Access to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s wireless
system should be as simple as the name implies: no strings attached. However,
over the past few weeks, several frustration-filled nights at College Library
have led me to believe that access isn’t as easy as suggested. Repeated failure
to connect to UW-Madison’s wireless leaves laptop users with lingering doubt in
a system meant to accommodate more than 12,000 students and 6,000 faculty
members.

Providing a large college campus such as UW-Madison with
wireless Internet is a daunting task. Brian Rust of UW-Madison’s Division of
Information Technology explains how the system is set up using “Wireless Access
Point radios (APs), which are installed in strategic locations within each
campus building. The APs connect to the campus network equipment through Cat5e
cabling in each building.” The average campus building has two or three access
points, which are then wired to the central system, breaking the campus
wireless system into 123 manageable access sites. According to Mr. Rust, by the
end of the year, 100 percent of eligible campus buildings will be connected to
the campus wireless system, a project that began in 2004. Innovation breeds
unforeseen complications, however, and despite UWNet’s campuswide coverage,
accessing the network is often challenging. The Division of Information
Technology’s website explains: “To
connect to the network with campus wireless, simply use your wireless client
application “