter settings can make a huge difference. Utopian, I know. I'll let > you guys how that idea goes. > > Hector > > ********** > 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/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
