High demand drives UAA wireless upgrades
by Kathleen McCoy |
As was reported in the Green & Gold Daily Digest, UAA upgraded its wireless technology over the summer to increase security and improve
access with a one-time setup to connect devices. The service now utilizes WPA2 for
authentication and encryption of all data transmitted over the wireless network.
The new service was wildly popular, seeing a 40 percent increase in overall usage, with highest-use areas reaching capacity. To adapt to the demand, IT Services deployed upgraded wireless access points to allow more users to connect in a given area/building. It also offered a week of drop-in workshops for individual help.
The new wireless technology presented some issues for users with older devices or those without up-to-date software patching, such as Windows XP operating systems. These can be quickly resolved by upgrading to the latest service pack supporting WPA2 wireless technology.
In troubleshooting the capacity issues, IT Services discovered unauthorized wireless access points causing conflict with UAA's wireless service, and is identifying and shutting those down.
Thanks to users who reported the locations and times of their disruptions by phone or on UAA's institutional Facebook page. This helped focus troubleshooting. If you continue to experience any disruption, share that with IT Services Call Center at (907) 786-4646, option 1, or callcenter@uaa.alaska.edu. This will help us identify campus areas that reach peak capacity or have interfering, unauthorized access points.
How-to instructions and videos are also available for the following devices:
"High demand drives UAA wireless upgrades" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.