Penn State University Libraries - Wireless 2.0 - No VPN Required

This information pertains to the libraries at University Park.  For information on other campus libraries, visit the Campus College Libraries page. 

1. What Do I Need?

To get connected to the Penn State Wireless 2.0 service, you'll need:

• A Penn State Access Account.
• A laptop with an 802.11 compatible wireless network card.
  
• Instructions for Windows | Macintosh | Unix/Linux | Apple iPhone/iPod Touch (pending)
  

The Penn State Wireless 2.0 service incorporates recent 802.1X wireless authentication and encryption methods that are aimed at enabling an improved level of security and improved performance. You no longer have to download a VPN or relaunch a VPN session when moving from building to building. Just open your laptop and you'll see the psu network.

2. Unplug and Fire Up a Connection!

It's easy to get connected to Penn State Wireless 2.0. All you have to do is:

• Power up your laptop. 
• Use the psu wireless network for your tasks.

Visit the ITS Knowledge Base for setup instructions for Wireless 2.0 access on the iPhone

Network Operations Center

The Penn State Wireless Service support is provided by the Network Operations Center (NOC) for active monitoring, maintenance, and problems.  Information about support and contacting the NOC in the event of a problem follows:

• maintenance window is weekdays from 5AM - 7AM (exceptions coordinated with and approved by the customer)
  
• notification for planned/unplanned outages via ITS-Alerts website/listserv
• notification for production changes directly with customer
• reported problems are assigned a tracking number, the person reporting the problem will receive email acknowledgment when a ticket is opened and resolved, and additional collaboration between ITS and the customer will occur exclusive of NOC notifications as required
  

Reporting problems with individual user laptop and mobile devices or for configuring wireless settings: 

For individual user laptop and mobile device wireless problems such as a user is not able to connect to wireless, but other users are currently using the Penn State Wireless Service or for assistance in configuring wireless settings contact the ITS Help Desk at: 814-865-HELP, email: helpdesk@psu.edu. Email and phone support are available 24 hours.  Walk-in assistance is also available Monday - Friday from 8am-5pm in 204 Wagner Building (814-863-2494) or 6 Willard Building (814-863-1035). 

Reporting outages with the Penn State Wireless Service:

• web: http://tns.its.psu.edu/noc/
• phone: 814-865-4662 (in the event of a significant outage, please contact the NOC via phone)
• email: tnsnoc@psu.edu

NOC hours: 

• Monday – Friday 7:00am – 11:00pm
  
• Saturday 10:00am – 6:00pm
• Sunday 3:00pm – 11:00pm

After hours, NOC phone lines are transferred to an answering service.  If an event occurs outside of NOC hours and can’t wait until the next business day, the answering service will page on-call staff to respond to the outage.

Wireless Service incident example:  no user is able to connect to the Wireless Service in a given area