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Intel Ranks Colleges with Best Wireless Access
newdamage writes "Intel recently released it's ranking of The Most Unwired College Campuses and I was happy to see my school, Purdue, up there at #2. I can personally attest that my laptop w/ wireless card can be used over almost all of the main campus, and there's always a few people in lecture using laptops to access notes and take extra notes. Granted all I've found is that internet access in class just gives me a better way to not pay attention. What are other peoples' experiences with wireless access on their campus? Is there widespread coverage, and if so, does it help you get more school related work done by having your laptop connected where ever you are on campus?"
Wonderful what kind of technology they are teaching there? Obviously not wireless computers :P
The most UNWIRED? The wording almost makes that sound like a bad thing. Intel should have gone with CowboyNeal's headline.
Rapidly approaching the Zener knee...
is that now they can choose schools based on those that are willing to offer them their porn how they want it, where they want it. And they want it.
Are the Most Unwired Airports and Most Unwired Cities lists.
Also, do these lists just count wireless access points that Centrino supports? It almost sounds like some sort of propaganda...
EVERYDAY IS CATURDAY
Funny, I never would have thought Indiana would have the top two spots.
Sure, we're number 97, but at least we made the list. Take that number 98!
An effective signature identifies a particular user amongst a base of thousands.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Microsoft ranks colleges with Best Windows/Office/Visual Studio education?
Number 50 on the list is University if Missouri-Columbus.
I've lived in misery (ahem: Missouri) all my life, and don't know of this college, though I do attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
(Well, I pay them, anyway. I rarely _attend_.)
I'm not exactly loyal, but damnit, I want my crappy college spelled right!
.sig
I don't usually bring my laptop into class, as I find it too distracting, as the submitter of the story mentioned. I found that trying to write notes and any of my own key words to accompany the information were crucial to triggering memories when it came time to remember the information later on. The few times I brought in my laptop, I always ended up doing something else and felt I'd missed some important piece of information during the lecture. Unfortunately I type faster than I can write, so I guess there's a tradeoff.
Don't be too hard on him... he's under double secret probation...
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
Since I have housing in the Technology Quarters, I had some experience with the wireless network which was installed here early, but it was only with a PDA and not a full laptop. My room had poor reception, and I couldn't get a signal in any interesting places (like outside on the sun roof or patio). I'm hoping that next year when there's more access points up my new dorm will have better reception, particularly in the nice courtyard area.
Oh, and the network looks unencrypted so far. Which means I'll be checking my email with Pine over ssh. =b
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
you kids these days have it all.
back in my day, if you wanted to download porn, you had to wait until your roommate left for class, and then search for it on usenet. and if you got a single download that wasn't corrupt, you'd consider yourself lucky! nowadays with bittorrent and kazaa, life is so easy. if i had wireless access campus-wide, i might have spent alot more time in the classroom (my apartment had the four of us on a single dialup connection).
But my partners in several group projects do, and they have come in handy many times when brainstorming to quickly assess the feasibility of our ideas right there. Granted, it could also be done in one of the public labs, but it is far more convenient to be able to work anywhere on campus. Plus, you don't have to deal with all the dirty looks from the people in the labs who are trying to concentrate. After just two semesters, I'm convinced, for the first time, that I could put a laptop to good use _as_ a laptop. Unfortunately, that doesn't make me able to afford one:)
My institute, the University of Idaho, made #33, but there's only wireless access in the Commons (like the student union, except more full of offices), the library, and the Administration buildings. Though to be fair there's a bunch of classes in the Admin. The cooler part is that there's IBM laptops available for checkout that are all wireless internet-enabled at both the library and the commons, available in two-hour blocks, with wireless printer access too--makes it easy to get a burger and print off the chemistry pre-lab before you have to go do it, heh.
I'm on a road shaped like a figure eight; I'm going nowhere but I'm guaranteed to be late.
I find in the classroom, internet access is more-so a distracting thing than a good thing, though not always. However, where it REALLY shines is outdoors and in the cafe type areas (Java Walley's at my school, RIT, comes to mind) where you can socialize, gather a group around, or whatever. In fact, I'm thinking of getting a el cheapo work laptop for this purpose. Getting out of the dorm room and away from instant access to the newest FPS can do a world of good. Overall, yay for wireless!
