Students are virtually leaping for joy with the completion of the wifi upgrade in the dorms at Blue Ridge School. This fall, Director of Technology Wayne Peterson installed individual hotel-style internet access points in every student dorm room.

Previously, students shared multiple access points on dorm halls. With the completion of this project, each dorm room now has 802.11 ac (5 GHz) wireless connection and three ethernet ports with gigabit speed. Using individual access points rather than having students share multiple access points on each hall will also reduce disruptions of service. Proximity between access points and mobile devices provides stronger signal strength and mitigates signal corruption caused by building walls, microwaves, and refrigerators. 

Blue Ridge School also continues to increase its available bandwidth, which has more than doubled in recent years. This recent upgrade will allow students to access those increasing speeds without requiring the installation of additional hardware. 

Peterson says, “Blue Ridge School is constantly working to give students and faculty access to reliable, secure, and fast internet connections. This was a big project that could not have been completed without significant work by the School’s facilities team. They do the hard work of literally building our network so the rest of us can connect easily.”

Blue Ridge School now has 180 wireless connection units distributed across campus to provide ubiquitous coverage for students, faculty, and guests—from dorm rooms and classrooms to athletic fields and the lakefront.