CWRU Opens Largest Wi-Fi Net 135
server1 writes "In what could be the largest public wireless service in the world, Case Western Reserve University is opening more than 1,230 Cisco Aironet 1200 Series wireless access points on September 1, providing free Internet access to faculty, students, staff and visitors to the Case campus and University Circle." Good news for Clevelanders looking for some free wireless internet access.
Re:Put the DHS and RIAA on leashes now! (Score:1)
Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:5, Informative)
Alas, my current school has some kind of fledgling deal going on, but so far I haven't even been able to get it to work, and they aren't very good about providing information on it.
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:1)
the ability to actually be online looking up information related to your lectures while they're happening... can make for a much greater understanding of the material
Hm, I try to pull up the prof's powerpoint slides and try to follow the lecture, but I usually end up refreshing slashdot.org like a mad man.
I don't know if the profs have figured out the AOL IM sounds and pattering keyboards means the students aren't taking notes on their laptops...
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:2)
I did all those things, too, but I multitask well, and type very fast, so would usually end up with free space in the periods where the instructor was waiting for everybody else to write things down.
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:2)
BTW, KSU had a nice comeback victory against the Zips thursday
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:3, Interesting)
I wasn't even aware that there were that many places to plugin to the network, though. I haven't been bothering... hard enough finding places with outlets to recharge in the middle of the day.
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:3, Interesting)
University of Akron's also got very good wireless coverage, and they push laptops rather heavily. It was so terribly convenient. I'm not going there anymore, alas... I miss it. The speed was really blazing, and nothing compares to the ability to actually be online looking up information related to your lectures while they're happening... can make for a much greater understanding of the material.
Alas, my current school has some kind of fledgling deal going on, but so far I haven't even been able to get it
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Yay, Northeast Ohio! (Score:2, Informative)
why so many? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:why so many? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:why so many? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:why so many? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:why so many? (Score:2, Informative)
The campus at Akron has over 1000 access points for full coverage in and outside of buildinds. I know of other universities around the US (Tulane, UofTenesee) that also easily have that many as well. As you start doing the site planning the numbers of APs can easily start to add up. The 1000 number for Case does not seem unrealistic to me.
Re:why so many? (Score:1)
Re:why so many? (Score:1)
...providing free Internet access to faculty, students, staff and visitors to the Case campus and University Circle. (emphasis mine)
Looking on this page [universitycircle.org], the University Circle is quite a large area, with bussinesses, museums, etc. They purposefully covered an area much larger than the campus. It might be that there are even some University facilities in the extended area, far from the main campus (this tends to be the case with old universities in urban environments).
But, as another post
Re:why so many? (Score:1)
Re:why so many? (Score:1)
Buildings = reflected signals = interference
anyways, 100 meters without hopped up antennas + amps (read: FCC violation) is a pipe dream. 100 feet with a reliable signal is rare.
And in other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And in other news... (Score:1)
Free WiFi access will predominate (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Free WiFi access will predominate (Score:2, Informative)
--
George
So? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So? (Score:1)
Only current students, faculty and staff of CWRU are authorized to use the wireless network and VPN services.
Does this mean that the "public" can use the network, but not the VPN? It's not clear from their pages. Anyone tried it?Re:So? (Score:2)
good for them (Score:2)
Are you on the grapevine yet ? [wwgrapevine.com]
CDPD -- wireless, always on, approx $CA 40/month (Score:1)
There were two drawbacks:
1) Equipment outlay was about $1500
2) Bandwidth was not high. Theoretically 9.6 Kbaud, the higher latency and error rate than a wired connection reduced the throughput.
Re:CDPD -- wireless, always on, approx $CA 40/mont (Score:2)
I'm looking in to mulitple phone lines and multi-channel ppp tunneling to Toronto (where my servers are hosted), then hit the net from there.
DSL is a couple of years away at least here (rural (very rural :) northern Ontario), I can get about 20 Kbit/sec out of a phone line so 5 or so of them should do it. This is strictly business use (ww.com, camarades.com and the wwgrapevine.com) so I'm not too concerned about the per month cost if it is not something exorbitant.
The most frus
Just remember guys... (Score:5, Insightful)
Try to keep it to a dull roar, or use something encrypted at least. If you make it blatently obvious that you're doing any sort of mp3 swaping, the BSA and RIAA will rain the holy shitstorm of litigation on the school.
make sure if you use it, you write a letter of praise or something to the dean or head of IT praising their decision to make it open to the public.
Re: Just remember guys... (Score:2)
When was the last time someone sued the phone companies for criminals using public payphones in the street? Wouldn't we all find that idea ridiculous?