I'm a bit puzzled as where they came up with these numbers. I'm a grad student at William & Mary, which they placed in the top 50, and I find that wireless coverage is pretty spotty here. Meanwhile, at my undergrad alma mater U. Tenn, Knoxville, wireless access even covers a bunch of the *agriculture* campus, yet it doesn't make the list at all.
No surprise -- makers of lists like these don't usually attempt to apply any scientific methodology.
I have found that in class, all a laptop does is distract the students. Sure, we're supposed to follow along with the notes on our screens, but the prof can't see them. 90% of the time, everyone is surfing the web, talking on IM, checking their email, playing CS, basically everything but paying attention.
Further, most classes don't even require/use a laptop (it's pretty tough to take linear algebra notes on a computer). I estimate that maybe only 20% of classes or less use laptops actually IN class.
Most of the time when your laptop is required for class, it is just a pain to drag it to class, set it up, not use it for anything but to click through powerpoint slides. However, for the few professors who actually design the class with the use of the student's laptops in mind, it can be a great learning tool. It's nice doing in-class activities where you collect data and display it on your computer changing parameters to see the effect; or running simulations were you get to mess with the settings/initial conditions.
On the whole, I wished I could have saved a grand or so and purchased a desktop that could do the same as my laptop (after all, it spends all but 4 hours a week just sitting on my desk). For the, mmm, maybe 2 classes that the professor has actually incorperated the use of laptop into his lecture (same professor for both classes), it was a very powerful tool. Unfortunately, professors who know how to lecture well, especially incorperating a personal computer, are few and far between. An Unwired (or Wired) classroom can either be a great benefit, or a waste of time.
Most un-secure campus networks
Yeah, I have to say, Purdue's WiFi, affectionately known as AirLink, is pretty cool beans. It was my motivation for purchasing a cheap laptop and putting off upgrading the desktop another year or so.
As long as I shut the damn thing off when I'm in class, it isn't too distracting. It's so fantastic to be able to get a burrito or whatever in the Union, sit, catch up on email, do research (with the purdue.edu IPs it's easy to get into the library's online journals and stuff), listen to Air America Radio's stream, and so on.
If it hasn't made me more productive, I feel more productive, at least. And perception of functionality always trumps actual functionality!
Oddly enough, even though Intel is into promoting WiFi, they don't seem to want to encourage WiFi on their own campuses as much as they might.
I've heard that at Intel your manager has to get you permission to use WiFi and your department must pay some sort of ongoing fees to some other group for the priviledge.
I attend the University of Alabama in Huntsville, which has an atrocious track record on networking issues.
Our Network Services department, despite repeated requests from faculty and students, has not set up any sort of wireless coverage anywhere on campus. They also prohibit faculty and students from setting up their own wireless equipment, whether or not it is connected to their network. I am not permitted to put a wireless NIC in my desktop and have it talk to my laptop, even if neither machine is on the campus network.
(I figure that since I'm allowed to use a cordless telephone operating in the 2.4GHz band, Network Services has no right to dictate what other signals I generate in that band.)
Any Slashdotters who are pondering attending this university should think carefully about whether they are willing to accept the complete lack of wireless and consistent 15-25% packet loss on the dormitory connections. (People use dialup because it's more reliable.)
In contrast, a friend of mine in Washington University Law School frequently IM's me from class lamenting how boring class is. (How someone can be bored with a computer (with 3d card) and network access in front of them is left as an exercise to the reader.)
Here were I study in Germany we've got hotspots in almost every classroom and pretty much everybody has a laptop. This is because of the payment facilities given by the Uni (granted, they get sucky models and prices are not so cheap, but I won't get into this or I'll never end this post). Unfortunately few people really use their laptop in class for taking notes. Almost everybody else is using IM/surfing the net/watching movies (!!) during class. Regardless, using your laptop during a boring lecture is much better than falling asleep, IMHO.
Still, I'd be curious to know in which place on the list my university would end up.
