Students at Princeton University will be able to access the World Wide Web via wireless Ethernet connection at the University's Firestone Library starting next week.
This pilot program will provide six wireless Ethernet cards for students to borrow from the library's reserve desk for five hours at a time. The cards fit into a slot at the back of a standard laptop where a regular Ethernet cable would be inserted.
Spencer Merriweather, president of Princeton's student government, said he thought the new program will be quite popular, saying it "gives people a lot of flexibility as far as study space is concerned."
The cards, which are powered by high frequency radio waves of 2.4 GHz, have a range of several hundred feet and will therefore allow students to surf the Internet or receive e-mail while studying outside or in the nearby Chancellor Green Cafe. "It opens the whole campus," explained Merriweather, "by helping students to make use of the resources we have."
When asked if Dartmouth students will have access to the same type of service in the near future, Associate Director of Consulting at Dartmouth computing services Randall Spydell replied, "we don't have any plans that I am aware of."
According to Steven Sather, director of Princeton's computing services department, the goal of the project, made possible by the combined efforts of Princeton Computing Services and Firestone Library, is to connect all students, wherever they are, to the Internet.
Although the program is expected to grow in the coming months, Sather assured The Dartmouth that Princeton is looking to augment rather than replace the existing Ethernet infrastructure.
At $400 per card, Sather admitted that the wireless connection is "certainly not cost competitive" in comparison to the new Macintosh I-book, for example, which includes a wireless service for an additional $99. Sather does, however, "expect that the price will go down substantially over the next two years" and also pointed out that this technology will be free to students, who have already prepaid a $144 fee to become members of Dormnet, the campus-wide computing system.
Indeed, the cards will be available at the reserve desk on a first come, first served basis for any student interested in using them. If the program proves to be popular, the library expects to supply an additional four cards for student use in the coming weeks.
The Princeton computing department is working closely with both Aironet Communications and Lucent Technology, two leading companies in the industry. Only the PC compatible Aironet cards will be on hand next week, although the Lucent cards are hoped to be available for Mac users in the near future.
Because the Ethernet radio waves cannot penetrate the thick walls of many campus buildings, the computing service department feels that the existing program will need to be improved before the winter term, when students prefer to study indoors. Sather stated that, after observing the demand for the cards this fall, "we will assess where we want to go from here."
Although Princeton's new computing program is the subject of much excitement, it is not the first of its kind. Students at Carnegie Mellon University have already been enjoying a wireless internet connection for the past two years.
