Wireless Internet

Shadowlands

I'm very fond of my internet and any hint that I won't have it at Trinity freaks me out. I'm planning on geting a laptop before I go off to Dublin and the one I have my eye on has an Intel Card (the Intel 802.11b/g wirelessMPCI to be specific). I just checked the Trinity page about wireless internet and my card is not on their approved list - in order to get one I'd have to "downgrade", something I'm loathe to do. So does Trinity really mean that they won't let you on the wireless network if you don't have the officially listed cards?

The page listing the Allowed Cards

Nietzschean

no, but they might be less than eager to help you configure it.

aodh_rua

Your card should be okay - even though it's not explicitly mentioned the Intel cards should all be fine. However - I don't think any part of the student network is on 802.11g so you'll have to make do with 'b'.

djmarkus

aodh_rua wrote:

Your card should be okay - even though it's not explicitly mentioned the Intel cards should all be fine. However - I don't think any part of the student network is on 802.11g so you'll have to make do with 'b'.

Ye wireless networks are designed with compatibility in mind. your card should be grand

rsynnott

Shadowlands wrote:

I'm very fond of my internet and any hint that I won't have it at Trinity freaks me out. I'm planning on geting a laptop before I go off to Dublin and the one I have my eye on has an Intel Card (the Intel 802.11b/g wirelessMPCI to be specific). I just checked the Trinity page about wireless internet and my card is not on their approved list - in order to get one I'd have to "downgrade", something I'm loathe to do. So does Trinity really mean that they won't let you on the wireless network if you don't have the officially listed cards?

The page listing the Allowed Cards

That should be fine. Any card that supports LEAP is okay (unofficially, they also do PEAP, though it doesn't shift between cells well at all). In fact, that card you have is specifically covered by " Intel Centrino inbuilt" on the page; Centrino comprises a Pentium M and an Intel wifi chipset. And you'll be using it in b mode, unless unexpected upgrades happen.

I'm stuck using PEAP, due to elderly laptop and wifi card.

Shadowlands

Ah, OK. Thanks all, you guys are clearly more knowlegable on this stuff than I am.

Kevin_rc_ie

ah yeah you should be grand i had a similar problem and they were quite helpful once they got past, wait a few days and come back and see if it works stage.

Nietzschean

rsynnott wrote:

That should be fine. Any card that supports LEAP is okay (unofficially, they also do PEAP, though it doesn't shift between cells well at all). In fact, that card you have is specifically covered by " Intel Centrino inbuilt" on the page; Centrino comprises a Pentium M and an Intel wifi chipset. And you'll be using it in b mode, unless unexpected upgrades happen.

I'm stuck using PEAP, due to elderly laptop and wifi card.

Erm, PEAP is IIS's primary choice for authentication.....And LEAP is older than PEAP if i'm not mistaken.........


iirc there was talk from iis or cs about implementing peap authentication for wired nic's also

Nietzschean

aodh_rua wrote:

Your card should be okay - even though it's not explicitly mentioned the Intel cards should all be fine. However - I don't think any part of the student network is on 802.11g so you'll have to make do with 'b'.

unless you count the maths network

Kevin_rc_ie

ooh. maths network. there's a thought.

fluppet

We have wireless in the maths computer rooms?! You learn something everyday...

Kevin_rc_ie

You do learn something new everyday, i think serenity (i'm counting the days til ian's next name change) should explain a bit about the maths wireless network.

Nietzschean

3 cisco 1200 series b/g AP's, radius server based mac authentication. with go faster stripes....

rsynnott

Serenity wrote:

Erm, PEAP is IIS's primary choice for authentication.....And LEAP is older than PEAP if i'm not mistaken.........

Yes, LEAP is older than PEAP. That has little bearing on anything. PEAP is NOT IIS's primary choice, and in fact you have to ask specifically to find out it's available. The problem with PEAP on the TCD WiFi network is that it's incapable of handling machines moving between access points gracefully, hence if you're in an overlap area (House 6, parts of the Arts block), the connection gets unhappy. This isn't an intrinsic problem with PEAP, rather it's a problem with the implementation

Ron DMC

i wanna maths account. Gimme...

Nietzschean

rsynnott wrote:

I'm stuck using PEAP, due to elderly laptop and wifi card.

Sorry i took that to mean you were implying peap was older......


And old laptop matters cause? iirc leap is implemented in the drivers no? (and in seperate software under linux.. xsupplicant)

Kevin_rc_ie

hehe, we got ian all excited.

rsynnott

Serenity wrote:

Sorry i took that to mean you were implying peap was older......


And old laptop matters cause? iirc leap is implemented in the drivers no? (and in seperate software under linux.. xsupplicant)

Nyet. LEAP is a proprietary hardware security protocol by Cisco, now licensed to most of the big players in the market. You do also need a piece of software (Windows Wifi tools, Xsupplicant, Cisco's supplicant, whatever) but it doesn't DO all that much. MSCHAPv2/PEAP is software dependant.

Kevin_rc_ie

get him serenibobo. get him!

Nietzschean

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

hehe, we got ian all excited.

i was curious kev, i'm quite happy to be wrong if i learn summit.......

Nietzschean

rsynnott wrote:

Nyet. LEAP is a proprietary hardware security protocol by Cisco, now licensed to most of the big players in the market. You do also need a piece of software (Windows Wifi tools, Xsupplicant, Cisco's supplicant, whatever) but it doesn't DO all that much. MSCHAPv2/PEAP is software dependant.

I'm quite well aware of what leap/peap are, though to the best of my knowledge and anyone else i've talked to/cisco websites seem to imply aslong as the h/w supports 802.1.x authenticication leap can be implemented in the driver/software. Though cisco gear does it faster in h/w its not required these days.

PEAP is NOT IIS's primary choice, and in fact you have to ask specifically to find out it's available. The problem with PEAP on the TCD WiFi network is that it's incapable of handling machines moving between access points gracefully, hence if you're in an overlap area (House 6, parts of the Arts block), the connection gets unhappy. This isn't an intrinsic problem with PEAP, rather it's a problem with the implementation

Emm I do thing we talk to people in different circles, PEAP is the preferred method these days, and the only one even mention'd in the campus wireless meetings. CS have stopped LEAP support completely even. And those issues with roaming between AP's are isolated, i've roamed with PEAP using xsupplicant on the iis network no bother.......

fiachs

I know this was the original question asked but ISS say that they'll ONLY put you on wireless if you've certain cards... there's no 'other card' option on the wireless connection form online. I assume that it's not a question of compatability so why would they have this restriction?

Nietzschean

fiachs wrote:

I know this was the original question asked but ISS say that they'll ONLY put you on wireless if you've certain cards... there's no 'other card' option on the wireless connection form online. I assume that it's not a question of compatability so why would they have this restriction?

Cause cisco/intel are expensive relyable brands, they don't want to have to be dealing with flaky ****e brands causing issues on the network. I can just imagine plenty of users moaning cause stuff doesn't work when its more due to their card just being rubbish......

Crash

Basically, you can still get on with other cards if they're compatible etc., but you'll get no sympathy from ISS if you come in moaning bout it not working :P