R.
This is pointless, #29 is LSU, where I went. I setup the wireless there. Yes, I, 1 person. It was 2 airports in the library.
and we use exclusively Cisco and 3 Com gear.
... then I'm confused since our wireless network is really quite good.
...
I'm kinda surprised that we don't have a higher rating, since almost all the main areas of campus are covered, as well as roughly half the undergraduate dorms. It makes me wonder how they're doing their calculations. If it's total coverage / campus size or something silly like that then I could understand 68th (since we have a 8000+ acre campus) -- if they're using some sensible measure
(and yes, I'm a student and Residential Network Admin here at Stanford)
-S
**AA: a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
I really don't see how you could improve Carnegie Mellon's wireless network. I have never been anywhere on campus where I couldn't get a strong signal. There are even power outlets everywhere - even outside - for the "weak-batteried". Bringing your laptop to class is as normal as bringing a pencil. Check out CMUSky, it gives great statistics about Andrew in real-time.
I've found, as a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, having a wireless campus has allows me to more easily waste my idle time surfing the web, chatting on IRC or AIM, etc., instead of browsing through class notes, or doing homework with a pencil and paper. A perfect example of this is our Crossroads Cafeteria. It's so easy for me to surf the web while eating lunch as a result of wired access, when I should be reviewing notes or spending my time otherwise. Perhaps it's self-discipline and not the wireless access that's the problem, but I've really found nothing good about it.
I got to Kansas State (#47 on the list incidentally) and the only reason I looked at the site was to see if my school even made it and if so, question the integrity of the list.
K-State technically has wireless in some buildings, but not many. Yes, the library and union have wireless as do a few others, but that's where it ends. The biology and physics buildings both lack it entirely, as does the main building for the college of arts and sciences and only a large lecture hall in one of the main engineering buildings is listed as having it. Since it was installed I might have taken one or two courses that would have made it available to me. I don't have a wireless laptop myself (although my girlfriend does and I've been interested in how good the coverage is), but I doubt you'd be able to get online from anywhere outside on campus at all.
Essentially this is something they did about 2 years ago and then more or less have ignored ever since. The website for it lists that more locations will be coming, but in that time none ever have. IT out here is a joke though. Bandwidth in the dorms was so bad (i.e. >2k/sec) a few years back that almost every single student living in them had to sign a petition about it before we barely got some degree of improvement (up to maybe 10-20k/sec). The IT staff is frequently unreachable having locked themselves off in the library basement and rarely if ever respond to e-mail.
The presence of K-State on that list seems to indicate that the list compilers merely looked over webpages and cataloged the number of areas listed without any regard for the actual coverage provided.
The Japanese already do. Granted, it's not streaming or HDTV... it's digital satellite direct to cell phones, and through repeaters in rural areas. 70 channels, though, and crystal clear.
If the next 10 years brings us as far as the last ten, the big thing will be something you don't have a worse version of now. My expectation is that MIThril type systems will be hot in ten years, and that the stuff we do with them will change the way we perceive things as much as cell phones have so far.
In 1994, a man walking down the street talking to himself was clearly insane. Now he's just gadget savvy. Conversation can be anywhere, anytime... iPods and the like make music anywhere, anytime.... expect the same sort of thing for visual perception. In Duke3D cooperative, you could switch to see what your buddy was seeing and hearing (maybe it was Shadow Warrior). In 2014, you'll be able to do that in real life.
I go to Montclair, the second largest University in NJ behind Rutgers, and our entire campus iis wireless and yet not even a 100th place.... Infact about half of NJ's schools are entirely wireless and only Cheaton Hall, a freaking private school, got a placement. something tells me this is a fix.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Indiana University may be ranked #1, it must be said that Purdue (#2) has secured their wireless. Last I checked IU uses WEP. Purdue uses a VPN-secured connection where all of the wireless traffic is encrypted using 168-bit 3DES, as compared to the 128-bit or even 40-bit encryption offered by WEP.
called "Political Trolling Memetic Propaganda" or PeTMePlease.
