Upgrades and expansion to Air91ɫ – 91ɫ’s wireless network – are underway as part of a large-scale deployment of new equipment that will improve convenience and performance of the campus wireless network access.
As part of multi-year program, every building on 91ɫ’s Keele campus will have wireless or enhanced wireless (Wi-Fi) system. The expansion of the University’s Wi-Fi system is being rolled out in a stepped format with the primary focus on improving service. Work is ongoing to widen the reach of Air91ɫPLUS, the University’s enhanced wireless service, which will become more accessible as buildings and equipment are updated. Maps of the and campuses provide an update of Air91ɫPLUS enhancements.
What is Air91ɫPlus?
By eliminating the web-based login step, Air91ɫPLUS will be more convenient to use than Air91ɫ. For improved performance in high-density settings such as libraries and lecture halls, Air91ɫPLUS adds support for the 5 gigahertz (GHz) radio band in addition to the 2.4 GHz radio band used by “traditional” Wi-Fi. The 5 GHz band contains many more radio channels than the 2.4 GHz band. This means that Air91ɫPLUS will be able to provide faster access to the Internet than is possible with Air91ɫ. This performance improvement will only be available when using up-to-date Wi-Fi equipment.
How does it work?
As with Air91ɫ, the enhanced service is free to all faculty, staff, students and academic visitors. To take advantage of the convenience and performance enhancements of Air91ɫPLUS, Wi-Fi users will be asked to configure a one-time log-in that uses their Passport 91ɫ username and password. It will be possible to configure the Wi-Fi client equipment to prefer Air91ɫPLUS instead of Air91ɫ. From then on, the device will automatically connect to Air91ɫPLUS whenever it is in range. For those devices that are unable to connect to Air91ɫPLUS or have yet to be converted to use the new service, the original Air91ɫ service will continue to be available in all University buildings that previously had the service.
The Air91ɫPLUS service will support a maximum of two concurrent logins by the same Passport 91ɫ identification. If more than two Wi-Fi devices are setup with the same login identification and password, only two of them will be able to connect to Air91ɫPLUS at the same time.
What kind of Wi-Fi device is required for Air91ɫPLUS?
To be able to connect to Air91ɫPLUS, students, faculty and staff need a computer (laptop, tablet) or a smartphone that supports 802.1x authentication with MSCHAPv2. Examples of compatible operating systems are: Mac OS X 10.5 and later, MS-Windows XP SP3 and later, Apple iOS 4 and later, Android 2.3 and later, and Blackberry OS 6 and later.
To take maximum advantage of the performance improvements of Air91ɫPLUS, the Wi-Fi device itself must support dual-band radios (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands) and IEEE 802.11n. The device should be Wi-Fi certified. Students who want to use Air91ɫPLUS should bring to the campus only those devices that support IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n or IEEE 802.11a/g/n. If you have an older laptop computer that does not have 5 GHz capability, it will be able to connect to Air91ɫPLUS but will not experience faster Internet access than Air91ɫ. At this time, many smartphones, tablets and even some laptop computers do not include dual-band Wi-Fi radios.
Air91ɫPLUS is provided by .
Configuration help for Air91ɫPLUS will be posted on the WiFi-Info network, which is accessible via Wi-Fi directly from your computer or tablet.
Details about the roll-out of Air91ɫPLUS will continue to become available in upcoming issues of YFile, on WiFi-Info web page and on the website.