KIS: Wireless Networking: Allen Center

Kellogg's Allen Center wireless network allows you to access the Internet and the Kellogg network without plugging into an Ethernet jack. In general, a wireless connection works just like a wired Ethernet connection, so you can check email and browse the web while connected to wireless.

Top speed on a wireless network is 11 megabits per second (Mbps)—more than 200 times faster than a 56K modem. Wireless networks are a shared resource, however the more users connected to wireless, the less bandwidth is available to each user. For this reason, wired Ethernet remains the best choice when there is an Ethernet port nearby. Wireless access is intended to supplement wired Ethernet access, not replace it.

Executive Education participants, Kellogg visitors and EMP students with non-Kellogg Laptop Program laptops: You may follow the directions below to configure your laptop for our wireless network, or provide them to your company's technical support group so that they may configure your laptop for you in advance.

Note for faculty: Faculty should schedule classes for wired classrooms, not wireless only classrooms, if network access will be a critical part of the class (e.g. a laptop hands-on exercise or exam via laptop). Wired classrooms in the Allen Center are rooms 221 and 223.

Please be considerate of your fellow students—the wireless network is a shared resource. Downloading large files (movie trailers, MP3’s, etc.), streaming audio or video, or using file sharing services will slow the wireless network down for everyone, so please refrain from these activities.

The Allen Center wireless network covers all classrooms, study group rooms, bedrooms and common areas.

Kellogg's wireless network is an 802.11b wireless Ethernet network. To connect to Kellogg's wireless network, your laptop must have an 802.11b compatible wireless Ethernet adapter. 802.11g, 802.11a/b and 802.11a/g wireless cards are also compatible. 802.11a wireless cards are not compatible.

Most new laptops now come with built-in wireless adapters. Please consult your laptop's specifications to find out whether your laptop has a wireless card and, if so, what kind it is (802.11b or 802.11a?).

KIS does not have a specific wireless card recommendation--except that you should not buy a bargain-basement card and expect it to work hassle-free. Kellogg uses Cisco wireless access points, so you may have good luck with Cisco wireless cards, such as the Cisco Aironet 802.11 a/b/g Wireless Adapter.

WARNING: If you are using a laptop issued by your employer we recommend checking with the IT staff at your company to make sure changing the laptop's network settings will not cause problems accessing your company's network.

If you are using Windows 2000 or another operating system besides Windows XP, please click here to skip ahead.

Note for Executive Masters Program (EMP) Students: All Kellogg Laptop Program computers are pre-configured for the wireless network. If you have the KLP laptop, you should not need to make any changes.

Now that you have connected to our wireless network, you should be able to check email and browse the Web. If you encounter problems, please see our troubleshooting section.

We are unable to offer detailed instructions for previous versions of Windows -- Windows XP was the first version of Windows to incorporate support for wireless networking into Windows. In Windows 2000 and earlier versions of Windows, the wireless card or laptop manufacturer (e.g., Linksys or IBM) provides software that handles connecting to wireless networks. You will need to consult your wireless card manual or laptop manual for instructions. You will need to know our wireless network's SSID (name) to configure your laptop to connect to it. The network SSID (name) for the Kellogg wireless network is ksm.

Macintosh computers
Northwestern IT has documentation to help you connect a Macintosh laptop to the wireless network. When using the documentation, please use our network name (ksm) in place of the Northwestern University network name (nuwlan). The documentation is available at:

If you are connected to the wireless network but are unable to connect to the Kellogg home page (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu), you probably need to adjust your network settings: at Kellogg your wireless adapter must be set to obtain an IP address automatically and to obtain DNS server addresses automatically. Some companies use static IP addresses, which do not work outside of your office. Instructions on how to switch your laptop to dynamic addressing are available here:

To troubleshoot other wireless connectivity problems, first make sure you have not enabled WEP for the ksm network. To check Windows XP's wireless settings:

Select Start, Control Panel, Network Connections
Right click Wireless Connection, Select Properties
Click the Wireless Networks tab.
Select ksm from the list of Preferred Networks (not Available Networks) and click Properties.
Make sure WEP is disabled.
Click OK

Your connection is intermittent

If you have problems with your laptop occasionally losing its wireless connection, we have a few suggestions. (Note: These are for Windows XP only)

First, verify that your laptop is set for “infrastructure networks only.” Many student laptops are set to “any available network.” We recommend changing this setting immediately to infrastructure networks only. To do this:

Select Start, Control Panel, Network Connections
Right click Wireless Connection, Select Properties
Select View Available Wireless Networks
Click Advanced
Click Advanced again (the Button at the bottom, not the Tab at the top)
Select Access point (infrastructure) networks only, as illustrated at right.
Click Close
Click OK

If you have been connecting to other wireless networks besides Kellogg, you probably have a long list in your wireless history. Windows XP handles this by attempting to connect to each of these other networks in order. Each failed connection must time out before your computer attempts to connect to Kellogg wireless. We recommend that you delete any wireless networks that you will not connect to regularly. In addition, we recommend that you “promote” ksm to be your top wireless network. To do this:

Select Start, Connect To, Show All Connections
Right click Wireless Connection, Select Properties
Click the Wireless Networks tab
Under Preferred Networks, select and then remove any networks that you no longer want
Click ksm and then click Move Up until it is the top Preferred Network
Click OK

Finally, make sure you're giving the laptop enough time to connect to wireless before trying to use wireless. When you first open your laptop and wish to connect to wireless, give it 60 seconds to do the initial connection with the wireless access point. Once this has happened you will see the double-computer icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.