How can I get a wired network connection?

Please see Ordering Data Service page for complete information.  The following information must be provided: budget number with authorization, room number and location of desired service, contact information for someone that is familiar with the request, and the desired date of service.  Order service as early as possible because there may be a backlog of orders.

How much does it cost?

All of this information has been consolidated on the cost recovery page that is orginized by type of service.

What is a wired connection?

The most common type of network connection is a wired connection.  This is the jack in the wall that you plug your computer into for network access.  Usually these jacks are labeled with a room number followed by a sequence number and are near the telephone jack.  The network jack is similar in shape to the phone jack in your home only bigger.  Phone jacks at Missouri State University are also the larger size and they are usually white or beige in color.  Network jacks, however, are usually orange (for older wiring) or yellow.

What are the advantages of a wired connection?

A wired connection will provide the fastest and most reliable access to the Missouri State University network and the Internet. 

 

Almost all of the wired network connections are 1000 Mb, full duplex and switched.  In comparison a good dialup connection is 56Kb (1800 times slower), a DSL or cable modem connection is about 1.5 to 3 Mbps, wireless 802.11b is 11 Mbps, wireless 802.11g can get up to 54 Mbps, and wireless 802.11n can reach speeds of 600 Mbps but 22Mbps or less is common. 

Wireless and cable modem are shared resources meaning that everyone in the area is using the same bandwidth.  For instance if there are 10 people using wireless in the same area, they are all competing for the same 54 Mb so they may experience slower speeds than if there was only one or two people using it.  A switched wired connection provides the full amount of bandwidth (100 Mb in this case) to each user making it faster and more reliable.  Also, a wireless connection will be slower if you are further away from the source antenna or if there are impediments such as walls blocking the signal.  A wired connection does not have these restrictions.

What are the disadvantages of a wired connection?

A wired connection (as the name implies) requires a physical wire to be pulled to the desired location of the network jack.  This costs materials and labor for each connection.  Once installed the jacks can not usually be moved and installing new connections incur additional costs.

There are also physical limitations to wired service.  There has to be a way to get a wire from the desired jack location to the closest networking equipment in the building.  If this is not available then a wireless solution should be considered.

Finally, if the jack or wire is physically damaged, a repair order must be submitted. Contact your user support representative for assistance.

Is it secure?

The wired network does not provide any additional encryption to the data that traverses it.  However, because the network is switched there is no way for someone to view the data on the wire without physically tapping into the line.  This means that the wired network is extremely secure against anyone seeing data that they are not supposed to.

Once the data leaves our network, however, Computer Services can not guarantee anything about its security.  If there is sensitive information that is destined for the Internet, some users may want to use third-party encryption mechanisms to keep their data secure.

Areas requiring higher levels of security may request workgroups or groups of servers be further protected by a "workgroup firewall". Additional one-time charges generally apply. Contact Josh Stuppy or another member of the Information Services Networking team for more information.