Wireless Information

Elms College wireless network provides a secure wireless connection to the Internet, and is available to all Elms students, faculty, and staff. Each student living in a primary residence hall is provided wireless networking to conect to the local college network and the internet.

Wireless networking is provided as a supplement to the college's wired local area network (LAN), and is not considered a replacement for wired access. Use of the wireless network should be in conformance with the college's policies on Internet Usage and copyright, including file sharing.

Wireless networking presents a variety of additional issues and security risks that are not present with a wired connection. Wireless networking also shares the same radio frequencies used by a variety of other technologies, including cordless phones, wireless keyboards and mice, microwave ovens, and BlueTooth devices, which presents reliability and performance issues.

Which wireless network should I connect to on campus?

The Elms College wireless network is called Elms-Student. Please do not connect to other wireless networks that may appear on campus (e.g. "Free Public WiFi" or "linksys"). Some of these are "ad hoc networks" originating from other computers, not wireless access points. Read instructions on how to connect to nostrings on a Mac or Windows computer.

Definitions

Wireless Network

Local area network technology that uses radio frequency spectrum to connect computing devices to networks.

Access Point

A device that allows wireless communication devices to connect to a wireless network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards. The WPA2-PSK AES usually connects to a wired network, and can relay data between the wireless devices (such as computers or printers) and wired devices on the network.

Wireless Infrastructure

Wireless access points, antennas, cabling, power, and network hardware associated with the deployment of a wireless communications network.

Coverage

The geographical area where a baseline level of wireless connection service quality is attainable.

Interference

The degradation of a wireless communication signal caused by electromagnetic radiation from another source. Interference can slow down or eliminate a wireless transmission depending on the strength of the interfering signal.

Privacy

The condition that provides for the confidentiality of personal, student, faculty and staff communications, and institutional data transmitted over a wireless network.

Client hardware/software

The electronic equipment and software that is installed in a desktop, laptop, handheld, portable, or other computing device to provide a LAN interface to a wireless network.