NetComms > Wireless > About ANU-Secure

About ANU-Secure

What Is It?

ANU-Secure is the university's next-generation wireless service. All users of ANU-Access are encouraged to migrate to ANU-Secure. For information on how to connect to ANU-Secure, click here. This pages gives an overview of ANU-Secure.

Overview

Wireless was first introduced to the university in around 2003. Since then the use of wireless networking around the world has grown exponentially, and the technologies have evolved considerably. As a result, in 2008 NetComms undertook a significant upgrade of the service, due for completion in early 2009. This upgrade will deliver greatly enhanced security, speed and functionality.

ANU-Secure is being rolled out across campus in March 2009.

Features

Native Encryption

This means all traffic (each and every packet) send and received on the wireless network is encypted. This prevents eavesdropping regardless of whether the application you are using also uses encryption. ANU-Secure uses leading-edge WPA2+AES encyption. This method is considered very secure by security experts, especially in comparison to older flawed methods such as WEP.

Simpler Authentication

ANU-Secure disposes of the legacy web authentication method, and uses 802.1x for authenticating users. This should be a more convenient method of authentication for most users, particularly for users of PDAs. 802.1x still involves entering your Uni ID and password, but without the need for opening a web browser.

Dual-Band Wireless

ANU-Secure will utilise both the existing 2.4GHz (802.11b/g) and the 5GHz (802.11a) spectrum. The 5GHz spectrum offers an alternative that may provide a faster service for many users. Typically the 5GHz spectrum has less interference from other wireless devices, but it has the disadvantage of being more easily obstructed, e.g. by solid structure.

Faster Speeds (802.11n)

The 802.11n standard offers a 'high-throughput' mode for compatible devices, over both the 2.4Ghz and 5GHz wireless spectrum. In the ANU implementation this should provide an increase in maximum connection speed from 54Mbps to 300Mbps. 802.11n is a big step towards providing a level of wireless service equivalent to a wired connection.

Less Restrictive Access Policy

Native encryption allows us to allow more types of traffic over ANU-Secure. On ANU-Access unencrypted traffic is heavily restricted and only key network services are allowed. ANU-Secure reverses this approach and offers an open access policy where only traffic known to be malicious or a breach of policy is blocked.

Pebble Access

ANU-Secure will allow us to offer access to pebble personal storage volumes over wireless

Printing

InfoCommons printing services will be available via the new printing service PrintQ.

Advanced Application Support

ANU-Secure will, in the future, enable support of more advanced applications, particularly SIP.

More Information

Please head back to the main Wireless Page for more specific information on ANU-Access or the wireless service in general.