Network
While living on campus, you will be provided with a high-speed, "always-on" Internet connection. The Internet port in your room connects to a complex network designed for the fastest, most stable and most secure Internet experience possible. We have a firewall between the residential network and the Internet connection to assist in protecting you from the evils lurking on the web. Our network also connects directly to the on-campus network providing a seamless bond with necessary educational resources. It's important to understand that the residential network exists solely for educational purposes.
Primarily, you will connect to the network using the wired Ethernet port in your room. In addition to this, we provide ResNet Wireless Internet access in study lounges and common rooms around the different halls. No wireless Internet access is provided in any room. Some students have previously reported being able to receive wireless signals in their rooms. In this scenario, we discourage its use as it is much slower than the wired connection provided in your room. The Mustang Wireless website (for the rest of campus) maintains a coverage map displaying the locations of campus wireless "hotspots."
Different halls have different configurations. Two network ports are provided in each room (one per resident) for the North Mountain Halls (white-bricks), South Mountain Halls (red-bricks), Sierra Madre, and Yosemite. In the Cerro Vista and Poly Canyon Village apartments, only one network port is provided in each room (still one per resident). However, in Cerro Vista and Poly Canyon Village the common living room contains an additional network port for the entire apartment.
This year, bandwidth has been increased per student. Each user is allocated to receive 10 MB/s bi-directionally, meaning any combination of upload and/or download speeds that equals 10 MB/s (10 MB/s download + 0 upload, 8 MB/s download + 2 upload, 6 MB/s download + 4 upload, etc).
Some students decide to bring more than one computer to campus. While there is nothing wrong with this, please take note that you receive only one network connection in your room. This means that you will need to swap the network cable between computers (if you want the other to be on the network, that is). We do not make any exceptions to this policy. Some students tried to solve this dilemma by bringing their own networking hardware (such as switches, hubs, wireless access points, etc.). The Cal Poly Responsible Use Policy strictly forbids the modification of the state network (such as adding switches, hubs, wireless access points, etc.). In addition to it being against state law, adding networking hardware disrupts the operations of the residential network. As we mentioned before, our network is extremely complex. It is not like a simple home network. The presence of these unauthorized devices can actually cause network outages on entire floors and sometimes entire buildings.
Last Update: 10/6/2009
This website best viewed in Safari 4, Firefox 3 & IE 8.
Internet Explorer 6 not supported.
