We have a policy against it, but generally enforce it on an as-needed basis. We reserve and exercise the right to maintain the health of the network, but we generally don’t actively constantly patrol to remove them unless we have a problem. There are so many printers and other devices that are broadcasting wireless by default that it’s not very practical anyway.
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tim Tyler Sent: Friday, June 24, 2016 2:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] student residential routers? Wireless-lan members, Ok, I am curious as to what your opinions are on allowing students to have their own wireless routers in residential buildings (dorms). While we have a policy that we don’t allow them, it is extremely difficult and time-consuming to stop them. The two main points seem to be: Consumes more over-head of available frequency bandwidth. Less secure. The 5.0ghz radios have so many more channels now. So is this bandwidth consumption and efficiency still a major concern for many of you? I know this was most certainly a critical issue for the 2.4ghz radios with only 3 channels, but my stats are showing that 2/3rds of our clients now connect to the 5.0ghz radio. AC allows for much better density. So is the additional over-head of additional SSID broadcasts still a big issue? If so, are there any articles talking about this with regard to 5.0ghz technology? As far as security is concerned, it just seems to me that keeping the enemy out of our networks was a lost cause a long time ago. I don’t even trust my fac/staff subnets let alone student ones. I know that residential style routers are not secure, but I have to wonder how significant this issue is. After all, one is only gaining access to the network. Nothing sensitive at this stage has been compromised yet. I wonder if this is a marginal issue given how often hackers gain access to computers inside networks anyways. I am really curious as to what many of you think about this. Do you have policy to not allow student routers? Do you put in effort to suppress student router deployment? Tim Tyler Network Engineer Beloit College ********** 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/.
