Wireless Devices in the Residence Halls

In order to ensure that the Williams wireless network has strong coverage for all students in the residence halls we do not allow devices that interfere with the wireless network and cannot help with devices not designed for our enterprise-grade network.  This is a shared resource and needs to be available for the good of all students.

Besides laptops of course, devices which are allowed include tablets, smartphones and gaming consoles.  If your console supports it, used the wired connection in your dorm room for better performance and to reduce load on the wireless. If you need your jack activated you can do so from ticket.williams.edu – “data jack activation request”.

Devices which are not allowed include:

Routers and Hotspots

Wireless routers directly interfere with the Williams wireless network and are not allowed.  If you want a faster connection in your room, consider connecting via wired ethernet.   All rooms have data jacks which are off by default, to have yours turned on log in to PeopleSoft and go to Self Service > Campus Life > Dorm Ethernet Activation.  If you have any wireless connectivity issues, please contact the student helpdesk at [email protected] or 413-597-3088.

Wireless Printers

For sustainability reasons, we do not recommend bringing a printer to Williams.  Not only do they cost far more per page to print, manufacturing and disposing of them creates a huge amount of waste.  Printing is available in many places throughout campus, for more information on campus printing, see http://print.williams.edu   
If you do decide to bring your own printer, please disable the wireless functionality and use it via USB.  Otherwise wireless printers would use connections and decrease those available to you and other students.

Other Wireless Devices

To make sure the wireless network works best for our students, we must prioritize the devices using it.  Primary importance goes to computers which are used for learning, research, and of course entertainment too.  Other wireless devices will take connections that would be better used by you or another student for their computer.  Consumer devices like the Chromecast, Google Home, and Amazon Echo are not supported on our enterprise-grade network.  To make for a better wifi experience for our students in the residence halls, IoT “Internet of Things” devices are not supported and can cause problems. This would include things like smart light bulbs, smart outlets and smart speakers.