SurfCFCC Wireless Network

The Cape Fear Community College's wireless network, SurfCFCC, is available for use by all CFCC staff, faculty, and enrolled students. The wireless access covers the vast majority of the Down Town and North Campuses.

SurfCFCC provides wireless internet connectivity at for all of your mobile devices such as laptop and notebook computer, iPads and other tablets and any Wi-Fi enabled smart phones. Although there is no encryption on SurfCFCC, you will still need your Student/Staff/Faculty credentials to log in and gain access to the internet.

It should also be noted that SurfCFCC is a separate network from our regular school network and as such you will not have access to things such as printers and shared network drive space.

Important:

It is the responsibility of the user to read and abide by the following policies and guidelines to avoid losing your network connectivity:

Getting Started

Makes sure that your laptop or wireless defice wifi is enabled and can join availble network. When you open your internet browser you will be prompted to login to the SurfCFCC network using your myCFCC username and password.

Basic Wi-Fi Connection Troubleshooting

Make sure your computer is up to date

Software companies constantly put out updates for their products. This includes your computers Operating System or OS for short. Many times these are bug and security fixes and can solve some common wireless related problems. So make sure that your OS is always up to date with the latest patches and fixes

Windows XP/Vista/7 - You can navigate to Windows Update by choosing Start, then to All Programs and then to Windows Update

MAC OSX - This is usually done just by going to the Software Update menu, if there are any updates available for your Mac or Airport, install them.

Restart the Connection

Sometimes, the software and hardware for a notebook's Wi-Fi adapter don't always get along with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. The result: Wi-Fi connections suddenly drop, without apparent reason. One workaround is to stop and restart the wireless network service using the Microsoft Management Console in Windows.

Windows XP - Begin by going to Start, Control Panel, "Performance and Maintenance"; if you're in Category View, select Administrative Tools. Select Services. On the right side of the two-pane dialog box, scroll down to Wireless Zero Configuration and click to select it. Click "Stop the service" and, after that's accomplished, click "Start the service."

Windows Vista - Begin by going to Start, Control Panel, "System and Security” then Administrative Tools; if you're in Category View, select Administrative Tools. Select Services. On the right side of the two-pane dialog box, scroll down to Native WIFI API and click to select it. Click "Stop the service" and, after that's accomplished, click "Start the service."

Windows 7 - Begin by going to Start, Control Panel, "Hardware and Sound” then Windows Mobility Center; if you're in Category View, select Windows Mobility Center. In the upper right corner of the box, click the button to turn wireless off, once full shut down click the button again to turn the wireless back on.

MAC OSX - Turn Airport on & off. You can do this via the Airport menu bar or from the Network Preferences.

Check your Signal Strength

Just like cell/mobile phones, if your signal strength is too low you will have connection problems. For reliable WIFI, two or more “Bars” are desirable.

Flush the DNS Cache

Sometimes this very simple action can make a world of difference as it flushes out old and perhaps corrupt DNS references

Windows XP/Vista/7 – Open the Windows command prompt by selecting the Start menu and entering cmd in the search text field box and hit the enter key. At the command prompt, enter ipconfig /flushdns followed by pressing the enter key. After a moment, Windows will display a message similar to: “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.” Once the message is displayed, the DNS will be flushed removing all incorrect entries

MAC OSX - Launch the Terminal and enter the following command onto one full line within the Terminal: dscacheutil -flushcache

Restart Your Notebook

When having difficulty making a wireless connection, restarting your notebook sometimes solves the problem. Why? It's a bit mysterious, but in general, some utilities and applications may conflict with one another or hog system resources. Restarting can flush out whatever ails your Wi-Fi connection, giving you a fresh start.