For many students, wireless Internet access is a dream come true, allowing them to connect freely on the dozens of locations around campus where AirOrange, Syracuse University’s wireless Internet provider, is located.

But inconsistencies in the network have plagued many students.

‘Yesterday I could use it, but today I couldn’t and I don’t know why,’ said Ruby Qin, a second-year graduate in writing education, while correcting papers on her laptop at Bird Library. ‘I had very strong signals, but I couldn’t go online. I don’t know. It is so unstable.’

Many students trying to connect to AirOrange have experienced similar problems with AirOrange. In response, CMS is now offering a faster and more secure way for students to connect to AirOrange.

Virtual Private Network, a program developed by Nortel Networks, will allow more users to access AirOrange through Computer and Media Services’ updated wireless network protection system without the hassle of jams that occurred previously.

AirGate – the original wireless service that is still available for use – only allows 130 users onto AirOrange across the entire campus, said Deborah Nosky, manager of IT communications and professional development for CMS.

Air Orange resembles a large highway, with limited access in the case of a traffic jam, Nosky said. VPN offers a much bigger on-ramp. VPN and AirGate even use the same wireless hotspots, some of which can be found in Panasci Lounge and Bird Library.

According to June Quackenbush, manager of student computing services, the cause for wireless network crashes last year occurred because AirGate would become overwhelmed with people trying to log onto the network.

Now with VPN, Nosky said, capacity is not an issue. Quackenbush agreed.

‘If you move to VPN, your wireless connection won’t crash,’ Quackenbush said.

CMS’s e-mail announcement stating that VPN is faster, Nosky said, is not entirely accurate. Nosky said that the logging onto the wireless network should be faster, but the overall connection speed between AirOrange and VPN should be the same.

Yet another advantage that VPN holds over AirGate, according to Quackenbush, is that VPN is encrypted, so it’s more secure.

This encryption prevents others from listening in on your wireless connection and stealing things, such as e-mail passwords or credit card numbers, that users might transmit over a wireless connection. Nosky still does not recommend conducting credit card transactions over AirOrange, even with VPN, to be absolutely safe.

The downside to VPN, however, is that it must be installed on your personal computer and run every time you connect to AirOrange for it to work, unlike AirGate, which runs automatically when a wireless user accesses any Syracuse Web site.

CMS’s rationale behind initially employing the insecure AirGate system was because CMS was testing the waters and seeing if people were interested in wireless, Nosky said.

‘I don’t think our approach was unusual,’ Nosky said.

Unlike PC users, though, Mac users must pay for their own Mac compatible VPN software, which is available for purchase at the SU Bookstore.

When asked why Mac users must pay while PC users don’t, Nosky said that Nortel does not distribute the Mac version for free.

‘There isn’t a free solution right now,’ Nosky said.

Nosky also points out that AirOrange and any program to protect its users do not fall under the communications fee that students pay.

‘We have a communications fee which includes phone and cable, and this is outside of that. Communications is what you use in your residence hall. This is above and beyond that,’ Nosky said. ‘VPN is only one tool in a suite of security measures that you should have on your PC.’

The program’s installer can be found on student’s PC Protect CD or at http://cms.syr.edu/downloads.

Published on September 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm