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Tech Notes: Wifi Wups

Reporting from the front lines of IT, Sam Kome, Manager of Library Information Technology:

Wifi Wups

Almost every day in the Libraries we hear: “Can you help me? My laptop won’t connect to the wireless network.” Our patrons include visiting scholars, guest lecturers, and students; any of whom may reach the Library before their host campus helps them with this inevitable issue. The Libraries’ IT staff were recently granted the ability to register laptops on CINE (the campuses’ wifi network), and it has been a huge boon for our patrons. So the other day when a patron approached with a laptop, I felt, instead of dread, a warm feeling of imminent success. But I didn’t know the extent of the challenge until I got a better look.

A well-trained eye will notice two things about this actual screenshot.
1) It’s from an Apple Macintosh.
2) With Chinese characters turned on.

I think Macs are spiffy, but I have only a little experience with them. I know even less Chinese. If just trying to remember the new-to-me registration procedure wasn’t enough challenge, now it was for a Mac that wasn’t from around here.

The patron fortunately had a pretty good idea of the procedure so we tag-teamed, and eventually succeeded to locate the wireless card’s MAC* address and register it with the campuses-wide wireless network (CINE.)

The Libraries are taking more more steps to improve wireless coverage in our buildings and working with the campuses IT groups to enable patrons to have access back to their own campus’s network. Soon no more webmailing files to work on in the Library! With all the visiting faculty that come through, we’re also considering foreign language classes for everyone in IT.

* Jargon: Nothing to do with Apples. Network cards have “Media Access Control” identifiers.

— michael | March 7, 2008 01:32 PM | Random bits