We're looking at our options with wireless as well, so this is of interest to me. We have all Juniper wireless, and since they're getting out of the wireless game, this is an opportunity to make a large change rather than just switching vendors and sticking with the same architecture.
We've tossed around #1, but we worry it would come back on us and cause more trouble than it solves. Everyone brings a router and everyone's wireless is stepping on everyone else's wireless, and we'll get the blame for it not working well. We have apartments on campus that have an off-campus experience - they pay utilites, etc and are not on the school network but get cable internet. The boxes supplied by the cable company are all set to channel 6, so everyone had slow, unreliable service (except the few smart enough to change the channel). Even though we're not supposed to have any responsibility there, we (IT) had to end up working with the cable company to resolve the issue. If these routers belong to students, all we could say is "change your channel or talk to the guy in the room next door and see if he will". For managed services, at our size (1,300 students on one campus) the costs always seem to be too high compared to running it ourselves. We don't have a large enough staff to reduce headcount if we outsourced wireless, and I can't justify a large jump in spending on wireless. One thing I would like to see from vendors is more cheap ( like <$200) devices that can help fill in gaps. We have a number of small holes that we can't yet justify putting in one of our usual devices. For example, decades ago, one res hall was remodeled and a small addition was added to include an elevator, stairwell, and 2 single occupancy rooms on each floor. Because this was an addition, a solid brick wall separates these rooms from other rooms in the hall, so they get no wireless. It's painful to put in a device for just 2 students. 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 Brian Helman Sent: Friday, May 01, 2015 10:23 AM To: WIRELESS-LAN@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] To provide (wireless) service, or not to provide (wireless) service... A few weeks ago we made a pitch for funding to upgrade our res halls to 802.11ac. This request for funding has had an unforeseen effect. I'm not being asked to investigate NOT providing wireless networking in our res halls. Here are the options, as it has been described to me: -No institutional wireless. Let the students bring in their own AP's -Some kind of managed service (wireless as a service) with 802.11 -Some kind of institutionally owned/leased mobile wireless (e.g we provide our own 4G) -Hybrid -Continue with 802.11n 2.4GHz and fill in holes as they pop up I'm not going to put my thoughts up here just yet. These are the options/thoughts as presented by the levels above me. Let the discussion begin.... ____________________________________ Brian Helman, M.Ed | Director, ITS/Networking Services | *: 978.542.7272 Salem State University, 352 Lafayette St., Salem Massachusetts 01970 GPS: 42.502129, -70.894779 ********** 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/.
