Information Technology

Wireless Networking

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The Law School building was equipped with a sophisticated, building-wide wireless network in July, 2002. Since that time, almost one-third of our students have had their notebook computer configured to access our network via wireless connections. Increasingly, faculty members are using wireless networking in their classrooms, and that trend will certainly increase in the coming years. The Law School network features twenty-two Cisco Aironet 350 access points deployed throughout the law library, faculty wing, classroom wing, and the law auditorium, making it possible for properly configured notebook computers to access all network resources from almost any physical location within and around the immediate perimeter of the Law Center building.

What You Will Need to Access the Wireless Network

You will need a WI-Fi certified 802.11b wireless card for your notebook computer. The card will fit into your PCMCIA slot. Some vendors, like Dell, Gateway, and Apple offer built in wireless cards. You will see other cards on the market. 802.11a will not work at the law school. However, a combination card that supports 802.11a/b/g will work. All support the 128 bit encryption used in our wireless environment to provided security for your online transmissions. Wireless technology, like any other part of computer engineering, is changing rapidly (six months from now, the newly adopted 802.11i standard might be in active use), but we feel that our 802.11b will serve the Law School community with robust wireless networking for years to come.

The Law School wireless network is closed and secure. The Law School technology support staff will provide you with the Service Set Identifier (SSID) and the 128 bit encryption key that you will need to gain access to the network. Once you have a compatible Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless card, simply come to Room 219B or 219D to make an appointment to have your wireless connectivity setup. We ask that you leave the system with us for 30 minutes. At this time we will fill out a form that records the MAC address of your wireless card. We hope to update this procedure to allow automatic Web registration of wireless devices in the near future.

You will need to bring with you to your set-up appointment:

• Your notebook computer with a CD ROM drive (preferred operating system is Windows XP Pro, but any Windows 2000 or later system can be accommodated)
• Your 80211.B wireless compliant Ethernet card and software that comes with the card.

802.11b wireless network cards that we recommend are:

• Cisco Aironet 350 series (this is the card used by law faculty/staff) cisco.com
• The Cisco cards can be found online at many different Web Stores
  • pcconnection.com
  • warehouse.com
  • ecost.com
  • (Please shop around. Costs will vary greatly)
• Dell TrueMobile 1150
• Manufacturer's built in cards (Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, etc)
• Orinoco Gold Card
• Apple Airport
• Although most other 802.11b cards will work, we cannot guarantee the antenna strength of the lower end cards. You may encounter more connection problems with so-called "bargain" network cards than you are likely to encounter with the card listed above.

Several Caveats:

• We do not support BlueTooth wireless protocol technology.
• PDAs or the new Computer Tablets with a 80211.b card. We will attempt to configure encryption, however support will be limited.
• Wireless printing. At this time there is none. Students can E-Mail a document to themselves and then print in one of the computer labs. We are looking at a solution that will allow printing from a wireless laptop without logging in to our Novell system.

Wireless questions?

Please feel free to phone 803-777-5106 or send your question by e-mail to wireless@law.law.sc.edu