Students can easily connect to the web anywhere on campus

This archived article was written by: Stevie Snyder

With the increase of laptops and personal computers on campus, the wireless Internet system has become a critical part of college life at the College of Eastern Utah. With many students complaining of the problems dealing with the old system, plans for a new and improved wireless system became a topic of discussion, over a year ago. The implementation for the system began in April 2006, with the final completion taking place in the summer 2007. Returning students will soon notice the differences while new students will not have to go through the previous hassle of the old system.
With the old system, students were required to pay a $40 fee per semester, go to the computer lab and tell them the MAC address of their computers, pick an access point in their dorm room and hope for a signal. The old system was not practical for students moving around, which is one of the main reasons for purchasing a laptop. When in the dorm rooms, the signal was poor, and in order for a student to wander into other rooms, they were forced to reconnect after each movement. Coverage was not high-quality, there were several spots you could not access Internet around campus, downloading and gaming were also not realistic with all the dropped connections.
With the implementation of the new system, students are not required to pay a fee, and do not have to go through the hassle of the MAC address and access point difficulties. They are simply required to obtain a user name and then they can connect to the Internet practically anywhere on campus, including the classrooms which are now better covered. Students can move from room to room or be almost anywhere outdoors on campus without havingto worry about losing connection. This is due to the implementation of the new wireless system.”
For students who have yet to figure out how to access the new wireless system, they first need to go to the computer lab, located upstairs in the Reeves Building, obtain their username from the help desk, and log onto one of the computers which will create a wireless account. This will also create your school e-mail account.
Once the account has been created, students can access the wireless system anywhere on campus by connecting to the “CEUWireless” network and attempting to browse a webpage. You will then be directed to a page that will ask you to log in using your student login. By following these directions every time a student logs into their computers, they will be allowed to use their instant messenger services, Myspace, Facebook, iTunes and any other program that requires Internet access. Students will be prompted to log on at least once a day which provides better security.
Students will need to log in because the college was previously required to report all anonymous network traffic to the Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA).
With the assigned user names, transmission is not anonymous so the college is no longer required to report on all network traffic. However, CEU is connected to the Utah Education Network (UEN) which provides everyone with internet access and is responsible for monitoring all network traffic for universities, colleges and high schools in the state for threats, including viruses, web bots, attempted hacking, vulnerabilities and other security issues. All students will be held accountable for any illegal or suspicious activities on the network. For this reason, students are advised to keep their usernames and passwords to themselves.
With this new system in place, all faculty, staff and students can enjoy faster downloads, better security, and ease of access throughout the entire campus. Currently the new system is noticeably superior to the old system and is still continuing to improve. Students are encouraged to utilize this new system as it is not only more beneficial, but is free.