The HKU WiFi Network is a high-speed network supporting tens of thousands of users. This network utilizes the same air medium for all WiFi clients, sharing WiFi channels and Access Point (AP) resources. Devices with old WiFi standards, such as 802.11a/b/g, can significantly impact the performance of devices using faster WiFi standards such as 802.11ac/ax (WiFi-6)/be (WiFi-7). In view of this, it is decided that support for low-speed WiFi devices (802.11a/802.11g) in the campus network will be discontinued starting from September 1, 2024. Please note that support for 802.11b clients has already been discontinued since January 1, 2015.
Nowadays, the majority of WiFi clients are at least with 802.11n standard. A recent sample snapshot of the HKU WiFi clients revealed that there are only 12 802.11g clients , and none of 802.11a clients. It is expected that the change should have minimal impact to current WiFi users.
We recommend that staff and students who are currently using 802.11a/g clients consider upgrading their network devices to products that support the latest WiFi standards.
This move is aimed at enhancing the overall performance of the WiFi network for devices running faster WiFi standards.