Right now, how many wireless devices do you have in your hands, pocket, backpack, briefcase, car, office, room, or purse? More than 2? More than 5?
Each person that walks or rolls onto the Rice campus carries multiple mobile devices. Each of these mobile devices attempt to connect to the Internet, inciting a new type of traffic jam. Although the traffic jam is unseen, it is certainly not undetected. According to a March 19 Rice Thresher article, the division of Information Technology began testing the quality of wireless service in the residential colleges in December and continued the wireless service surveys during spring break.
William Deigaard, Director of Networking, Telecommunications and Data Center, talked about the survey tools and process with Jieya Wen, a Thresher writer. “We acquired a new tool to analyze the wireless quality, which is the passive survey tool,” Deigaard said. “It basically means a digital equipment that’s walking around and asking the wireless network, ‘Can you hear me now?’ It takes sampling of interferers and monitors our environment. It gets all the protocols that are available and the frequencies that are available. It shows you how well that network is performing.”
Networking team member surveys wireless signal strength
As the networking team discovers areas where the wireless coverage is weak, they adjust the local wireless access points (APs) that are directing wireless signals. When the team completes the wireless service survey in the residential colleges, they will begin surveying the academic buildings.
In the mean time, each person with a mobile device can get the best performance on their wireless devices at Rice by updating the wireless driver for their laptops, refraining from the use of personal wireless networks and reporting wireless issues to the IT Help Desk.
In the Thresher article, Deigaard said, “When you buy a PC, you want to look for something that can support a wide range of protocols,” Deigaard said. “In addition, the radio frequency space we have is finite and incredibly scarce. If people put another access point there, [the access point] is competing with the network. Finally, if you don’t have a good wireless experience, you should tell us.”
Contact the IT Help Desk at 713.348.4357 or helpdesk@rice.edu. When you report a wireless issue, be sure to include your ethernet address, your IP address and your room number so the networking team can track the issue to its source.