We get a lot of inquiries regarding the ban on private wireless networks (WLAN) on the student residential houses network. This prohibition is due to a number of factors:
- Technically is 802.11b / g not particularly suitable for the densly populated student residential houses. It is in effect only three channels available, and WLAN routers in many rooms will provide a radio-wise chaos as the sum will cause most will not have any WLAN that works satisfactorily.
- WLAN routers do not support 802.1X, so they do not get authenticated, and ergo does not work when they connect. Users then connect to the LAN portion of the wireless router and acts as a DHCP server for all its neighbors, thus interfering with other users network connection. We have seen more than a few who have done this, to give a cautious estimate.
- WLAN routers are all set up without encryption. Most users set it up without authentication or encryption or other barriers, ergo is the network open for all within a large distance. This allows unauthorized people / machines to access the Internet through the University network. It is of course possible to enable encryption in the WLAN routers, but that is beyond our control.
- WLAN routers, even those that have encryption, making it possible for those users who, because of violations of the regulations have barred their Internet access to easy to get online via one of the neighbors. It is a circumvention of the rules and not allowed.
- WLAN routers makes it impossible for us to know who you are, we can only see which housing unit the WLAN router is connected too. It is therefore a problem when we have to identify a user due to botnets infection, copyright violation or similar that we either the identifies the wrong person or don't get hold the right person at all.
- The sum of this is that we do not allow the connection of WLAN equipment in the student network, and we do not see these reasons disappear with the first. The ban will therefore stay in place.