Crumbs
Rich T finds some tasty titbits you might have missed in the week's news
Tuesday 15 April 2008, 8:54 AM
Unexpected Wi-Fi surprises
There are many perils IT departments face in rolling out a Wi-Fi network - not least ensuring there are no blackspots in places that need coverage, ensuring sufficient capacity right the way across the premises and making sure unwanted devices don't attach to the network.
But the University of Birmingham recently encountered a different kind of problem in rolling out their wireless LAN. Having talked to the guys in IT who designed the network, I found they've got the technical aspects sussed. But they were taken somewhat aback when they were asked to turn the network off.
Why? Because one senior visitor to the University was complaining that she suffered from electrosensitivity to Wi-Fi and that she wanted the signals turned off for her arrival.
This could have been an utter nuisance for the IT department, had they had to visit each access point to turn it off. Fortunately, they'd designed the network to use power over ethernet and so they simply cut the power from the required ports to take down the Wi-Fi network in the required areas.
One happy IT department, one happy visitor.
But the University's stories do beg the question: have any other ZDNet readers faced any odd requests to meddle with their WiFi network? We'd be interested to hear your experiences.
PreviousComments on this post
They should have tried an experiment (they are a University after all).
Tell her the signal is turned off but actually leave it on, or leave selected APs on, to see if she is "electrosensitive" enough to actually tell.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that is exactly what they did.
Also, I'm surprised they were prepared to interrupt everyone's Wi-Fi service because of one "senior visitor". With that combination of power and stupidity, I''m guessing it must have been someone of Cabinet Minister rank at least.
