Charles Geizhals had been meaning to try out the wireless Internet feature of his new Macintosh Powerbook G4 for a few weeks but hadn’t gotten around to it. He took his first test-run in the dining area of Norris University Center at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Geizhals’ laptop came with a wireless card pre-installed. Information Technology’s Web site about using the wireless network gives step-by-step instructions, which he attempted to follow.
Geizhals, a Weinberg junior, clicked on the “Download Mac VPN client” button, and a folder called “VPN Client” appeared on his desktop. Inside the folder was a filed called “Install.” He clicked on it, opening a window. He clicked on the “Configure” button, and entered his Net ID. Then he clicked “OK.”
At this point a window popped up asking him if he wanted to “Turn AirPort on?” He said yes. A status bar appeared which showed an icon of a radar picking up signal.
“All right, well, at least we have signal,” Geizhals said. But when he tried to connect to the Internet through a browser, an error message appeared suggesting that he install a VPN client. Apparently, the computer wasn’t aware that he already did that.
He restarted the computer and tried connecting to the Internet without turning on the VPN. Now, he opened the VPN client and connected with success.
He visited the New York Times Web site as his first wireless destination.
“This is pretty great, and it’s really fast, surprisingly. And I’m getting a good signal,” he said. “A lot of people must not realize that this is faster than in your dorm.”
At that moment, no other people on the ground floor of Norris were using the wireless network, so Geizhals was taking advantage of the full 11 megabits the access point had to offer.
“It would be great if they had this in the library, because I don’t really do work in Norris,” he said.
He said he realized that if he wanted to, he could be really lazy. “I could check online what they are serving at Norris right now,” he chuckled. “But if I stood up, I could probably see the food with my own eyes.”
