Connecting to the Internet around campus will now be more convenient for those students with laptops, since the college has upgraded its wireless accessibility to include over 50 high-speed wireless hotspots.

“You can just walk in there with your laptop and get connected,” said Fanshawe College chief information officer, Bob Beatty.

The new system, dubbed FanshaweWireless, will use the 802.11 g standard, which operates at 54mbps. The old system operated on 11mbps.

Prior to the upgrade, only students enrolled in CONNECT laptop programs, such as international business management, broadcast journalism, computer programming or advanced photography, had access to the wireless network. Now all students with a FanshaweOnline account can be connected.

“FanshaweWireless will encourage and enhance communications within the college and provide additional options for students to access and interact with their learning materials and the world,” noted Beatty.

Initially, campus-wide wireless services were scheduled to be unveiled in February 2006, but the college wanted the access to be 100 per cent reliable.

“We have been running in stealth mode for the past two months,” Beatty said. “A number of students have already discovered it.”

Fanshawe's electronic mail system typically directs 50,000 messages and the file servers transfer 30GB of information on a daily basis.

In addition, each weekday 1,200 assignments are submitted electronically through FanshaweOnline, which contains resources for over 1,800 courses.


“We know increasingly more students are bringing laptops to the college,” said Beatty. “This is a logical extension of that demand.”

And Beatty believes that demand will grow, as laptops drop in price and surpass desktops in the global marketplace.

“The system is designed to accommodate future growth,” noted Beatty. “Additional hotspot locations can be added easily, and the access point software can be remotely upgraded as the technology evolves.”

Even guests to the college can gain restricted temporary access to the Internet.

FanshaweWireless is protected by WPA security and will identify and disable any “rogue” sites that it detects within the wireless confines.

Each access point, designated with the red, square, “wireless” logo, can accommodate up to 45 concurrent users, but that number can be downgraded to 20 if users are downloading large files.

The $65,000 improvement was made with support from Fanshawe Student Union, which contributed a portion of technology student fees that has accrued over several years.