Linux on the Purdue Campus

(BTW, just for fun I'm entering this post using lynx, my favorite browser)

I took my laptop to work today, as I had an early meeting out of the office, and I had hoped to check up on email at the site.

Since I had connected to the University wireless network (PAL - Purdue Air Link) in the past, and I still had the instructions, it should have been easy to connect again. However, things didn't work out quite so well.

I spent 10 minutes trying to connect. All of the steps seemed to work, but each time I tried, I ended up on the open network telling me to use PAL. After 4 tries, I gave up.

Next, I thought I would just use a wired connection, so I wandered around the building until I found an Ethernet cable. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a live Ethernet jack (AKA PIC - Purdue Information Connection). Five more minutes wasted.

In desparation, I fired up Vista instead of Linux. It came up, but spent the next 10 minutes in a virus scan and Windows update process before the network connected and I could continue. Since I don't boot that operating system very often, it seems to save up the housekeeping tasks and fire them all at once. In Vista's favor, it did connect to PAL quickly, and I was able to check my mail - two minutes before the meeting started and after most of the attendees had arrived.

To avoid being rude, I only read a couple of the most urgent messages and powered down.

Later, I tried the 'new' PAL VPN client for Linux provided by the University, but it wouldn't even install. I left the task of working with the help desk for another day.

UPDATE: here