Here at Utah Valley University I would estimate 95% of student network access is through the wireless network. While we do have some open ports students can connect to in the library and other areas around campus we find that very few plug in. While they may get slightly better performance over wired than our 802.11n wireless network the convenience seems to far outweigh any performance hit. As far as control goes we in many ways have more control and visibility over our wireless network than we do on our wired network. Our wireless network uses 802.1x for authentication and NAC posturing so we know who is logged into our wireless network, where they are in the building (thanks to location services), and that they are in compliance with the Universities NAC policies. We can quarantine a wireless user to a role that only allows them access to a web redirect page or block access from even associating to the AP if desired. Since wireless now runs on an unlicenced spectrum I don't think I would recommend going "wireless only". It remains vulnerable to RF attacks and interference. I think essential services and staff/faculty desktop machines should remain wired but for normal student use I think the benefits of a well designed wireless network as the main point of connectivity outweigh the negatives. Most wireless network systems can prevent issues caused by RF interference. Cisco's CleanAir system looks very promising for improving the visibility of your RF environment. Michael Simpson Utah Valley University
>>> "Christian Heroux" <christian.her...@etsmtl.ca> 7/6/2010 2:30 PM >>> Hello, We have a project that would require every student to have a laptop. That would change the requirements in most classroom and we are looking at how to provide network access in those room. Wireless seem cheaper than wired to connect to the network. For the moment, we recommend wireless as a complementary access not as the main connection for work or study. The University would like to push for wireless but technically we tend to prefer wired. In wireless, we don`t have control on the air space like interference, performance is not the same and we don`t have as much control over a user like shutting down a port. What is your orientation about network access? Would you embrace Wireless only architecture? Christian Héroux University of Quebec ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
