We used to put APs inside enclosures (ceiling or wall mounted), but when upgrading to Aruba we decided to go out in the open not to deal with external antennas. Moreover, the ceiling enclosures block some RF signal from bleeding up, which is desirable in many locations. We had one broken antenna in a Fraternity (billed to them), and we find students messing with the antennas in the freshmen dorms (probably jump and hit them). This changes the RF radiation pattern as we all know, so I usually send a work-study to walk the hallways and make sure antennas are pointing straight down. We have recently posted notes on each floor of the dorms letting students know the entire floor will be charged if an AP is found broken. Maybe this way they will police themselves. Or, maybe is just wishful thinking :)
Marcelo Marcelo Lew Wireless Enterprise Administrator University Technology Services University of Denver Desk: (303) 871-6523 Cell: (303) 669-4217 Fax: (303) 871-5900 Email: m...@du.edu -----Original Message----- From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:wireless-...@listserv.educause.edu] On Behalf Of Tristan Rhodes Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 2:57 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Mount hidden or in plain view in dorms? Funny you mention that story. We purchased over a hundred AP-2000 access points from Proxim (was Lucent). These were 802.11b and used PCMCIA cards as well. The idea was that we could simply upgrade the cards when we wanted 802.11g. However, despite the original plan we never upgraded those units and eventually replaced them with Cisco 1130 access points. Cheers! Tristan -- -- Tristan Rhodes Network Engineer Weber State University (801) 626-8549 >>> On 12/2/2010 at 8:34 PM, in message <20101203034606.29b4116b109b_cf867...@fishing1.weber.edu>, Mike King <m...@mpking.com> wrote: > I remember one case of "vandalism". It was back in 2004 and we were > using Enterasys R2 units (They used PCMCIA cards), when the G spectrum > was just becoming popular. > > One enterprising student removed the Enterasys 802.11b card, and > replaced it with an 802.11g card. Unfortunately for the student, that > didn't work exactly as he planned. The unit was still up, just not > working, took us a while to diagnose the problem. That wing of the > dorm had no wireless for almost a week. > > > > On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 2:33 PM, Fleming, Tony <t.flem...@tcu.edu> wrote: >> Crew, >> >> We hide our access points above ceiling grids. Our logic is the devices are >> out of site and less prone to vandalism (in fact we have had zero >> vandalism). >> >> One concern that has been expressed by our wireless team is the congestion >> above the ceiling grid – pipes, HVAC ducting, lighting and cables. It is >> logical that all of these obstructions do not help RF propagation and create >> sources of interference. >> >> >> >> My question for you guys: >> >> Did any of you change your mounting locations from above ceiling grid to >> below the grid (visible)? >> >> Did you notice substantial signal improvement? >> >> What is the vandalism rate? >> >> Did your facilities/administrative folks express any >> concerns about the AP visibility? >> >> >> >> >> >> ********** 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/.
