Friday, February 09, 2007

Cordless! Dorms Finally Get Upgraded!

I first arrived to UMD for STEP last year '06. There was wireless service in Somerset Hall, the dorm I resided for the month I stayed, but it's only limited to the 1ft floor lobby and the study areas in each floor. Finally OIT is finally upgrading all dorms to wireless internet.

In an effort to outfit dorms with wireless access by fall 2008, Office of Information Technology engineers will begin work in North Campus highrises this semester before they move to South Campus where officials said the intrusive access point installation process will be restricted to summers, said Resident Life Director Deb Grandner.

If officials meet their goals, the university will be the first of its five peer institutions to offer the technology throughout dorms, although dorm room wireless connections are not uncommon among top-tier universities such as Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Grandner introduced the plan for wireless access in her budget presentation to the Residence Hall Association last Tuesday when she unveiled a plan to take $1.6 million out of Resident Life's plant fund account to finance the 1,600 access points that will be required to equip the school's 34 dorms and apartment buildings.


There's only one problem, what about video games. PS2 and the Xbox do not have official wireless adapters. They may have to shell out $80-$100 for a third-party wireless adapter. But besides that, hopefully they would set up the wireless system by '08 or if better: Early.

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