Hans Smucker, a freshman broadcast journalism major, was working in Penasci Lounge in the Schine Student Center Sunday on an assignment online while using AOL Instant Messenger on his Macintosh PowerBook. Smucker was able to do this using a wireless network card and the new Syracuse University AirOrange wireless network.

“I find it intriguing that I can just sit here in Penasci lounge and email, instant message, and search the web,” Smucker said. “I can type a paper here and at the same time get sources from the library’s website without actually going over there.”

AirOrange is part of a five year strategic plan to wire SU, which resulted from students’ desire for a wireless network.

The system allows students and faculty to take their personal computers to various access points around campus and connect to the network.

The locations streach across campus including the first and second floor common areas of Bird Library, Newhouse II, the third and fourth floor architecture areas in Slocum Hall, the third floor Graduate Student areas on the School of Management, the Schine Student Center Dining Center, Penasci Lounge, and the adjacent conference rooms according to Deborah Nosky, Manager of IT Communications.

Points in the Physics Building and Goldstein Auditorium are under construction and should be finished sometime during the fall semester. The Law Building, Kimmel computer lab and dining area and Carnegie Library are being researched and are scheduled for networking in the future, Nosky added.

“Students will continue to buy smaller devices, laptops and handheld computers,” Nosky said. “There will be more and more places on campus that are accessible.”

Butch Auchterlonie, the academic support coordinator from the computing department of the bookstore, estimated that he has sold about twenty-five of the Cisco cards already, but that sales should pick up this year as more spots on campus are hooked up.

Nosky said that the benefits of the AirOrange network are its portability, convenience and affordability; however, several risks that are associated with the network are the loss or theft of equipment and the lack of security when making credit card transactions.

Nosky added that students should not build wireless networks in their dorm rooms as there would be a great deal of interference and could create a “security hole” in the SU network.

This “hole” in the network would allow anyone within range of the student’s created network to access the SU network under that student’s identity according to Nosky.

Another problem with the network is that if a large number of file transfers or multi-media applications are launched simultaneously the network could slow or crash due to the smaller bandwidth available on the AirOrange network, Nosky said.

The use of networked games and streaming media make it difficult for others to access the network because they use too much bandwidth, Nosky added.

To connect to the wireless network, a student must purchase a wireless 100 megawatt (mW) network card for his PC. Computer and Media Services (CMS) staff tested many different cards and found that the 100mW Cisco Aironet card produces the best reception and is sold for $119 at the SU Computing Department bookstore.

The network card‘s built-in antenna picks up the signal from the access points which are wired and connected to the campus network.

The cards were designed for use in laptop computers that run on Windows98, WindowsMe, Windows2000, and WindowsXP. The cards also work on Apple OS 9.x and X.

The card is inserted into a specialized PCMIA slot on the laptop. Once the card is installed into the PC, a student can access the wireless network if he is near an access point using his SUnix username and password.

A user can print from a wireless connection only if his computer runs on Windows XP. Wireless printing however still counts towards a user’s CMS printing quota.

“It’ll be really, really cool if by the time I’m a senior I can sit on the quad and just surf the internet,” said Smucker.

Published on September 23, 2002 at 12:00 pm