What is Wireless Ethernet?
Wireless Ethernet (the technology known by the specification IEEE 802.11b) offers Ethernet speeds without the wires, with speeds similar to that of workstations hard wired to the UCLA campus backbone network. Under 802.11b, devices communicate at a speed of 11 Mbps whenever possible. If signal strength or interference is disrupting data, the devices will drop back to 5.5 Mbps, then 2 Mbps and finally down to 1 Mbps. The service coverage is somewhat similar to the experience of cellular phone coverage, meaning that performance varies with the strength of the signal, and there are dead spots in the coverage area where there is no signal. Users of this network will be able to access the wireless Ethernet network by authenticating to a virtual private networking (VPN) server with their BOL username and password.
