Carlos on Library Wireless Network  

Our wireless network service in the University of Tasmania main Library is  popular among students and we are proud in providing support for it in our Service Desk. I was involved in the initial set up of this project (pilot in 2002) which was  put in operation in 2003 along with our University network team. Using this service they are allowed to connect to our Intranet resources, download software directly from the Internet  to their laptop so they do not have to queue up to use our computer labs. We started with one Wi-Fi 802.11.b Cisco transmitter (up to 11 Mbps) and now we have two 802.11.g (up to 54 Mbps) hot spots. Students with their own laptop can either go to our service desk to get a printed help sheet to know how to connect or check our website.  For students with a Windows XP and 2000 operative system they can download a free program (For personal use)  SecureW2 from Alfa & Ariss which allow them to authenticate to our network using their email username and password.  Windows clients are required to have  an updated antivirus program and have critical security patches installed. Students that not comply with this rule we then run Stinger ( a  McAfee stand alone antivirus tool) on their laptop and recommend a free anti virus software such as AVG from Grisoft. Macintosh users can only access our wireless network if they have MacOS X.3.

Students normally go to our Reserve section in the Library and loan a PCMCIA wireless LAN adapter for two hours (it can be renewed it up to 3 times if it is not booked , we have 10 Cisco AIRONET 350 -11Mbps available). Mac clients should have their own airport card. We can register personal Wi-Fi cards for PC or   Mac in the Service Desk so students do not have to go to our Loan system.

On semester we normally have an average of 5 connected simultaneously in our working hours, all Hobart students with laptop are potential users. The wireless network is in a sub net so if we have a virus out break then it is easily isolated from the rest of the University network. The range of the transmitters able students to connect to our wireless network even from the external chairs of the main Coffee shop (Lazenbys).  

Since May 2005 students can register their own card using a web page  and get a commercial antivirus software for free going to the set-up UANA wireless network. Since then the demand of the wireless service has increased 3 fold this happened despised the fact that we interrupted lending  PCMCIA wireless LAN adapter for security reasons.

For the short future we will provide printing and private network drive (p:) maping services using a web portal (Novell Virtual Office) . Also the number of hotspot around University campuses will increase in numbers too.

It is always rewarding to have a service in our Service Desk that our clients (students) really appreciate and are happy about it. Our Network team are also very  keen to keep it up on reliable basis

This page was last updated on July 10, 2005.