They don't. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re: Just remember guys... (Score:1)
New Ian Hunter song verse (Score:5, Funny)
Singing Cleveland WAPS Cleveland WAPS
Living in Sin with a bogus MAC
Singing Cleveland WAPS Cleveland WAPS
"could be"??? (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone know more about where Drexel weighs in? Kind of a silly pissing contest, but having the Best or Fastest (blank) for a school is good marketing.
Drexel's network is not public (Score:2, Informative)
The implication here is that CWRU's network is publically accessible. At last check, Drexel's network was *not* publically accessible (MAC locked, IIRC).
Of course, things may have changed and I could be wrong...
All a 31337 h4x0r needs these days are: (Score:3, Funny)
Profit: 100%
Administration nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
While I see wireless as a potentially flexible system, it is a security and management nightmare. We've banned our students from using their own wireless routers for just this reason.
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:1, Insightful)
If you got the money for cisco gear, you can afford a pix and a good router.
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:2, Informative)
We're currently 3com core (cb9k) to edge (3300s & 4400s), but doing a fork lift Cisco core replacement this winter. Hopefully life will get better when we replace the core, b
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:3, Informative)
But they can already, most likely. Where are your Ethernet ports? If someone just plugs a laptop into one, what will happen? (On most networks, the DHCP server will issue the laptop an address and the "intruder" can go about his/h
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:1)
Can you imagine the potential security issues there,
I'm sure there are security issues, but can you name some actual issues? The issues I can think of are no different than what you see with *any* anonymous internet use. For administrators, I see a need to be sure campus machines are relatively secure: Don't you already do that? Would it resolve the issues if the wireless network sat outside the
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:2)
If you restrict inbound ports, filter traffic, shape packets, and don't offer services besides a pipe, you can certainly deal with anonymous community users.
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Administration nightmare (Score:1)
As for viruses, anyone placing an unprotected machine like Microsoft Windows on the Internet live, well - is naive at best. It would not hurt the students to get a computer security lesson before they become managers.
With IPSec on Wireless, you actually are likely more secure than a wired network as someone who plugs in a
While this sounds all awesome 'n stuff... (Score:4, Insightful)
So maybe this isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Until i hear that anyone with a laptop can actually use the access points without going and talking to the school for access, i'm a little skeptical. It's still sweet tho, 'specially if you live on campus.
Re:While this sounds all awesome 'n stuff... (Score:2)
This is exactly how I'm going to handle security on my upcoming wireless network. I have an AP and I'm putting a PC in my car. The AP currently goes right into my switch (for testing) but I'm going to point it at another interface on my linux gateway and block all non-VPN packets. I'll probably also look into running a transparent proxy on that interface so I can tell anyone who tries to access anything though it to screw off.
Paint the town red! (Score:1)
Hmmm... Call me a skeptic, but I seem to remember when Apple said .mac would be free forever too. Plus, just thinking about the security issues involved with such a large scale rollout make my gut wrench (and it's a pretty big gut...)
Re:Paint the town red! (Score:2, Insightful)
Nope -- just University Circle [universitycircle.org]. It's less than ten square miles. Still -- mighty impressive, especially if they get places that are technically off-campus like bars and coffee shops. Hell, even some off-campus housing might be in range! The old "hippy street" there might be wi-fi accessible. Ironic, sitting outside on your balcony in your bare feet drinking herbal tea and writing an anti-capitalist screed, all the while hooked up via free wi-fi.
Re:Paint the town red! (Score:1)
Re:Paint the town red! (Score:1)
Re:Paint the town red! (Score:1)
Re:Paint the town red! (Score:1)
Gloat, gloat! (Score:2, Informative)
I often work from home on my company-provided laptop. It's been my dream to work from a Starbucks or, in the case of Case, the locally-owned, thirty-year-old Arabica coffee shop. Hell, there's even a bar on Case campus I could probably work from!
NOTE: This is not at all an informative post. I'm just gloating. >:-)
Re:What.....banned software? (Score:2)
Would never happen at Ohio State (Score:5, Informative)
It is interesting to see CWRU do this, as Ohio State [ohio-state.edu] likely would never dare try this. At Ohio State, all systems connected to the network must authenticate their users. If a system is unable to do so, the network switches typically force users onto a logon server in order to verify whom they are.
This is a result of OSU's network policy [ohio-state.edu] (PDF file - see item #13). There are a few exceptions, but for the most part this is true.
OSU's wireless 802.11 service [osuweb.net] requires users to login, and pay for some sort of dialup plan. Even the $1.95/month one counts.
Re:Would never happen at Ohio State (Score:1)
The spam from cwru hath begun.. (Score:2, Funny)
This just arrived: Eerie coincidence? I think not!
