Mahaffey Hall Wireless Project

Summer 2011

Wireless Internet connections at Linfield are increasingly popular, especially in residence halls.  In response, ITS is investigating the feasibility of increasing connections in the residence halls. The problem we need to solve is the expense of providing both wired and wireless connections.  We think the time has come to investigate the feasibility of going all wireless.

Here’s how we’re going to explore this idea.  Over the summer of 2011 ITS will dramatically increase the wireless capability in one residence hall, Mahaffey.  There are currently two wireless access points; we will increase that to ten and increase the connection speed from the access point to the campus backbone fiber network from 100mbps to 1gbps (1000mbps).  

To fully test the idea of moving away from wired connections we will disable the wired Internet jacks in residence rooms.  As a result, all internet capable devices will need to be wireless enabled.  If you have a computer or other device (such as a gaming console) that needs a wired connection, please contact ITS support (support@linfield.edu) and we will either help you figure out how to connect with wireless or, if that isn’t feasible, re-enable a wired port for you.

Over the 2011-2012 academic year we will monitor the success of this project in terms of the adequacy of coverage provided and the overall idea of moving to a totally wireless solution.  If you do not reside in Mahaffey Hall you will be happy to know that we are installing an additional 15-20 wireless access points in other residence halls over the summer.  Our goal is to continue to improve the wireless internet as much as our limited funds will allow.