Overview of department network access

The majority of Mathematics Department offices, meeting rooms, and laboratories are situated in Lockett Hall and Prescott Hall. Both buildings have excellent bandwidth to the campus core network, which in turn is connected with redundant high-speed links to LONI (Louisiana Optical Network Initiative), which in turn is connected to various public sector and private sector internet backbones including Internet2 and Time-Warner.

Technical network details

How to register your equipment to connect to the wired network

• State property equipment (i.e., purchased with department funds or obtained through a grant) is typically permanently registered with campus networking by Mathematics IT staff at time of purchase/installation. The department covers the cost of at least one physical network port per office. Additional network ports may incur a one-time facilities fee for the physical installation. There is no monthly fee associated with department-affiliated network ports. (Campus policies forbid the use of commodity switches to connect multiple pieces of equipment to one port.)
• Personal equipment may be connected via an ethernet cable to the wired network, assuming you have an available network wall port in your location (see prior paragraph). When you open a web browser and attempt to go to any website, you should get redirected to the BlueCat "Device Registration Portal". Follow the instructions to enter your MyLSU ID and password, and you will obtain a network registration that is good for one year at a time. (You repeat the process each year.)

How to connect to “eduroam” wireless network

Choose the network “eduroam”. When it asks for credentials, enter your complete LSU e-mail address (which looks like “mtiger1@lsu.edu”) and your MyLSU password. In other words, you are essentially entering your MyLSU credentials but you must include “@lsu.edu”—the reason is that eduroam is a world-wide network and someone at another institution might have the same ID but they would have a different @ extension. Note that the first time you connect to eduroam, you will be asked to approve a security certificate. If you are having difficulty connecting, please consult the LSU ITS GROK article on connecting to wireless, which has step-by-step instructions for most devices and operating systems.

How to give guests access to the wireless network

Note: Visitors from academic institutions likely already have eduroam (check the worldwide eduroam map and institution listing). Their device should automatically connect to eduroam at LSU.

• To set up credentials for short-term guests (up to a month) who do not have their own eduroam from their own institution, visit https://netguest.lsu.edu/ and create a temporary guest account. The visitor will use “lsuguest“ instead of “eduroam”.
• For visits up to several months, the prior step can be repeated each month, or you can put in a ticket with LSU ITS to extend the duration of the netguest account you created.
• Longer-term guests will typically have appointments through LSU HRM and thus receive an LSU account. This account will allow connection to eduroam. For longer-term guests without a formal appointment, see the GROK Article 7057 on Sponsored Guest Accounts.
• For small conferences or events (in the realm of 100 people or less), a single "lsuguest" account can be created and shared with the attendees. For large events, LSU ITS will need to be contacted; they might set up special accounts and/or set up additional temporary access points to allow a large crowd to connect without overwhelming the wireless infrastructure.

Avoiding wireless interference

• Wireless operates in the 2.4GHz, 5.8GHz, and 7GHz ranges.
• Older cordless telephones operating at 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz are not allowed. Cordless office phones should be of the latest "DECT 6.0" variety (which operates at 1.9GHz).
• Every microwave oven operates in the 2.4GHz range and causes measurable interference with wifi while the oven is operating. If you have wifi connectivity issues while you or nearby offices are operating a microwave, for example during lunch time, there is nothing that can be done aside from waiting until the microwave usage is complete.
• Some common devices like cell phones, laptops, and wireless printers may be misconfigured to advertise themselves as a wireless access point, presumably for convenience in the context of a small home network, but a source of trouble in a managed enterprise environment. These are referred to as “rogue access points”. Another example is an actual wifi access point brought in to campus from home (a violation of campus policy), perhaps with the seemingly harmless intention by someone of making say wireless audio function with their computer in their office. The majority of rogue equipment is operating without users being aware of it, or at least being unaware of the trouble it is causing. To police this, we periodically work with ITS to scan the buildings for sources of wifi interference. If any equipment sending rogue signals is discovered, we will work with you to get it reconfigured in a way that continues to reasonably meet your needs while no longer interfering with your neighbors on the network.
• To learn more about wifi signal penetration and interference: http://blog.serverfault.com/2011/12/12/a-studied-approach-at-wifi-part-1/.