Wireless Security at Wesleyan

When you transmit data wirelessly from your computer to the Wesleyan network, it is possible for other people to electronically eavesdrop on the radio waves that carry the data back and forth. While the risk of this happening is relatively small, you can take measures to protect your data as it is transmitted wirelessly.

WPA

One way you can securely transmit data is to enable WPA (Wifi Protected Access). WPA encrypts data as it is sent back and forth between your computer and the wireless access point, which will make it unreadable to electronic eavesdropping.

Click here for instructions on how to configure Windows using WPA

Click the appropriate link below for instructions on how to configure Mac OSX using WPA

    Apple OS X version 10.4

    Apple OS X version 10.5

Secure Protocols

Another way to safeguard your data is to use secure protocols such as HTTPS and SSH to transmit the data. Secure protocols will protect your data from being read in transit even if you are not using WPA.  In addition, secure protocols are more secure than WPA alone because your data will be encrypted at every stage between your computer and the remote computer with which you are communicating.  By comparison, WPA encrypts your data at only the wireless stage between your computer and the wireless access point.  Not all remote machines will be configured to allow you to use secure protocols, but it is a good idea to use secure protocols whenever they are available, even if you are also using WPA.  Below is a table showing common secure protocols and their less secure equivalents.

Many servers at Wesleyan support or require secure protocols, and you are strongly encouraged you use them.  When connecting to Webmail or ePortfolio, you are automatically redirected to a secure HTTPS session.  Also, we strongly recommend using SSH instead of Telnet when using PINE to connect to mail servers, or when loggin in to Condor or Woodstock.