[Nottingham] Wireless connection at University of Nottingham

[ForkBombFluf]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2011, David Aldred wrote:

> If it's specifically today, it's not just wifi - the proxy servers have been
> being upgraded and net access generally has been appalling while they'vce
> done it - I assume something went wrong!  Looks like it's fixed now,
> though.
>
> David Aldred
>

Indeed.  To find information about the (relatively) current status of IT 
Services at UON, you can visit:

http://status.nottingham.ac.uk/

Which lists the proxy upgrade today that David mentioned.  Essentially all 
of the campus network traffic was being shunted through the underequipped 
SNS proxy while the main campus Finjan proxy was being upgraded.  The 
ability to get to off-campus websites today was appaling, to say the 
least.

The ability to acquire IP addresses through DHCP is a different one, and 
not all buildings on campus use the same software or methods (some are 
actually still using BootP servers!)  How this affects the wireless access 
in each building specifically, I couldn't say, but I can say for certain 
that not all network set-ups and not all access points in all buildings 
are equal.

Also watch to make sure you have good signal strength wherever you are 
trying to access the wireless.  Not all areas of all buildings are covered 
well, either.  If schools want more access points, they usually have to 
pay for them out of school funds, and such requests are generally made by 
the School Manager-- so he or she is the one you need to bug if the area 
you need to use WiFi in doesn't have acceptable coverage.

Cheers,

-Stef