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• Connecting
to the Tufts Wireless Network
• Configuring your Computer for Wireless
• Don't Own a Wireless Card?
• Having Problems Connecting?
• Frequently Asked Questions
Wireless networking is available
at the buildings seen highlighted in yellow and labelled in red.
Start your internet browser and see if you get
a Pelican
registration page. If you do, then register using your UTLN and
password. After the registration has gone through, you will be able
to access the Wireless Network at Tufts. If you did not get the
registration page when you started your internet browser, then open
the program associated with your wireless card. You can usually
find an icon in the lower right hand corner on your taskbar (either
a Microsoft icon or the icon for your wireless card manufacturer).
Once the program has started, make sure you have "tuftswireless"
listed as a wireless network. If not, then add it in, making sure
that it is an "infrastructure" and not an "ad-hoc"
network. Select "tuftswireless" as the network you currently
want to use.
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To use Tufts' wireless network, you will need
to purchase a wireless Ethernet card for your PC or Macintosh. The
card must support the IEEE 802.11b standard. Network Engineering
recommends:
• Lucent/Agere
• ORiNOCO Silver or Gold Cards
• Netgear MA401 Cards
• Cisco Aironet Cards
• For iBooks and PowerBooks the Apple AirPort Cards
For any operating system other
than Windows XP Professional or Macintosh, use the card utility
to set up the card and add the Service Set Identifier (SSID). The
SSID for Tufts University is: tuftswireless.
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Tufts has a limited number of "loaner"
cards available. These cards can be checked out at the Webster Library
Circulation Desk. Time limit restrictions apply.
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• Make sure you've entered the SSID in
the proper place on your computer.
• Make sure there are no other electrical devices near the
wireless card (cell phones, microwave ovens, or other electronic
devices can interfere with the signal.)
• Check the signal strength monitor to see if you can find
a place with a better signal.
• Make sure your notebook is using the wireless NIC to communicate
and not the wired Ethernet connection.
• Check your netowrk control panel to make sure you are communicating
via the wireless card and that all drivers are loaded.
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Q. I have already registered my computer. Why
do I have to go through the process again?
A. If your computer has multiple network adapters, you will have
to register each adapter individually the first time you attempt
to access the network using it. Many computers, especially laptops,
are now being sold with multiple adapters (eg; wireless and wired).
Pelican
registration is based on network adapters, not the computer as a
whole.
Q. Do I have to register each time
in order to get onto the wireless network?
A.
No. "Registration" is via the Pelican
system, and is only required once a year.
Q. If only valid Tufts users are
able to use the wireless network, does that mean it's secure?
A.
Absolutely NOT. The radio airwaves are public. There is no way to
control or even know, who is listening to traffic on the wireless
network. Unless you are utilizing strong encryption (WEP does not
fall into the "strong" category and is not supported on
this network), anyone with a wireless network card can view your
traffic, including any username and password information you use
in unencrypted applications. You should always be very careful about
the data you send or receive over any wireless network.
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