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Questions and answers

1183

Why does the University provide wired connections in campus bedrooms as well as wireless?

The wired Residential Network provides a dedicated outlet to each study bedroom and therefore dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth for each user. A robust wired infrastructure needs to be in place to allow for the demands of future technologies on the network.

The wireless network is a complimentary service to enable smartphones to work in residential areas and to allow other mobile devices to be used in a wireless capacity. For example when browsing or performing tasks that require lower bandwidth usage.

An important point to note is that wireless networks are 'shared access', and therefore misuse affects ALL users. For example, use of peer-to-peer file-sharing programmes increases demand on the network disproportionately and is likely to deny some users fair and equal access to the network. It is also more difficult to regulate security issues and misuse on a wireless network.