Unrealistic or not we have the burden of advancing our technology to match the customer's (read student and parent) expectations. Much of the new wireless has been designed for the multimedia experience; without the industry and customers pushing us we would be satisfied with "it's always been good enough". We have gone to gigabit to the desktop in the dorms yet they still insist on reasonable wireless for their Netflix (the heaviest user of our bandwidth) as well as YouTube and Skype.
This is a trend that is only getting worse; Apple has Facetime, the iPad has Facetime and Android devices have their version. Video conferencing will be expected at the flick of their laptops in a wireless environment. 4G alludes to multimedia of any nature; do we arrange for students to have a 4G device instead of school wireless? It is worth considering since the burden then will be on the carriers and not IT. At least at our location we strive to anticipate the front of the curve - with limited success of course. My parents complain that Skype quality is not good enough or little Johnny can't see some of his movies with some pausing at times. I think today's student has no real clue about shared wireless and definitely nothing about wired. We push wired but it winds up being only used for gaming devices. On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 2:42 PM, Brian Helman <bhel...@salemstate.edu>wrote: > "I just think user expectations of wireless are unrealistic and we in IT > are probably not doing a good job of correcting that." > > It's not that we're doing a poor job "correcting" the opinion, it's that > the industry is doing a GREAT job setting unrealistic expectations. When > kids go home and get on their $40 Linksys wireless w/o any issues and then > try to share space with 30 other kids per radio + all the other RF crap in > the air, they expect the same experience. We can kick and scream all we > want (I have ALWAYS said that "wireless is a complement to, not a > replacement for, the wired network). But inch by inch the mentality is > that "wireless is the way to go". And the people above me see that > wireless networking is cheaper and THEIR peers say it's rock-solid, so why > can't we implement it as good as the next guy? > > Let's see a show of hands .. how many of you get the parent calling you > saying they implemented a "rock solid" wireless network in their office (of > 8 people), so why can't we do it? Yeah, that's what I thought. > > -Brian > > -----Original Message----- > From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: > WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Parker, Ron > Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:08 PM > To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU > Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] College deals with wireless issues > > It looks like the reply-to on the list isn't working right or something. I > posted a witty rejoinder to this message and it went only to the original > poster rather than the list. Frank has probably implemented an e-mail > sender filter as a result. Perhaps our gracious list admin could check and > see if I'm mistaken? > > I couldn't tell how much of what happened at Skidmore was a Time Warner > problem versus other issues. There seem to be a lot of things all going on > at the same time. I've heard my colleagues at other colleges talk about > challenges with outsourcing residence hall networking. One of them had what > sounds like a similar experience with a virus outbreak at the beginning of > this semester. Unfortunately, it was the college IT staff running around > fixing things and taking the blame rather than the vendor. > > Since this is the wireless list, I'll focus on the wireless issues. If you > ask me, this is the important quote: "'The original design of the wireless > system in the residence halls was to provide supplemental coverage to the > wired network in your rooms," said Sipher'" So a student is sitting there > with an unused 100 meg or gig wired port that would probably work fine but > the Skidmore folks are being sent running around with their hair on fire > because the outsourced wireless is overloaded. I just think user > expectations of wireless are unrealistic and we in IT are probably not > doing a good job of correcting that. I routinely tell people here to use a > wired connection if what they are doing is important. This is in spite of > the fact that we have a honking new wireless system with the latest and > greatest magic available. > > I am definitely in the club of "been there done that" along with the folks > at Skidmore. Sounds like they are trying to do a good job of communicating > about the situation and I've always found that goes a long way towards > making everyone happier. There is a lot of good information in that article. > > -- > Ron Parker, Director of Information Technology, Brazosport College > Voice: (979) 230-3480 FAX: (979) 230-3111 > http://www.brazosport.edu > > This e-mail sent from my non-mobile, 64-bit, quad core, Windows 7 > workstation. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv > > [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Frank Bulk > > Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 9:02 AM > > To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU > > Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] College deals with wireless issues > > > > http://www.skidmorenews.com/news/information-technology-department-add > > resses -wireless-issues-1.2691856#.TrvkfkMUqdA > > > > This article has some details but doesn't make it very clear if all > > the problems have been DNS or otherwise, but I thought there might be > > some people on this list who find this news article interesting. > > > > I don't think Skidmore is on this list, as I don't meant to embarrass > > anyone. We've all "been there" in one circumstance or another. > > > > Frank > > > > ********** > > 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/. > -- Harry Rauch Network Analyst Eckerd College 4200 - 54th Ave So St. Petersburg, FL 33711 727-864-8318 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
