Wired Network
The MSU campus network provides gigabit Ethernet connections to the desktops in all major buildings on campus. The campus network is connected to the commodity Internet and Internet2 via redundant, dual 100 GBps connections to the Mississippi Optical network, or MissiON. An illustration of the campus network backbone is available here.
Internet2
MSU is a member of Internet2, www.internet2.edu, an exceptional community of U.S. and international leaders in research, academia, industry and government who create and collaborate via innovative technologies. Participating universities help accelerate research discovery, advance national and global education, and improve the delivery of public services. Please visit the Internet2 website for more information.
MissiON
The Mississippi Optical Network or MissiON, mission.mississippi.edu, connects MSU and other Mississippi Research Consortium institutions to each other, the commodity Internet, and Internet2 in support of education and research. Please visit the MissiON website for more information.
Wireless Network
The MSU wireless network is based on IEEE 802.11a/g/n/ac/ax (i.e. WiFi) technology and provides coverage in nearly every indoor and outdoor area of the main campus. Full wireless access to the network is available to all students, faculty, and staff by connecting to eduroam. eduroam is the secure, world-wide WiFi roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. eduroam, eduroam.us, allows MSU faculty, researchers and staff to obtain Internet connectivity when visiting other participating institutions by authenticating with their netid@msstate.edu user account and NetPassword. Look for the eduroam SSID when connecting wireless devices to the network.
Campus guests can obtain limited wireless access by going to the MSU Welcome Center or Barnes and Noble in the Cullis-Wade Depot to receive the guest password of the day. Faculty and staff can also give their guests limited access by retrieving the guest password of the day from the ITS website. After receiving the password, guests will need to connect to the msuguest network on their device, accept the terms of agreement, then input the password to complete the connection.
Note: The wireless guest password should not be distributed over the phone, emailed, or posted on public Web pages.
Because of inherent limitations in wireless technology, the wireless network does not compete with the wired network in terms of performance and reliability but rather complements it with added flexibility and mobility. A typical wired network connection is at least four times faster than a wireless network connection, and obstacles such as walls and trees can negatively impact wireless performance. A wireless connection is typically adequate for applications such as email and text-based Web surfing. However, accessing multimedia-rich resources such as audio and video files over a wireless network can be less than desirable.