Gators could find themselves on a better-connected campus soon.
On July 16, UF’s wireless network will be updated so students can more efficiently access the Internet on campus.
The Unified Wireless Network is a part of the larger Unified Network Project, which was developed to increase the efficiency of Wi-Fi on UF’s campus, said Fedro Zazueta, the senior director of the Office of Academic Technology and a professor in the agricultural and biological engineering department.
The network went into beta testing on May 6, said Tracy Gale, communications manager for UF information technology.
The new network will require users to reconfigure their wireless devices, either automatically or manually, he said.
Zazueta said with the new network, students will no longer need to repeatedly enter their GatorLink password to access UF Wi-Fi when moving from place to place on campus.
Students will only need to log into the wireless network once. Then, students can access Wi-Fi anywhere on the university’s main campus, Zazueta said.
Now, when students log into a lone access point, their cache data is shared across multiple access points on campus.
This means that when moving, a student’s device simply connects to the nearest access point.
However, if students do not have up-to-date security tools or firewall protection on their laptop or mobile device on July 16, they will be blocked from connecting to UF’s Wi-Fi, Gale said.
