What is Wireless?

Wireless networking allows you to gain access to web-enabled resources and services from wireless enabled devices such as laptops or PDAs 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: 2 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.

What are your requirements?

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.

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

Student – Requires authentication based on campus WT Username and Password and provides encryption of data (Internet Bandwidth Available – 10MB)
Faculty/Staff – Requires authentication based on campus UserID and Password and provides encryption of data

To connect to Buffalo Roaming you will need the following:

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

Student Account

WT Username and Password required
Student SSID is broadcast on all Access Points
Follow configuration instructions

Faculty/Staff Account

Campus UserID and Password required
Faculty/Staff SSID is configured by ITSC (Help Desk)
Follow configuration instructions

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.