The network FAQ answers many of the most common questions I get about the network.
No. Nebraska Wesleyan and Computing Services and in particular are responsible for the network up to the plate on the wall. Any maintenance or repair of your computer is your responsibility. We can test the network connection at the plate for you but if it works there we are not required to fix your computer to make it connect.
Computing Services simply does not have the resources to fix students personal computers. There are also legal issues in relation to possible damage that our personal could inadvertently inflict on your computer and issues regarding the privacy of any personal data that you may have contained on your computer.
Contrary to popular belief on the part of the students. How much tuition you pay has little to do with the resources allocated to Computing Services in order to provide services to students. In fact it actually costs Wesleyan more to have you here than what you probably pay in tuition. If you really feel that you need a service like improved wireless, or online gaming etc. I suggest that you and a bunch of other students that feel strongly about the issue get together in an organized fashion and approach the VP's of the University. You should express to them how important your issue is and suggest that they allocate resources around an initiative for your issue. Complaining to individuals within the Computing Services department will have little if any impact.
On most windows systems goto Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt. Then run the following command on your computer:
ipconfig /all (note the space between the "g" and the "/")
Under "Local area Connection" you should have an entry called "IP Address" the address should be of the form:
10.15-23.1.x
If it starts with 169 you do not have a valid connection. If it starts with 192.168 you may have your network information hard coded and you need to configure your computer properly using the instructions here or you are the victim of a rogue DHCP server and should report it using the instructions here.
For Mac OS X you can run a similar command by going to Applications->Utilities->Terminal and then running the command:
ifconfig -a (note the space between the "g" and the "-")
Under the section that starts en0: you should have an entry called "inet" that has the IP address as described above.
A couple of things can cause this. First check your network setting and make sure you are set to "obtain DNS server addresses automatically". Make sure that you don't have any proxys setup in internet explorer or Firefox. Check to make sure that you don't have any spyware/adware installed on your computer.
The authentication system checks periodically to make sure that your computer is still connected to the network. If your computer isn't connected it logs you off. The power save features on many computers shut down the network interface in order save electricity. This essentially takes your computer off the network and so you get logged off. You can resolve this by changing the power save features on your computer to not power down the network interface. In windows go to the "Local Area Connection" properties window click on the "Configure" button and select the "Power Management" tab. Uncheck the box "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
Because we have hundreds of students in the residence halls and one person in computing services that deals with all the networking issues. Especially during the first few weeks of a new semester this individual is completely overrun with requests. This person also has responsibilities that are not related to helping students get connected. In fact getting students connected falls very low on the priority list.
You don't. Students are not authorized to connect these devices to the network. Students are only allowed to directly connect a computer to the network in their room.
Lot's of students get caught in this chicken and egg situation. They need to download a program like Antivirus software but can't do it because the virus has hosed their network connection. The solution is really simple. You have to go old school and use Sneakernet. Get a thumb drive or blank CD-R. Put on you sneakers and walk down to the lab. Download the software you need and save it to the thumb drive or burn it to the CD-R. Walk back to your computer and install the software from the CD or thumb drive. Problem Solved.
Most likely nothing. The most likely cause is an issue with your computer. If you took your computer home or to some other network you probably either changed your network settings or had some program or spyware change them for you without your knowledge. If your computer stayed here while you were gone you probably got something installed on it that has broken it. If you usually leave your computer on and turned it off while you were gone what you installed probably didn't take effect until you booted back up when you returned.
Yes well my car doesn't work with or without the gas. If it didn't work with the cord it is very unlikely that it would work without the cord. Given that there is little if any wireless coverage in the residence halls you should always try connecting with the cord.
Most other networks especially wireless networks at coffee shops and restaurants don't implement any kind of security. That means that if your computer has been hijacked by spyware or a hacker it may work just fine on those networks but not on ours. It is also possible that the network settings required for that other network differ completely from ours and you should be changed to those appropriate for our network.
The "Page Cannot be Displayed" error message in Internet Explorer means almost nothing. It states a fact but gives you absolutely no information at to why the page cannot be displayed. If you report the "Page Cannot be Displayed" message as an error to Computing Services they will almost certainly be unable to help you without further information.
Internet Connection Sharing and Internet Sharing are features in their respective operating systems that allows the computer to act as a network router and DHCP server if it has two or more types of networking devices. These devices could be Ethernet cards, modems, or Firewire (IEEE 1394) ports. If Internet Connection Sharing is actively running while the computer is connected to any part of the University's network, that computer and other computers nearby may lose all connectivity to the network. If you have been previously connected to a home network, know that Internet Connection Sharing was used in your previous network setup, or suspect you have done something to turn Internet Connection Sharing on please follow the instructions on the page here to disable it before connecting your computer to the University network.
