<p>What is the WiFi availability in the dorms (Sutherland) and around campus? I have been told that there is no wifi in Sutherland and that you can't even setup your own router. Is this true and why?</p>
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<p>True, no wifi. They’re working on creating it though it may take up to another year. You have ethernet internet in the dorm rooms (buy a 50 ft cable) and in public spaces (lounge, ground floor) there is wifi. Your room is so small that the wifi vs. cable thing won’t make a difference (thus the 50 ft cable).</p>
<p>@AwesomeOpossum thanks for your answer and all the posts of yours that I have been following. My Daughter will be accepting her offer @ Pitt this week. She visited last week and I couldn’t believe no WiFi in the dorms. The cable will work for a laptop - but not for a phone or tablet. That is why I was going to set her up with a router. She told me that other students said they are not allowed and would be confiscated.</p>
<p>I don’t know the rules at Pitt, but my daughter who has a MAC Book and who goes to another college uses her Time Capsule to generate her own personal wifi network in her room. I find it hard to believe that Pitt could regulate that since it is also a backup device. The housing information indicates the new dorm at Pitt is Wifi enabled, it may be the only one.</p>
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<p>True. They’re actually starting to enable wifi in the dorms this summer (beyond Nordy Hall) so as soon as the start of this year (or the end of the year) most of the dorms should have wifi. </p>
<p>The nice thing is that there is wifi in every other spot on campus (classrooms, grounds, etc.) so in her room…she shouldn’t necessarily need to use the wifi on the Tablet or Phone since her computer will be connected anyway.</p>
<p>Son is in Sutherland and his room is next to the lounge - he does get the signal in his room. I think it depends on where your room is located on the floor.</p>
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<p>True. I lived right above a lounge one year and never used wired internet, only wireless.</p>
<p>I live in the quad and have had no problems with wi-fi, in Towers it depended on location if it worked, and I had none in Panther. The ethernet isn’t a huge issue though</p>
<p>I called about the time capsule idea and the IT guy said that the “switch” will automatically deactivate any non computer device that shows up on a dorm based ethernet port - including a time capsule. Although it is difficult - it is theoretically possible to detect a MAC address and for the network to know if the device is a computer or router. I would think that Internet sharing mode would allow a computer to act as a WiFi access point and would be hard to detect. I really don’t understand why they don’t have a good solution for this as so many devices like phones and tablets need WiFi and don’t work with Ethernet wired connections.</p>
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<p>You have to keep in mind that when many of these dorms were built (or transformed into housing), tablets and phones with internet did not exist. They couldn’t predict that not having wifi would be an issue. Pitt is trying to make up for it now by posthumously putting wifi into the dorms, but it takes a while. Like I said, inside your dorm room, you will (theoretically) have a computer with internet, so not being able to connect on a phone or tablet will not be an issue. On other spots around campus (market central, cathedral lawn, classrooms, etc.) wifi is readily available for phone/tablet/laptop use.</p>
<p>Wondering if there is any update on WiFi in Sutherland for the upcoming fall semester. I would like to have a working tablet and phone with minimal data plan through the cell phone company.</p>