In this language "==" means "almost typical enough of a slashdot poster's jargon to elicit a sympathetic response to the political propaganda" which is a much more powerful operator than a simple assignment or test for equality.
Or something like that.
"I'm really tired of the Universities on the West/East coasts pissing on the Midwest Universities."
Reminds me of a joke...
"Which way do I leave from?"
"Here at Harvard, we don't use prepositions to end our sentences."
"Alright. Which way do I leave from, asshole?"
(Purdue, thinking were better than the people who think they are better than us since 1869.)
-- the computer doesn't want any beer, no matter how much you think it does. NEVER, EVER feed your computer beer.
Hey! RIT made it (98) ... what are they thinking? I can barely access WIFI when sitting in the far side of a classroom (ie by exterior wall). This is in the BRAND NEW College of computing. BAH! RIT - welcome to the world of not really understanding technology :) (At least faculty/staff - ask _ANY_ student!)
-dave
/* Lobster Stick To Magnet!*/
This ranking really doesn't mean too much. It's judging based on quantity (of hotspots, students, etc.), not quality. I'm attending one of the schools in the top 5 and, let me tell you, I'd probably get better wireless access wardriving around than I do sitting in the middle of campus. Sure there may be a lot of base stations, but there aren't *enough* to cover the campus (there are plenty of unlucky people whose dorm rooms get only 5% signal strength at any given time). What APs there are, are often down, further reducing the network's utility.
Not my problem if you can't make yourself interested enough in your education.
If the Prof is talking about something I need to know, I can put the lid of my laptop down and listen or use my laptop to take notes.
Just because there are a bunch of you who cannot control yourselves from playing CS or chatting doesn't mean everyone else who can use it to their benefit should lose out.
I graduated from the ITESM (Monterrey Campus, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico). The amount of money spent in technology here is mind boggling. :))
For starters, the ITESM, has been part of Internet2 for years (about two or three). Has had high speed wired networks everywhere but the restrooms for ages. They have been requiring laptops for every undergraduate since 97 (if you couldn't afford one, the school financed it). And has had wireless networks since 2000. Right now, you can have acces to 802.11a, b or c anywhere in school (yes, including restrooms, dont ask me how I know
Most exchange students from the US or Europe are always surprised of this (Even Kevin Mitnick, to whom I had the opportunity to meet him at a conference here at school, and actually had a chat with him about this same topic).
Most classes are now what they call "redesigned" to be accessible trough the web or before that, using Lotus Notes. They even built a new 15 million dollar hall, which is called CIAP (International Center for Learning for its initials in spanish.) and almost every class is dictated in english with videocameras recording every class so everyone can check them out later on the web (Still in experimental stages).
I think that in many aspects, catching up is almost always better, since you can learn from other's mistakes and benefit from newer a better technologies, like the ones we've been enjoying here at the ITESM, in a little undeveloped country called Mexico.
This is not my sig, I just copied it from somebody else.
All the machines are on public IPs and there is no sort of virus scanning or update requirements at all. We accidentally put a fresh Windows install on the wireless network and got hit with a worm in 30 seconds. The network nazis, under orders of our joke of a security office, often filter DHCP addresses because of viruses, which is great until you accidentally get the lease for a filtered address.
UT just finally figured out that maybe they should offer SSL POP and IMAP on the central mailserver after having kids on unencrypted wireless for 3 years. VPNs are just now being looked at.
The worst thing about wireless at UT is it's so inconsistent. There aren't nearly enough APs in highly populated areas, meaning you get dialup speeds are not uncommon. There are dead spots everywhere because of poor AP placement.
We were doing a voice over wireless IP pilot, and it was impossible. Each building is on it's own VLAN and they don't route to each other. Some wireless systems are maintained by departments and you can't even log into them. We could communicate in our building, but the building across the street was blind. Even getting the phones to work, with UTs homebrewed authentication system, was a beast.
