Briana Pauley enjoys working on her laptop while sitting outside at ASU's sunny Tempe Campus.
"I don't like working at the Computing Commons because it's always so busy," the kinesiology junior said.
Next fall, Pauley and other ASU students will be able to access ASU's wireless network from anywhere on Tempe's campus, said Dave McKee, senior director of network communications at ASU.
"The goal is to have the entire Tempe campus completely covered by wireless by fall semester," McKee said.
ASU is partnering with Kite Communications, which is installing outdoor wireless for the city of Tempe, to create ASU public wireless in the vicinity of the campus, he said.
While the Tempe Campus has partial wireless coverage, there are still areas of the campus that aren't connected, McKee said.
All residence halls will go wireless as well, he said.
"We're just filling in the gaps," he added.
The anthropology building, the honors college and the Life Science buildings are just a few of the places that currently don't receive wireless coverage.
Polytechnic and West campuses will also be covered at some point during the fall semester, he said.
The projects are being partially funded by ASU's new technology fee, McKee said.
Wireless is convenient, but not all students have computers with wireless capability, said Elizabeth Widmer, a theater performance graduate student.
"The only thing that I would question is the availability for all students to use it," she said.
The University might consider spending money on things that are more widely available to students or providing students with wireless cards, she said.
Wireless isn't useful for students who have older computers, Widmer added.
But students will have the option of plugging into the Internet with a cable, McKee said.
While wire connections are generally quicker and more reliable, wireless allows for more mobility, he said.
"The [wireless] system is centrally managed and will automatically adjust to provide good performance," McKee added.
Since the system is public, there won't be much security provided, except at workstations, he said.
But firewalls, encryptions and the Clean Access Agent should be sufficient to secure machines, he added.
Two different projects are currently in place - one for outdoor wireless and one for indoor, he said.
"The outdoor and indoor wireless will mesh together," he said. "You won't be able to tell the difference."
For more information on the projects' progress and coverage maps, visit www.asu.edu/wireless or www.asu.edu/map.
Reach the reporter at: aimee.tucker@asu.edu.
