During the course of Monday 11 January 2010 we'll be making changes to the deprecated "Rhodes" wireless network.

Rather than completely discontinuing the network previously announced, we'll be changing it to require that staff log in with a valid Rhodes username and password. This will be implemented by means of a captive portal. When you first connect to the network and try and access a remote web site, you'll be presented with a login page before you're allowed to do so. (This means you'll need to open your web browser before you get access to anything, including for instance your e-mail). This is very similar to the way the self-service registration system operates.

At the same time, the view of Rhodes' campus network that's visible from the unsecured "Rhodes" wireless network will be severely restricted. This network will no longer have access to all computers on the University's network; it'll only have access to centrally provided services and a pre-defined list of buildings and networks. The aim of these restrictions is to protect the rest of the University's network from the unsecured wireless network, and they're simply an extension of the restrictions that are already in place.

It is still possible (in fact likely) that this unsecured wireless network will be discontinued entirely at some stage in the future. We have, however, decided to delay its decommissioning as there are still a number of devices in use on campus that do not properly support enterprise wireless (WPA2-Enterprise).