Wireless Network To Expand By This Fall

Harvard aims to extend wireless Internet access to the common lounges of all first-year dormitories in time for the fall arrival of the Class of 2008, computer service officials said yesterday.

The wireless rollout, which was completed in the common spaces of the final two Houses, Lowell and Winthrop, last month, is now spreading to the Yard, where preliminary efforts are already underway, according to Kevin S. Davis ’98, coordinator of residential computing.

And the system is already bursting at the seams.

Over 1,000 users simultaneously connected without wires last Monday, maxing out the system and marking a new milestone for Harvard’s wireless network.

Hundreds of IP addresses have been added to accommodate the increased traffic, said Frank Steen, director of Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services.

But with 500 access points already in place across campus, the University does not have plans to expand wireless Internet into individual dorm rooms.

“Right now, you get much better performance plugged directly into a data jack than you get on wireless,” Davis said.

Still, students in first-year dormitories are likely to experience collateral access to wireless Internet installed in their basement and first-floor common rooms. Students in upperclass Houses already report accessing the wireless network from their individual rooms.

While other universities are moving towards completely wireless campuses, Harvard has focused its resources on providing wireless Internet in residential common areas, libraries and key buildings.

“We’re trying to take this limited resource and put it in the place where there’s most demand,” Davis said.

Steen said Harvard’s wireless progress is on par with many of its peer institutions.

“Take Dartmouth, for example, which claims to be completely wireless,” said Steen. “I’ve followed that project, and we’ve done just as much construction as they’ve done.”

During a visit to Harvard last month, Bill Gates, Class of 1977, appeared confident his alma mater would soon gain full wireless access across the campus.

“I don’t know if it’s in every building at Harvard, but some day it will be,” Gates said.

At the top of the University’s list of future access points is the Yard’s Boylston Hall, which will require wireless access for programs this summer, Davis said.

But other classroom buildings, like Sever and Harvard Halls, are not likely to go wireless in the near future.

Davis and Steen said student demand for wireless lecture halls was low and covering those buildings would be a complicated endeavor.

Steen also said some faculty have objected to wireless classrooms, where students could log on the Internet and log out of class.

“There have been some concerns about the students in class, and what students would be doing,” Steen said. “But we haven’t seen any big outcry.”

The University continues to float the possibility of outdoor wireless access in the Yard itself, but the area’s horticulture has impeded progress.

Steen said Harvard had previously attempted to saturate the area with antennas placed above William James and the Holyoke Center, but trees in the Yard blocked the signal.

Efforts at Harvard Stadium have been more successful. The recent installation of wireless in the press box of the stadium has provided collateral access in the stands—but, alas, only on the home side.

—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached at seward@fas.harvard.edu.