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Updated October 29th, 2008
Welcome to Arkansas State University’s wireless home page. The wireless network at ASU is designed as a “secondary” network that compliments the wired network infrastructure. It’s designed as a mobility enabler, not as a replacement for the wired network. Wireless doesn’t have as much bandwidth, security, or stability as the wired network, so it is highly recommended to use the wired network if possible. However, if you need to connect to ASU’s network where there isn’t a network port available or if you need to be mobile, ASU’s wireless is there for you.
Recently, we have upgraded all of the wireless hardware to Cisco’s newest access point technology. This upgrade is allowing us to do many things that were not possible previously. Many things have changed so please read the following information carefully.
The most dramatic change for our wireless users will be that we are now able to broadcast multiple wireless networks (or SSID’s) simultaneously. We still have the AstateAnywhere network, but now we’ve also added AstateSecure and AstateGuest at some areas on campus.
AstateAnywhere is designed for general wireless usage for ASU Faculty, Staff, and Students. AstateAnywhere is an open wireless network that requires web-based authentication, therefore registration is no longer required. After connecting to AstateAnywhere, you will need to open a web browser and attempt to browse to any HTTP (not HTTPS) website. The wireless network will redirect you to a login page. Then you will need to follow the login instructions on that page. This new way of authenticating will make our wireless network more secure and will hopefully cut down on the problems that users had connecting to AstateAnywhere in the past.
AstateSecure is designed for users who absolutely need full end-to-end encryption on their wireless connection. In other words, they deal with sensitive material that would fall under governmental regulations and requirements for security or they take care of equipment on campus that require a secure log on. Access to AstateSecure is by request only and requires that the user has wireless hardware that is WPA2 compatible. Generally, there is a bit of configuration that needs to be done on the user’s computer as well. If you are a Faculty or Staff member that is interested in this service, please email wireless@astate.edu
AstateGuest is the other new wireless SSID that we’ve added. This is only available in limited areas on campus and is designed to help ASU sanctioned visitors onto our wireless network with a limited amount of setup required. This SSID is NOT designed for use by Faculty, Staff, or Students; it is designed for use ONLY by ASU sanctioned visitors. This SSID is very limited in what resources that it can access, although access to VPN services and normal and secure web pages is available. For special events, this SSID can be activated anywhere on campus that there is a wireless signal. Please contact wireless@astate.edu for more information or to schedule an AstateGuest activation.
We are now able to support, in limited areas on campus, the 802.11A wireless standard. If you have an 802.11A wireless client, we recommend that you use that if possible. There are far fewer users on the 802.11A wireless channels and so you should get much better performance than 802.11B/G. Note that the antennas for 802.11A aren’t as strong as 802.11B/G so coverage on campus is not as complete.
Remember to NEVER connect to a wireless network that is not one of the three above SSID’s. These wireless networks are of unknown origin and could contain serious privacy and security risks to users. Also, please remember that it is against ASU networking policies to install personal wireless access points anywhere on campus. These unauthorized access points can interfere with ASU’s wireless network and cause security issues as well.
We have gotten several reports of people having disconnect and instability issues. Many of these problems have been fixed by simply updating the drivers for the problematic wireless clients. If you are having these problems, please consult the webpage of your wireless client’s manufacturer for driver downloads.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about ASU’s wireless network, please email wireless@astate.edu
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