Re:The spam from cwru hath begun.. (Score:1)
Re:The spam from cwru hath begun.. (Score:2)
Re:The spam from cwru hath begun.. (Score:2)
Eerie coincidence? I think not! :)
No no no... Erie is in PA, about a half an hour away. Wifi doesn't go that far. ;^)
Weaselmancer
Re:The spam from cwru hath begun.. (Score:1)
not so useful (Score:1)
Insert lake on fire joke... (Score:2)
As a lifetime resident of Cincinnati, all I've got to say is:
Don't you realize that some people could be looking at pornography on their laptops now???!!! And they might even be Democrats !!! Somebody oughta be arrested!!!
:sighs:
Yet another score for Cleveland in the ongoing struggle. Better bars, better bands, better baseball, better weather, and a significantly smaller proportion of troglodytes among the population. At least we've got race riots, and, uh... Larry Flynt. Though we're trying to put h
Talk about vision, smell, sound polution.... (Score:2)
On one side, fat nerds will stay outside longer than before, but this time using their computer exclusively, instead of just talking a walk in the park. Good development? No.
On the other hand, the rest of us will have to put up with the eyesore of these peopl
NOT free to public (Score:1, Interesting)
Cross-linkage (Score:2)
I suspect a large part of the answer is to treat mobile users as "foreign" and put them all on an external segment of the network where they simply can't do much damage except possibly to each other.
Does anyone have more information?
I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:1)
No need for hearsay. They say so themselves [cwru.edu]. It was $1.5 billion in 2000.
Re:I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides, and I think you could agree, in the end it really became a pretty seedy place with more and more 1337 kiddies joining in that really had no business being there. A great influx of people that really didn't care about the "community" trashed many of the SIGs and caused
Re:I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:2)
And yeah, you're right... the install they had was more insecure than windows. but I can't believe that it was so badly written that turning it open-source and letting everyone else clean it up wasn't a realistic option (unless Tom Grudner had some sort of patent/license attached that prevented it). Ah well... lordulkesh cat yahoo daht commu
Re:I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:2)
Re:I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:2)
The variety of expenses involved in running a university and the range of fluctuation of those costs means that budgets have to be conservative to guarantee that tuitions will only rise by modest amounts while services supplied remains cons
Re:I *STILL* have not forgiven CWRU... (Score:2)
That's the endowment (it passed the $1B mark in the mid- to late-90's when I was in grad school there).
On the other hand, as anyone who's been to the school know, this has nothing to do with public access, nothing to do with student access, and everything to do with marking to prospective students. This is, after all, the university tha
Case Bashing (Score:2)
Re:Case Bashing (Score:1)
Awesome school. Wasted three years of my life and tens of thousands of dollars out of my own pocket there just to be told sorry - you are going to have to lose over 50 credits from CSU
Re:Case Bashing (Score:2)
Freenet (Score:1)
-ae506
No way... (Score:1)
CWRU=Cleveland Freenet back in the 90's... (Score:3, Interesting)
OK Everyone. Here's how it's really going to work (Score:5, Informative)
In any case (no pun intended), here's what's going down.
Case currently has deployed 600 at last count (a few months ago) Cisco WAPs with 802.11b. By the end of the project, almost 1200 WAPs will be deployed campus wide. When Cisco starts shipping the 802.11g radios for the Aironets, all of the radios in all of the APs are going to get upgraded to g.
OK. That's done.
Next, currently it is REQUIRED that anyone wanting to use the WAPs must authenticate to a Cisco VPN server and gain access to campus network services as if they were physically on the network. HOWEVER, starting September 1st, ANYONE will be able to use another SSID on any WAP to gain access to the network AS IF they were outside of the CWRU firewall. ANYONE. Script kiddies, goofballs, terrorists... your mother... anyone. Also with that, though, are some SERIOUS controls and, I would assume, monitoring of the traffic. The first big control is bandwidth throttling. No, you wouldn't be able to park (if you could find parking at least) outside of a building and snarf down kazaa bullshit (besides, Kazaa is mostly throttled for everyone anyway. P2P is such a waste of resources, but I digress). So don't think you're going to be able to pull down at 4 to 5 Mbps on the "guest" network. What you WILL be able to do is check mail, browse the web and do activity and most "normal" people would be able to do. If you want to do high bandwidth wireless applications, you'd have to use the VPN.
So, while this is authoritative I believe I can speak with some certainty that what I have said above is correct and true.
Also, I want to state that my words here are not necessarily the official views of my employer, Case Western Reserve University and are my own based upon publically published information.
Re:OK Everyone. Here's how it's really going to wo (Score:2)
Sorry about that. *blush*
Re:OK Everyone. Here's how it's really going to wo (Score:1)
World's Largest? What rubbish. (Score:2)
ahhhh (Score:1)
Re:Do NOT go there... (Score:2, Informative)