With the recent installation of high-speed Internet service in the HUB-Robeson Center, laptop users will be able to connect through wireless networking.

Robin Anderson, associate director of customer communications for Information Technology Services (ITS), said laptop users are now able to connect through the Internet everywhere in the HUB except in the eateries.

"We are trying to find places where students congregate and have laptops," she said.

This was a jointly-funded project between ITS and the Division of Student Affairs, Anderson said, adding that the two attempted to figure out where most students gather when they are not in classes.

Wireless networking in the HUB adds convenience for the student body, Anderson said. All a student needs to do is download the free access software and walk into the HUB with their laptop.

After the software is downloaded from the ITS Web site, students would need to access the client and sign in with their student ID and password.

Steve Updegrove, senior director of Telecommunications and Networking Services, said wireless networking in the HUB is very advantageous to students.

"It gives students who have laptop devices one more place they could check their e-mail or do a modest amount of Web surfing," Updegrove said.

Anderson said this is a project that will be growing and expanding.

"A lot of other campuses have gone this route, and it's a widely growing technology," she said.

Lacey Cirinelli (junior-bioengineering), an avid laptop user, said she does not find it necessary to utilize this service.

"It would probably be just as easy to stop in at a computer lab on campus," she said.

Although Cirinelli does not find it necessary to make use of the wireless network, she believes it does have its advantages.

"If you were meeting with a group of classmates to work on a homework project for class, then you would be able to submit online assignments or look up any information you might need from the Web," she said.

Anderson believes Penn State will eventually become a wireless campus, but added wireless networking will not be installed in residence halls.

"We're looking for places that are convenient," she said. "Because students have direct access to an Ethernet port, it is not essential."

Cliff Rodack, network coordinator for residence halls, agreed with Anderson.

"We don't feel that wireless connections in residence halls will be what we want to do," he said.

The residence halls have very strict security because of bandwidth limits, Rodack said. "We don't want students connecting with their wireless equipment to other students and messing up bandwidth."

Other departments on campus that want to adopt wireless solutions are making the decision on their own, Rodack said. But housing doesn't feel the network is secure enough to be putting in the residential halls.

Rodack added that wireless connections in residence halls are prohibited.