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Volume 41, Issue 6
November 11, 2003
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November
11 , 2003
Wireless network goes online
Nick Martin
Mesa Legend
There is a new kind of vision for MCC: a hot spot where students
are talking and socializing, researching and learning, even listening
to music all in the same moment.
This is all possible thanks to MCC’s wireless computer network,
which has recently become available for student use.
The wireless computer network was the vision of Bill DeHaan, director
of network services.
The wireless network, commonly referred to as “wi-fi,” is
keeping MCC ahead of the trend that will soon blanket the country, according
to DeHaan.
Recently, wi-fi networks have been all the rage across the United States.
From Starbucks to airports and from apartments to street corners, students,
professionals and casual Internet surfers have been using their laptops
to chat, download music and view websites, wirelessly, while still going
about their everyday lives.
DeHaan said the advantage this technology gives to college is huge. Not
only may students log on to the Internet to find the latest information
for a tough psychology paper, but they can send an instant message to
a friend telling them they will be late for happy hour because of that
paper.
“There’s a whole environment that we’re trying to build,”
DeHaan said.
He anticipates more and more MCC students buying laptops with wireless
capabilities and wants the college to be right there as students are jumping
on the technology bandwagon.
Second-year nursing student Jess Watson is one of the many students already
using the network.
From a seat near the back of the Paul A. Elsner Library, Watson logged
onto the Internet without a phone line or high-speed cable in sight.
She has dumped all her messy folders and notebooks in favor of a single
laptop she carries to all her classes.
“It cuts down on paper clutter,” Watson claimed.
She said she sees the wi-fi network as the future of her college education
and envisions a not-so-distant time when students can watch medical procedures
online from their desks and teachers can hand out homework and outlines
by e-mail.
“I would like to be able to someday open up a chat client and just
tell my teacher, ‘I’m sick. I’m not coming in today,’”
Watson stated.
Excusing absences and nursing homework aren’t the only things Watson
does with her wireless time. She, like most MCC students, loves to stay
connected with her friends and has the right programs loaded on her laptop
to chat with them from anywhere within wi-fi range.
That is exactly the option DeHaan is shooting for.
DeHaan estimated roughly 20 or 30 MCC students per day sign onto the Internet
from their own laptops, but expects that number to climb significantly
in years to come.
For students interested in buying a laptop and getting connected to the
wireless network, DeHaan recommended buying a computer with an 802.11b
wi-fi card and setting up the student’s MyMCC account through the
college’s website.
It is that same account user name and password that the school uses to
log students on to the wi-fi network.
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