Hello Cambridge-based lazyweb! I am looking at network Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) for guest wifi networks, and I have been told that MIT’s AUP for their guest wifi network is particularly terrific- short, simple, etc original site. Can someone in Cambridge who happens to stumble by MIT check into the network and copy/paste the text and email me? I’d owe you a beer next time I’m in the Commonwealth. Thanks!
[edit later: it appears that MIT has removed the acceptable use policy from their guest wireless network. I applaud them for it. Thanks to the couple of people who tried to get me the AUP only to find that it is no longer required!]
I can see the MIT network from Google. I’ll get you the AUP in one minute.
Hrm, it isn’t asking me to login.
I’ve never used it from this laptop, so that is weird. I know it certainly asked me to login in the past.
Could they have gone completely open?
Network is named “MIT GUEST” by the by.
Weird. Completely open would be nice, other than depriving me of a good model AUP ;) But does seem weird, when everyone else is getting less open.
It does do auth by mac address; I assume you’re not spoofing the MAC address, using a USB wifi key, etc.?
Indeed. After hitting on the right google search string, I see from their IS&T site that they are rolling out a new network where there is “a guest network (named “MIT GUEST”) that provides instant connectivity to campus visitors, without the need for the 15-minute registration cycle or conference codes.”
And that finally led me to the real AUP, which isn’t as friendly as I’d been told (though isn’t that bad): http://ist.mit.edu/services/athena/olh/rules
When I attended a conference at Caltech two or three years ago, their guest wireless worked nicely, and their AUP was the shortest university computing AUP I’d ever read.
http://www.imss.caltech.edu/cms.php?op=wiki&wiki_op=view&id=536
http://cit.hr.caltech.edu/policies/AUP.html
Thanks, Richard!
If you connect at MIT using a Stone-Age wired (not wireless) connection, you do have to register for your MAC address, or at least you did last time I was there around MLK Day this year. I don’t remember whether the AUP you reference is what I had to deal with — I don’t remember many details of how I had to connect.
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