College of Engineering offers secure wireless services in 15 buildings at University Park

In December, the College of Engineering’s Electronic and Computer Services (ECS) unit completed the installation of secure wireless networking systems in 15 buildings on the University Park campus: Hammond, EE East, EE West, Engineering Units A and B, Reber, Fenske, Hallowell, Leonhard, Earth and Engineering Sciences, Research East, Research West and Cato Park. The Transportation Institute and Sackett buildings currently only have selected cover areas pending the completion of network wiring and infrastructure equipment upgrades; work in these buildings is expected to be completed in the spring.

All College of Engineering faculty, students and staff have access to college resources through available secure wireless services with computers capable of wireless connectivity using 802.11a, 802.11b, or 802.11g wireless technologies. To take advantage of these services, engineering faculty, students and staff must install a Virtual Private Networking (VPN) client on their system; the client is available for download at http://www.engr.psu.edu/vpn

In addition to providing connectivity to the college’s wireless network, VPN services provide the added benefit of containing multiple profiles that support both wireless and remote connectivity through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The benefit from using the VPN services to connect from remote locations is that it affords users secure connectivity and access to all the college’s services and resources; it’s just as though people are working in their campus office.

Logging into the college’s network through the VPN client requires college faculty and staff use their Penn State Access Account user name and password. Only currently enrolled engineering undergraduate and graduate students may log into the college’s network to access engineering computing resources. College faculty, students and staff may obtain information about connecting to the College of Engineering wireless network from their department’s technical contact. The names and contact information for department Technical Contacts may be found at http://www.ecs.psu.edu/communications/support/techcont.asp

Provisions also have been made for all University faculty members, students and staff to log into the University’s network using a Penn State-specific VPN profile. ECS personnel worked with the University’s Information Technology Services (ITS) to incorporate wireless access services through the ITS Wireless “SecureNet Assist” program. This service enables non-College of Engineering individuals to use the college’s wireless resources to connect to the University’s networking backbone. An individual may connect to the University common network using the same VPN client as that used in the college’s network; however, a valid Access Account and the University-specific profile must be used. This form of connectivity is currently not active in all the aforementioned buildings; plans are to have this service available in the college’s buildings by the end of January. Non-College of Engineering faculty, staff and students will need to contact the ITS Help Desk for assistance in obtaining the VPN client and wireless connectivity information.