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What is it?
The CSE Research Wireless Network covers the entire CSE space in
the Allen Center using the 802.11b & 802.11g standards. The network
employs 71 Cisco Aironet 1200 Access Points (APs), deployed to provide
a relatively small cell size in order to maximize capacity.
(View drawings showing AP placement in the
Allen Center, plus WAP info.)
How do I get Access?
Just turn on your wireless device, configure it to connect to the
UniversityOfWashingtonCSE network,
without encryption, and you should be all set. (In some cases,
you may need to release/renew your "DHCP lease" - details here.)
Then just bring up a web browser and you will see the CSE Wireless
Network login page. Enter your CSENetID and password, and you're in.
You will be able to use this connection for up to 10 hours, or until
you disconnect.
Alternatively, you can register
your laptop's MAC address, which allows access without having to
login each time you connect. This is probably the more convenient
method, especially if you always use the same device. This method
links the authentication with your device (no matter who is using it);
the former method links authentication with you (no matter which
device you use.) It should be noted that there are subtle network
addressing differences between registered and unregistered access;
details here.
What about visitors? CSE faculty and staff
may sponsor temporary network access for visitors – someone here
for a day or two to give a talk, or for a workshop or conference being
held in the Allen Center. More information is
here.
Note: Wireless access for CSE spaces in Sieg Hall is provided by the
the campus-wide UW wireless network. See
here
for details on using this service.
Cards, Drivers, etc.
- For Linux, your best bet is to get the newest PCMCIA drivers at
http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net.
Just download the file to your "/usr/src" directory
and run "gunzip 'filename' | tar -x". Read the README
file. You will also want the latest
wireless tools for Linux.
- For Windows 9x, ME, NT4, 2K and XP, the card's maker should be able
to supply you with the drivers. We keep the Cisco
(Aironet)/Dell drivers on the
Dist-Area
for CSE Staff/Faculty/Students users. Note that Win98 and
Win2000 already have some of the drivers and your card may be
among them. You can also get drives directly from
Cisco.
- Intel 2011 cards have worked well as the Cisco cards in Sieg,
but have not been tested with the new Allen Center network
(which uses Cisco access points). Drivers for the Intel cards are in the
Dist-Area
or you can get them directly from
Intel
- For Mac's, you can order directly from Apple or head to the
Bookstore
and grab one of the $99.00 Airport client cards that fit in the
G4, IBooks and newer PowerBook G3's
- FreeBase is a free Windows
utility that lets you configure the Apple AirPort Base Station from a PC.
According to the developer, the FreeBase also enables "replacing the
WaveLan card with a 'WaveLan/Orinoco Gold' card so users can have strong
encryption."
Known Problems (updated 5/19/2003)
- There have been some problems with the Microsoft XP control of
the wireless access. The Dell TrueMobile card can take an eternity
to recognize new signals in an area and sometimes requires disabling
the interface in the network properties to reset. Also, the
Cisco/Aironet cards did not work on XP at one point (has this
changed?) What you'll see is the pop up screen near the clock
telling you wireless networks are available and when you try to
select those networks, it adds the SSID into your accepted list but
just won't associate. Turn off the "Use Windows to configure
my wireless network settings" and use the Cisco drivers from www.cisco.com
- Mac OS X is caching web pages in a way that can exibit strange
behavior if you have not registered your MAC address for CSE
wireless access. In that case, whenever you attempt to connect to
the CSE wireless network, you will be presented with an
authentication page. Then, when you visit some web page, it gets
cached. Nothing strange about that. But, when you then go to
different wireless network and connect through that network, and try
to access that same cached page, then Mac OS X will send you to the
CSE Wireless Network login page instead of the page you want. It's
a problem with OS X - it caches the auth page, rather than the real
page. To resolve: Register your laptop. Or, clear your cache when
you leave the CSE Wireless network.
- If you're coming from somewhere (such as Microsoft) that uses
shared key encryption or WEP encryption, you must turn off that
setting in order to connect to the CSE network. You will need to
turn it back on again when you return to the other network.
Configuration Help?
-
Cisco/Aironet
-
Intel (coming soon)
-
Orinoco/Lucent
- Dlink
-
Linksys
- SMC, Netgear (sorry, no config info; but CNET likes them). The
SMC 2835W and Netgear WG511 are PCMCIA cards with 802.11b/g capability.
They are based on the Prism54 chip set which has excellent Linux support.
Register for DHCP Access
Once you have purchased and installed a card, you can either
authenticate each time you connect, or you can
register the card for 'permanent' access.
The SSID for the CSE Research Wireless Network is
"UniversityOfWashingtonCSE" (case sensitive).
Last updated: Oct 21, 2003
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