Bridging is a configuration in which interfaces on your computer bound together such that any traffic seen on one interface is echoed or retransmitted on the other interface. These interfaces can be ethernet cards, wirelesscards, modems, etc. It essentially turns your computer into a network hub or access point. This kind of configuration is common in home networking configurations where you wish to make your notebook act as an access point so that other computers can connect through the internet through yours. However if bridging is actively running while the computer is connected to any part of the University's network, that computer and other computers nearby may lose all connectivity to the network. Therefore if you have any reason to believe that interfaces on you computer may be bridged you must follow the instructions here to disable bridging.
Remember when you where going though the instructions for setting up your computer. You did read them didn't you? In the instructions you were told to set your computer to "Obtain an IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS server address automatically". A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP server is where your computer gets that information from automatically. Basically your computer when it starts broadcasts a request for network information and the DHCP server answers with the requested information. A rogue DHCP server is one that was setup by someone other than Computing Services. Rogue's usually take the form of a router or wireless access point that some student has illicitly connected to the network. Unfortunately these devices are usually not configured to hand out the correct network information. If your computer broadcasts it's request for information and one of these rogues answers it, your computer will receive invalid network information and you won't be able to get to the Internet. We have had entire residence halls taken off the network by this until we could track down the rouge and shut it down. This is why students are not authorized to connect routers and wireless access points to the network.
This usually happens for one of two reasons. First, if the web site is running on a non standard port it may be blocked by security. Look at the URL/Address of the web site that you are trying to get to. Does it have colon and number in the address after the top level domain? Something like this:
If so this is what has happened.
In rare cases this can also be caused by a routing issue at Windsteam our upstream ISP. This usually happens with international sites or after Windstream has performed a network upgrade. It these cases it may be difficult to get the issue resolved because the problem lies with software or hardware not under the direct control of Computing Services.
In either case you should fill out a help request and list the exact URL you are having trouble with.
We have very limited wireless coverage in the residence halls. Chances are you are outside of the range of one of the Welseyan wireless access points.
Whoever you spoke to was either ignorant or lying. Every year we hear some student say this but we have no idea where they get this information from. All we really know is that it is not from anyone in the Computing Services department.
The short answer is because the security that we have in place to protect you while your connected to our network probably blocks it. Since online gaming doesn't support any academic purpose that we are aware of we are disinclined to make changes to our security infrastructure to acomidate it.
No.
Our security probably blocks most webcams and Internet phone services. Since these functions do not to our knowledge support any academic purposes for students we are disinclined to alter our security infrastructure to support them. One service we have seen work in the past is the Yahoo messenger video chat. However Computing Services takes no responsibility for the functioning or lack there of of the service.
Our security probably blocks it. Since to our knowledge most peer to peer programs don't support academic purposes we are disinclined to change security settings to allow it. In fact most peer to peer programs are used to exchange illegal copies of copyrighted works so we are further disinclined to make any changes.
Because Greek houses are not Nebraska Wesleyan property. They may be approved student housing but then so was my parents house when I was a student and no one expected Wesleyan to provide network services there. Networking in the Greek houses is strictly the responsibility of the house and it's chapter.
Probably because some other student in your building is running a rogue DHCP server. When your are having trouble open a command prompt on your computer by going to Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt. Then run the following commands on your computer:
ipconfig /all (note there is a space between the "g" and the "/")
and
arp -a (note there is a space between the "p" and the "-")
Then open a help request and paste the output of those two commands into it. This information will help us find the offending individual and pummel them appropriately.
You might as well ask me "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" What I can tell you is that there is a 99% chance that it is your computer that is the problem. Over the past 7 years aside from rogue DHCP servers we have only had a handful of problems that were related to the network. Most of those where related to damage done by students to the jacks in the wall. You should run through the Instructions for Connecting to the Internet to check your settings and make sure they are correct. You should also check that you have a valid network connection. If you do your problem is probably related to spyware or viruses on your computer. You can download software to help you with those from our downloads page.
First remember that you are sharing the campus Internet connection with the other 4000+ users of Wesleyan resources. You can check the Internet Traffic Report and see if you happen to be accessing at a time when load happens to be high. Most likely however it is not the Internet that is going slow but your computer. We have seen student computers so loaded with spyware that when they were connected to the internet the spyware used up all the students bandwidth causing other pages to time out.
Actually no we don't. While it may be convenient for students to have their own computers connected to the network it is not a requirement. In fact there is no requirement that a student have their own computer at all. We have labs available in all the residence halls except the town houses. We have labs available in the library that are open until midnight when the library closes and Labs in Olin which are open 24 hours. Even if the labs are busy during certain parts of the year your problem simply boils down to a need for proper time management and scheduling to avoid the labs peek hours. It means that you can't put off writing your paper until the last minute you have to think and plan ahead to figure out when your going to get it done.