That Altitude 4511 product looked interesting. I'm curious to know the per-unit price on those, as quick google and amazon searches didn't bring anything up in that regard. I'd also like to see one with a pass-through port, so I can put one over an existing port in a student's room or classroom and still connect the existing wired device at the same location.
We also were unable to find the budget for a traditional controller-based system, but we managed to do pretty well for ourselves using APs from Engenius (ECB-9500). They run under $100 each, vs $400, $600, or more for "enterprise" level access points, and we run them without a controller, instead using existing infrastructure. The cheaper APs plus no controller put us in at about 1/10 what were quoted for a traditional Aruba or Cisco system. Of course, at that price we made a few compromises: - Reporting. This is huge. I don't get to know who's using what spectrum, and I often have to wait for students to tell me an access point isn't working in an area before I know about, rather than being proactive about it. We work around this because we have good er - Multiple SSIDs per access point. Our system actually will support this, but we haven't had the time to set it up yet. We do have some basic divisions by geographical area on campus to split up broadcast domains, but that's it. - Fixed cell sizes (limited air space). My understanding is that more advanced systems can be set to automatically turn down transmission power based on the power from the neighboring access points, and thereby reduce the amount of airspace used by each client. We get by because we're small. Hand in hand with this is the need to manually tune channels. The access points we have support DD-WRT, which would allow us to tune this manually, but that would also mean buying and deploying more access points that we don't have budget for. - Limited to 50 access points for radius purposes with Windows Standard Server. Of course, we need more than 50 access points and so had to open up our dorm wifi (no encryption there at all :( ). Our administrative and classroom buildings are encrypted, though; we're small enough to be able to do it that way. I'm working right now on a FreeRADIUS implementation that should fix this for us soon, but honestly our students **really like** the open wifi. We haven't had problems with campus neighbors and others leeching bandwidth, I have zero reports of abuse from tools like firesheep, and so while this is something I'm working on I'm not as rushed about it as I should be. We're up to 78 access points now. Add in wiring some PoE injectors, and we still spent less than $10,000 to unwire the whole campus. Joel Coehoorn York College IT Director 402.363.5603 On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Garry Peirce <pei...@maine.edu> wrote: > 2 cents from someone in a similar boat.**** > > ** ** > > Unfortunately, some of our campuses have been unable to support ubiquitous > wireless in dorms due to cost.**** > > In some cases they have only common areas covered.**** > > That being the case , with wireless being the preferred access method along > with a lack of local campus policy in this regard they’ve understandably > connected SOHO wireless routers.**** > > ** ** > > Some our of ResHalls caused us significant problems on the wired side at > the start of this semester.**** > > Although we enable L2 features (such as DHCP snooping/DAI/SG,MAC limits) we > weren’t able to corral an issue until implementing blocking of unknown > unicast (cisco UUFB) on the ResHall subnets. This being a wireless forum, > I’ll omit the details but in a nutshell, the issues were ICMP > redirect/ARP-amplification related and would intermittently peg the > attaching campus router’s CPU.**** > > I think efforts to search&fix offending devices or train students is > entering a never ending battle.**** > > ** ** > > As cheaper devices will not have A radios (not that many clients will > either….) co-channel interference is likely common.**** > > Add in interference , ex. assuming a fair # of microwave ovens, and I’d > think their wireless experience is less than spectacular with no one to > reach out to for insight/support.**** > > ** ** > > I feel such devices in ResHalls add an unmanaged infrastructure that not > only underserves the users but may also have consequences for the managed > infrastructure it connects to. I suppose by allowing them to use such > devices, one can remove themselves from wireless infrastructure/client > support, but I’d rather be in a position where we could supply the needed > wireless service in a managed way and avoid their need to use them.**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: > WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Ray DeJean > *Sent:* Monday, September 19, 2011 11:04 AM > > *To:* WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU > *Subject:* [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in dorms**** > > ** ** > > All,**** > > ** ** > > We don't currently provide wireless in our dorms, and our official policy > is to not allow students to bring their own wireless devices. We don't > actively enforce this policy though, and as long as the students' device > isn't causing problems, they typically don't hear from us. (We do provide > at least a 100mbps wired connection to each student).**** > > ** ** > > We are considering changing our policy to allow BYOD (bring your own > device) in the dorms. I know lots of students already BYOD, but we're not > policing it. We're considering the costs associated with deploying our > Aruba system to all the dorms, and the fact that students are going to BYOD > anyway. Rather than fight them, allow it. We'll secure our wired network > obviously, but also have workshops and online instructions to show the > students how to properly connect and secure their device. Of course we > realize the interference issues that may arise in a crowded 2.4ghz space... > **** > > ** ** > > The University of Wisconsin-Madison ( > http://www.housing.wisc.edu/resnet/gameConsoles.php) already has a policy > like this in place. Just looking to hear from other universities who have > or are considering a policy such as this.**** > > ** ** > > thanks,**** > > ray**** > > --**** > > Ray DeJean > Systems Engineer > Southeastern Louisiana University > email: r...@selu.edu > http://r-a-y.org**** > > ********** 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/.