Doing tech support at NDSU in Fargo and working for the largest college (Engineering and Architecture) we have faced constant opposition to our setting up wireless access in the electrical engineering building, as it may not conform to the upcoming "campus standard". It's basically 5 of us in our small office vs. ITS (Information Technology Services), which does tech support for some of the other colleges and operates the campus LAN. ITS has been "planning" to do wireless all over campus for over 2 years, but it still is bogged down in committees. We managed to do a whole building in less than 2 weeks for $1000. By the looks of the comments we aren't the only university that has been in the "planning" stage for way too long.
Of course they don't... The whole purpose of this 'study' by Intel is to encourage schools to buy up their products. It's a marketing ploy so schools can proudly declared themselves "Most Unwired".
>>AKA "Which Schools Recommend Centrino"
That's not entirely true. My school, at number 31, only recommends Cisco. They sell "University" laptops (at a "discount") with Centrino, but stick a Cisco card in them anyway. In fact, if you read the "official" documentation, you'd think that any non-Cisco cards wouldn't work at all.
I normally don't use a laptop in class, as most of my coursework (Electrical Engineering) requires the good ol' pencil and paper. But in my singular business class, I take notes on it and of course, browse /.
However, it is nice to go to the library or sit outside, do some homework, and google things on the fly.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world still uses tins and strings/smoke signals to communicate (apparently).
So the problem with surveys is that they require people's time to respond. For example, when I was a frosh the Princeton Review or someone conducted an online survery and one of the questions was about workload/free time. Now, if you think about it there are likely to be some freaking brilliant people that will say that they have plenty of free time and the work load isn't hard. Meanwhile, the other 99% of us aren't bored enough to fill out the survery. As a result we were ranked really low on the workload that year. And believe me, this week was the first week I've ever had an easy problem set (it took only 3 hours).
So back to the topic, where is my school? We have wireless in most of the lecture halls and some of the newer classrooms. It's not great but its good for simple browsing/IM/e-mail. From the way that you describe the wirelesss there, I would think that Caltech should be higher than "not on the list." There is none as of yet in the houses (not frats, campus owned dorms, but cooler) but that is because they are old Faraday cages that are going to be rebuilt so current wireless is student owned access points. So why the institute doesn't provide them, I can walk from one side of my house to the other and have access the whole time, switching from AP to AP.
In other words, the wireless access here is good in my opinion and surveys are pretty crappy means of advertising.
-Scott
This is bullshit. UTK has 130 buildings covered and is converting to full 802.11(bag) coverage in the summer, with a outdoor network to come real soon now. 1310 access points with over 8500 unique users. Hell, even the friggin Creamery on the Ag Campus has 4 APs. Bossy is fraggin' as I type. I imagine that all of the schools listed have bought some Intel product to qualify. We don't use their stuff so....
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
That's not entirely true. My school, at number 31, only recommends Cisco.
... with Centrino ..."(italics added). That makes the Cisco add-in card recommendation irrelevant. The fact that Centrino sales occurred meets the necessary and sufficient conditions of the parent comment's assertion.
This would have been a great counter example, if you hadn't gone on to say "sell 'University' laptops
to the Engineer, the glass is neither half full nor half empty. Its just two times too big.
No, I believe you're confusing it with zombo.com.
Once you get rid of the note taking crutch, you're forced into critical thinking -- that's how people actually learn.
No. That's how you apparently think you learn. Having taught, and done course development over several years, you see lots of different learning styles. In fact Education theory requires you to provide for all four of the different learning styles in your course and lesson design. (Unfortunately, don't expect that from a University -- they are rewarded for research, not teaching.)
As it turns out, I'm just the opposite of you; I learn best by taking notes. For me it goes into the head through parallel channels (ear, eye, hand). It doesn't keep me from thinking critically, and more often than not, I am the one asking the questions. More than that I'm doing it on the wireless laptop without paper (Franklin-Covey PowerNotes, although Word would work as well). And I'm talking about courses like Fault Tolerance Computing, and Model Checking (although I had to go back to paper and pencil for Quantum Computing). Want to research a fact briefly, Google on the spot. Want to check against the class webpage, or pull up the Cadence tool to check something, just a few keystrokes/mouse clicks.
