Here is what we are thinking since we “enjoy” a similar situation at USCA. We have two WISMs, 1142’s & 1252’s &2602’s, Cisco NCS Infrastructure reporting, and the ability to triangulate the rogue devices. I hate the amount of time our one network engineer has to put into finding about 89 rogue devices in our housing area that has about 1000 beds. Faculty/staff wireless on campus is rock solid, too. They are not the ones really utilizing BYOD.
So, our plan of attack is going to be encouraging everyone to use 5Ghz because that’s the larger spectrum with more room. We plan to tell students to bring dual band devices for doing their assignments in their room. We noticed most all activity is on the 2.4Ghz side of things. Is that the case with most of you? We plan to put those recommended laptops and tablets for our students on our website so they don’t have to try to find a dual band device on their own. Most of the airport cards have been dual band for a while, the 3rd generation iPad has dual band, and the problem can really be seen in student’s brining single band laptops, single band bargain tablets and older smartphones to housing. Additionally, we plan on deploying more APs and possibly turning down the 2.4Ghz frequency. We want to increase our lowest connection speed (for the clients) to 36mbps or 48mbps in the WISM on the 2.4Ghz side. I am hoping this is going cause the students with Bluetooth speakers/headphones, mobile hotspots, microwaves, older analog wireless phones, and wireless printers not to interfere as greatly as they are now. 5Ghz is just less crowded, but I am worried that the feat of telling students to bring a dual band device is going to make their eyes glaze over. That’s going to be a challenge for us in this plan. Does anyone have any thoughts about our plan? I am open to suggestions. Has anyone seen a 5ghz wireless printer, yet? Thanks! Joann L. Williamson Director of Network Systems, Architecture, & Infrastructure Computer Services Department at USC Aiken phone: 803-641-3473 http://www.usca.edu From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of T. Shayne Ghere Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 11:29 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in Dorms Our policy states if a device interferes with our network, then we reserve the right to have that device removed. The problem is that the WCS and Controllers are seeing over 712 devices. We can triangulate the “area” the device might be, but that would be going door to door. We don’t have the man power to spend that much time searching for them. Quite a few are wireless printers and mobile hotspots, but they usually get turned off when they aren’t in use. By sending a DoS attack to the device doesn’t solve the wireless interference that it’s causing, but only degrades the service the 2-3 AP’s are providing to other students. We have a Dorm/Greek/Singles living area of around 3,000 students and covers acres of land. I’ve seen some schools putting an AP in each room, some removing all wireless out of the dorms and others fighting the same battle I am. At what point to you just deal with it and say “yeah our wireless sucks because the students didn’t listen when they went through orientation.” On the Academic side we have very very few rogues and the Wireless is rock solid. Upper administration just doesn’t get it, I think, but we’re left to deal with it. There are two of us that maintain everything network related and no student help. It’s becoming a 24/7/365 work schedule, and we’re getting burned out fast. From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Ian McDonald Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 10:13 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in Dorms Breach of your written policy prohibiting such things isn’t a disciplinary matter? And can’t be fixed with your disciplinary system? From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of T. Shayne Ghere Sent: 16 October 2014 16:11 To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in Dorms Good morning. Let me say first off, we’re nearly a complete Cisco shop other than our Firewalls right now. We are running 3 – Cisco 5508 Wireless Lan Controllers and Cisco WCS. The AP’s in the Dorm’s and Greek houses are all 1142N AP’s and have been spaced accordingly by Cisco and by us during the introduction of wireless in the Dorms, Greeks and Single housing. We are having a heck of a time with all the interference that the students bring with them making our wireless nearly unusable. I know this topic has come up in the past, but this year is one of the worst we’ve seen, and the students are getting restless. We have the ability to quarantine rogue Wireless clients, however according to a recent Court case against a large Hotel Chain, it was decided that on an open free wireless spectrum, we would be breaking the law in jamming it. How have you addressed this issue? I’m about ready to ask upper management to remove the AP’s in all the Dorm buildings and let the students bring their own AP’s if they want wireless. Has anyone resorted to this? Thanks for your input Shayne ********** 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/.
