Plymouth State to be a wireless campus

Plymouth State University is expanding it's wireless network. Langdon Woods and the Student Apartments in the northern tier are now wireless. Within the next year officials hope the entire campus will be wireless.

"PSU was a little bit behind," Stephen Campbell, PSU's Chief Information Officer said. On campus buildings had out dated IT equipment, which made wireless capability difficult. "We waited for the old equipment to expire [and then used funds for upgrading purposes] to purchase new wireless equipment," Campbell said. 

It is planned that all on campus student apartments will be on the wireless network by the end of the year. The project will last between 14 and 16 months. The wireless network will be accessible on out door green spaces outside of the HUB and Mary Lyon before by the end of the month. Athletic fields should be wireless by the end of the month. 

After the green spaces are completely wireless, work will begin on student apartments located in the southern end of the complex. From there work will be completed on Grafton, Smith, Samuel Reed Hall, Belknap and Pemi Halls. 

Many of these buildings have wireless signals from nearby academic buildings, but the signal is usually weak and unreliable. 

The lag time created by the outdated, but still working network, and the new but unavailable technology, posed an issue for newer buildings on campus. Langdon Woods was designed to be completely wireless, but the lack of wireless equipment kept the state of the art building off the grid for close to four years.

Langdon Woods always had wireless capability in the common areas, but the reception was spotty in actual rooms. This was due to the shear number of rooms in the Residence Hall.

"It is definitely a big difference," Ashley Phillips, Langdon Woods's new Resdence Director said. Philips came from Blair, a building that did have some wireless capability. 

"The performance is much easier," Ali Markham, a Langdon Woods resident said. The wireless is a marked improvement over the wireless systems in other residence halls. "In [Samuel Reed] Hall Hall [the wireless] was tough. It would kick you off a lot," Markham said. According to Markham, the wireless network also offers faster performance, "The signal is strong," Markham, said. 

Creating the wireless network in on campus housing required the addition of antennas around the PSU campus. Antennas were installed in Langdon Woods. Additional antennas are planned for installation.