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Information Technology Buffalo Roaming

Buffalo Roaming

West Texas A&M University is pleased to provide students, faculty, staff and guests wireless access to Internet resources and services, and not be constrained by physical network connectivity.

Frequently Asked Questions

The wireless network may be accessed by three (3) types of accounts: Guest, Student, and Faculty/Staff each with different levels of access to campus resources, and heightened levels of security. A Guest account provides Internet only access with limited security; a Student account provides students Internet, as well as authenticated and encrypted access to university online resources; and a Faculty/Staff account allows Faculty/Staff Internet along with authenticated and encrypted access to campus network drives (G:\ and U:\), as well as other campus resources.

Other Wireless Information

Wireless networking allows you to gain access to web-enabled resources and services from wireless enabled devices such as laptops, PDAs or smart phones without the need of plugging into a physical network plug.

West Texas A&M University will use IEEE 802.11b/g (1 to 54MB of bandwidth availability) wireless standard to allow our community to connect to the WTAMU wireless network (A shared medium). While there are other technology standards available today and more to come in the future, we feel this standard offers a more stable and mature platform with the capability of easy conversion to other advanced standards when ratified.

The wireless network is also not intended as a replacement for the university wired network access but is an augmentation (A university amenity) of the existing wired network. University bandwidth will be shared between the wired and wireless infrastructures, and thus means the wireless network’s bandwidth will be maintained at an appropriate level so to not cause performance declines on the campus wired network.

The performance of wired networks far exceeds the capability and quality of wireless networks at this time. Wireless networks are shared access mediums meaning persons gaining access to Wireless Access Points (Physical network devices used to connect end-user wireless devices to the wireless network) will share the amount of available bandwidth on the Access Point (IEEE Standard 802.11b is 11MB and 802.11g is 54MB).

EXAMPLE: Two people gain access to the same Access Point, and they are both using 802.11b wireless cards in their laptop, then they would both gain access to the wireless network at a rate of 5.5MB.

All users of the university wireless network are acknowledging compliance with the Rules for Responsible Information Technology Usage. There should be no expectation of privacy except as otherwise provided by applicable privacy laws.

Connection Requirements

Windows XP or Mac OSx (10.3 or higher) with latest drivers and patches installed based on access account type.
(Windows 2000 works Only with Guest account access and was only successfully tested with these six (6) wireless cards)
A wireless supported device with an IEEE Standard 802.11 b/g wireless card/adaptor with the latest drivers installed

There are three (3) types of wireless connectivity on campus: Guest, Student and Faculty/Staff. Each provides a different level of security access.

Guest Account -

Student Account - Requires authentication based on campus WT Username and Password and provides encryption of data (Internet Bandwidth Available – 10MB)

Faculty/Staff Account - Requires authentication based on campus UserID and Password and provides encryption of data

  • Campus UserID and Password required
  • Faculty/Staff SSID is configured by ITSC (Help Desk)
  • The laptop must be WTAMU property
  • The laptop must be running Windows XP Professional
  • The laptop must be using a Cisco Aironet Wireless Card (AIR-CV21AG-A-K9). Please contact the IT Service Center at 651-4357 or itsc@mail.wtamu.edu to purchase a Cisco Aironet Card. The cards are $120 and must be paid via interdepartmental requisition.
  • The IT Service Center must install and configure the wireless card and settings. Please contact the IT Service Center at 651-4357 or itsc@mail.wtamu.edu to schedule installation and configuration.

Faculty/Staff with personal laptops or laptops that don't meet the above specifications will still be able to connect to the guest wireless network, if they meet the requirements listed on the guest page.


NOTE: All users of the university wireless network are responsible to ensure their connectivity to the network by configuring their own devices by following the provided instructions (Except Faculty/Staff with initial configuration of university owned laptops being performed by the ITSC (Help Desk)). Faculty/Staff please call or email to make an appointment at ext. 4357 or itsc@mail.wtamu.edu.

The ITSC staff is not responsible to configure your devices. They will prompt you to review instructions provided online or that can be found on campus at the designated public areas, and help you understand them.