Wireless Internet available to most of campus by '08

by Jeremy Hunt

Daily Lobo

Unplug your Ethernet connection and get ready to roam.

UNM is going wireless.

By the middle of 2008, ITS plans to have about 85 percent of Main Campus covered with free wireless Internet, said Moira Gerety, director of ITS.

"Our goal would be by the time fall 2008 students start, we'll be done," she said. "We expect to have about 100 percent of the areas where students really need to congregate."

The University already has about 30 percent of campus covered between places like Dane Smith Hall and the SUB.

ITS is finding zones that would be logical areas to install wireless. Then, it will publish the areas in a survey for students to fill out to determine which areas are the highest priorities.

Gerety said surveying will begin in a couple months. Shortly after that, ITS will begin installing the connections, starting with the students' highest priority, she said.

The wireless access was made possible by a $750,000 donation from the New Mexico Educator's Federal Credit Union.

Sharla Reinhart, membership- development director for the credit union, said the money is not important.

Giving UNM students access to the technology they need is what matters, Reinhart said.

"It's really not about the amount," she said. "It's about helping our University be a world-class university and having the draw that other competitive universities have."

Gerety said there won't be many places on campus without wireless Internet.

"The 85 percent coverage will be everything students need, unless they really want to sit in the middle of Johnson field or the middle of a parking lot," she said.

Reinhart said the credit union wanted to donate the money after the Albuquerque Journal quoted Gerety saying that ITS wanted to install wireless Internet everywhere but didn't have the funding.

"We sat down and talked about it," she said. "The CEO said, 'Why don't we see if we can fund it?'"

Gerety said UNM is behind the times because it does not have wireless Internet covering all of campus.

"From the demand side, every place is supposed to have wireless. I think we've got an expectation of pervasive wireless," she said. "We have known we're at a competitive disadvantage with information technology and infrastructure."

Student Rachel DeÅtsch said it's awesome UNM is going to have wireless Internet. It will make group projects much easier, DeÅtsch said.

"With this, some of us can bring our laptops and use it for research," she said.

DeÅtsch said wireless Internet is just what poor college students need.

"There's not a lot of people that can afford Internet at home," she said. "It's good for UNM."

Student John Cox said it will be convenient because students won't have to go to specific areas to get access.

Wireless Internet will make UNM more competitive, Cox said.

"It's a progressive step," he said. "A lot of campuses are going wireless, so it's good they're taking the initiative to go do it."

Gerety said students will log in to the network similarly to how they do at Dane Smith Hall and the SUB.

When users open an Internet browser, it goes to a log-in page to connect to the network.

Gerety said everyone on campus, including visitors, will be able to use the connection.

Guests can log in to the network, but they will not have access to the University's online services, such as WebCT and LoboWeb.

Students, faculty and staff will log in with their Net ID and password, which will allow them to get on WebCT and LoboWeb.

Gerety said students can use the Internet in their classes to complement instruction.

"We've intended to cover the classrooms. It is where schools are going," she said. "You've got your whole reference library available to you anywhere."

ITS will talk to instructors about how the wireless connection is going to affect their classes, Gerety said. Teachers will have to decide how they want to handle it, she said.

"It hasn't been a tremendous issue at Dane Smith Hall," she said.

Thanks to the credit union, students will throw off their wire shackles, Gerety said.

"It's going to untether them (students)," she said. "In other words, I don't have to walk to the SUB to sit down and use my laptop if I've got a spontaneous question."