Having wireless on campus has made me not only a better student but also allows me to work School in with Work. Before the campus was wireless, I had to find the magic hallway Ethernet outlets or travel blocks across campus to plug in at the ECE department labs. Wireless has made a significant difference in my options. And even though my school isn't on the list, I don't care -- wireless has given me options I never had before.
to the Engineer, the glass is neither half full nor half empty. Its just two times too big.
I am a student and employee of the central networking department at Kansas State University (#47), and we are an exclusively Cisco shop on our end, and don't officially support (though they work) any vendor cards except for Cisco. So, to say that it's the schools that recommend Centrino is pretty bogus. Considering that we don't do anything like that... we'd be off the list. The way I see it, Intel did this purely from the standpoint that schools that are pushing forward with wireless technologies help their business in general, whether the universities recommend and/or use centrino or not.
You wasted packets to get this lousy sig.
I go to gaTech currently which is #100 on that list which I guess is alright. We have a number of buildings wired, all of which are where my classes are, including some of the reasearch buildings the bookstore the starbucks in the bookstore, and more of the eateries that are near the above mentioned research building.
What I tend to use wireless for in class is runing experiments for class projects where I can communicate with other group members during class via AIM, additionally in another class I use it to do the individual projects, the use of the wireless here is that I run CVS on my desktop computer, and need access to it when I'm in class. It's a nice little system. As for my other class I usually just do work for the two previous classes in it and not really pay attention
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
Guaranteed signal? 100% of campus?
:) Two years, three rooms, and lousy, lousy wireless reception in all of them. Also, key places like the 4th floor of Berry (main library) have big holes.
Either you're a prof or you've gotten extremely lucky housing assignments.
We do have an assload of APs, though, and a lot of ground covered in theory. Probably makes for a strong ranking.
Of course, our wireless network is COMPLETELY unsecure here, too...as in, no WEP, no nothing. You know the SSID, you're on the network, and all traffic is out in the open.
Needless to say, I use SSH a lot...
... and I asked him about this very same topic. Funny, because he said "Have you seen the Intel article about the most wired college campuses?" Of course, I hadn't at the time and forgot to look it up. Then, bam, on Slashdot two days later.
I asked him to compare our setup and implementation to our peer universitites and he basically said that we were right at the top. We've had full coverage on campus for three semesters (counting back including this one). Before that they rolled it out over three semesters. So, it's been on campus for about 3 yrs now. Kinda cool.When ITAP (the IT services dept) decided to do it, they actually rolled together three other independant implementations from the School of Mgmt and a couple of other places. In addition to full campus coverage, now we even have wireless access at our footbal stadium (with a ton of money donated by Cisco and other companies) that can be used to access stats, etc. during the game - mostly from PDAs.
Funniest part of the story from the VP of IT was that when he told us that IU was number 1 on the list. Apparently, after Purdue had rolled out wireless across the campus (or was partly through implementation), IU called and asked how they did it and copied the setup. He said that they beat us on 'green space'. IU's physical campus is spread out over a larger area than Purdue's. IU covered the green space and nudged us out.
... has most of it's main campus wired for wireless, but requires a proprietary Windows-only client to login to it. So at first glance it seems alrightish, but upon closer examination, sucks the llama's ass.
No matter where you go, there you are; even before you arrive.
I'd like to know on what basis they state that the airports are unwired.
I travel in and out of O'Hare regularly, and I'm not aware of any wireless service available to the unwashed. Perhaps wireless is available in the airline club lounges, but that hardly counts as "airport" access.
By contrast, I was in KC Mo last month, a much smaller airport than O'Hare, though with a very cool design in my opinion, and their wireless access was both publicly available, and clearly announced on their PA screens.
I work full time in the IT department at Geneseo. We've pushed out a lot of wireless, but there's always demand for more. Wireless is like crack here... Even one of our bars has two APs in it!!
While we don't rank as high on it, Forbes also has a Wireless Ranking
For example Kettering University, a small engineering school (interesting, we graduate more engineers than any other University, and 1 out of 5 graduates becomes a business owner or fortune 500 exec, but that's a side point) which has great, almost 100% coverage (I live two blocks away and get signal) isn't on the list because it's are so small (there are 5 buildings on campus).
The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)