I have used students in the past extensively to help with wireless management. After working with a student for a month or so they are typically capable of setting up Aps, troubleshooting and chasing down rogues, doing wireless testing and even surveys etc. You can use students to manage your FB site as well to help get the word out. If you can’t beat them hire them. When you find a rogue in a room you can ask them to shut down their printer. If they do not comply after a couple of warnings you an blacklist their every device from the network if you have NAC.
It really is a campaign and a community effort. RAs and RDs need to understand and bring it up at every meeting. You have to get to those orientation meetings to let people know. In your case I would setup a separate 5 Ghz only network and tell people to connect to that. Do you have 5 Ghz coverage in all of your spaces? The beauty of 5 Ghz is that all channels are non-overlapping. So even if a printer ends up out there on the same channel as your AP it won’t really be interfering. I think it will be a while before those devices are on the 5 Ghz band in any number. John From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Thomas Carter Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 1:50 PM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in Dorms But how does that help avoid the initial problem discussed concerning devices (especially HP printers) causing interference by broadcasting wireless networks? These printers broadcast these networks straight out of the box and most students don’t even realize it. Thomas Carter Network and Operations Manager Austin College 903-813-2564 [AusColl_Logo_Email] From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Osborne, Bruce W (Network Services) Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 10:20 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in Dorms 2. Wireless dorms no not need a wired LAN, so the SSID can be campus-wide. That is what we do, but with an open mac auth network that is also used for onboarding to the 802.1X secure network. We do not support wireless printing. You would need DHCP reservations to insure the printer would always get the same ip address. Bruce Osborne Network Engineer – Wireless Team IT Network Services (434) 592-4229 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY Training Champions for Christ since 1971 From: Lee H Badman [mailto:lhbad...@syr.edu] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 11:11 AM Subject: Re: Wireless in Dorms To me, wireless printers are absolutely the worst offenders. If they could be eliminated, the rest may be manageable. In one version of the dorm world I envision, I’d do something like this: 1. Develop a per dorm central printing solution that was free (as long as it wasn’t abused), effective, and easy. Then, I’d pass a “no printers allowed” policy but sell it hard as “no printers needed” 2. Per dorm, create a consumer-gadget friendly PSK network that only has Internet access. There’d be MAC registration, and this WLAN would be shared with the per-dorm wired network that students also have access to. We’d campaign the heck out of how hard we’re trying to “be like home” and emphasize the need for good citizenship (with a reminder that bad behavior is trackable) 3. The secure WLAN would also be available, and would be required for access to campus resources Or put another way- try to identify all of the reasons the offending devices are there to begin with, and flex the standard “secure campus WLAN model” to accommodate/eliminate as many of the offending devices as possible with friendlier networking. Patrolling and removal isn’t cost effective, and leads to mutual bad feelings. Not sure how this would all work in the real world, but I contemplate more each semester. -Lee Lee Badman Wireless/Network Architect ITS, Syracuse University 315.443.3003 (Blog: http://wirednot.wordpress.com) From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Thomas Carter Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 9:37 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Wireless in Dorms I posted something very similar a month or so ago. I feel your pain – as a small school with limited manpower, we have the same issue. So far I haven’t seen a good answer – we quickly got rid of all of the wireless routers, but there are so many devices that do not plug into the network that interfere. Trying to locate all of them is more time than we have. Pushing things into 5GHz seems like a temporary solution as, has already been mentioned, things will being utilizing that spectrum as well. 802.11ad will introduce new spectrum, but I feel like the fox constantly on the run from the hounds. Thomas Carter Network and Operations Manager Austin College 903-813-2564 [AusColl_Logo_Email] From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of T. Shayne Ghere Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 10:29 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> 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:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU>] On Behalf Of Ian McDonald Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 10:13 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> 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:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of T. Shayne Ghere Sent: 16 October 2014 16:11 To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU<mailto:WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU> 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/.
