We have discovered that during peek usage times, our wireless network is too big. We just have too many users on one network. We split out the wireless in the library into its own network named “GACLibrary” and it seems to have made a huge difference.
In addition, our current system of dealing with guests seems to cause a lot of confusion. Non-guests register as guests and then wonder why they can’t get to webmail and guests don’t scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the guest registration form.
In order to fix both of these issues, we are changing how we configure our wireless access points to create several wireless networks for the dorms as well as a dedicated wireless network for guests.
What does this mean for you?
Once the system is fully reconfigured, everywhere on campus guests will connect to the wireless network named “GustieGuest.”
In the dorms, students will connect to the wireless network with the name of their dorm (eg. Norelius, Southwest, Pittman, etc.) The library will continue to be “GACLibrary.” All other buildings on campus will continue to have a “GACwireless” network for now.
As we convert each dorm, users will need to search for wireless networks and join the appropriate network.
We hope that this will greatly improve wireless network performance in the evenings. Please let us know how it is working for you by e-mailing root@gac.edu or commenting on this post.
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