Students, college face off over Wi-Fi

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The risk is borne by the IT people.

How are these students getting DSL anyway? I would think that the local telcos would have some kind of restrictions about the kinds of telephone service they can install into the on-campus housing. Maybe these students are installing cable modems, I don't know. That's not the real point anyway.

The campus IT departments have to look at this from the perspective of security and liability. If some student opens up the campus network and god-knows-who gets in and starts doing god-knows-what, then who's going to be held responsible when the feces contacts the rotary oscillator? The students who open the rogue access point? (Yeah, right.) The bottom line is that the IT people are the ones who must protect the network.

I understand the students' frustration with slow WiFi access, but it's not just a question of the students' convenience. It's a question of protecting the resources of the college.

Surely it would be much more convenient for some students if the campus library had none of those pesky requirements that students must check out the books they take from the building. But, unfortunately, there are those students who would take the books, sell them, and pocket the cash. The library management has to guard against such things for the good of ALL of the students.

Actually, I have no quarrel with any student who would set up 802.11a access points to improve their coverage, as long as these "rogue" access points are properly secured. (Yeah, I know, there's no such thing as a "properly secured" WiFi connection, but WEP is better than nothing, if only marginally so.) And, since 802.11a is in the 5GHz band, it would not interfere with the spectrum for the 802.11b/g networks the campuses are generally using.

It's about security, sure...but it's also about responsibility...something college students are presumably there to learn anyway.

Anyway...that's my $.02 worth.

--Rog--

Posted by: RogerBremer   Posted on: 12/21/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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