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Some members of the University community are experiencing issues with the wireless service, primarily on the West Bank. Many of the problems appear as a failure to obtain a valid network address. Information about how we and users are addressing these problems is below.
Check the signal strength for wireless. If it is low, move toward a location with higher signal.
Check the wireless map for more information.
Drivers are not updated to the level of support necessary.
Make sure you are using a supported wireless card and driver when connecting to the network.
Some users cannot connect to the "UofM" wireless network (or SSID) due to a network address assignment failure. Some handheld devices and applications, such as BlackBerry devices and SKYPE, open many communication paths to services off campus prior to logging on to the main wireless Web portal. This exhausts Web portal resources, and valid customer login requests are forced to wait for them to become available again for processing.
Note: Our vendor is developing a software fix for this problem. In the meantime, we have denied network access to some devices until the problem is resolved.
See "Use the UofM Secure SSID" below for additional details about the "UofM Secure" SSID
MacBooks take a considerable time to connect to the "UofM secure" network, waiting nearly a minute before sending their Username and Password credentials to the Secure network. While it waits, it self-assigns an invalid address. After a minute of waiting, it sends the credentials and receives an address as normal. Many users turn their Wireless off and on and try again due to frustration.
OIT is working with Apple and Trapeze Support Representatives on site to help resolve this issue.
OIT's recommendation for using the University Wireless system is to use the "UofM Secure" SSID, providing a safer and more convenient access to the network.
The "UofM" SSID was set up to provide a way for customers to migrate over from the old system easily. A goal of the Wireless initiative is to have all customers encrypt their data using the "UofM Secure" network. An additional benefits of the "UofM Secure" SSID is that Usernames and Passwords are stored on your PC, so there is no need to authenticate multiple times. Roaming from AP to AP is also supported. This also prevents users from experiencing the complications of inconsistent wireless access described above.
