That requirements document has a lot of boilerplate fluff about "adequate performance", which may be the reason they are pushing so hard for 802.11ac.
Macs:
- Ethernet card and cable or USB Ethernet Adapter (for models without an Ethernet Port)
- WPA2 Wireless, Only the AC 5.0 GHZ Wireless Cards will work
There is an old Engineering Mantra: "Understand Fully, or copy Faithfully." it appears the former is somewhat lacking in this case, so the emphasis is on the latter.
on Ethernet: the newest Macs do not HAVE an Ethernet port, and do not, strictly speaking, have a USB-port to allow the use of a USB-Ethernet adapter. They should use this instead:
Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter $34.95
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On Wi-Fi:
WPA-2 encryption standard is a firm requirement, because that is the encryption method in use all over campus. Your computer must use that, or you simply cannot get on the Network.
The school seems very committed to the 5GHz band, which in practice has been far less subject to interference and overcrowding than the 2.4GHZ band. That is laudable. But its "distance from Access-point" is lower, so more Access-points are required for good coverage.
They are also saying "Do not even THINK of using a USB-Wi-FI dongle instead of good, solid, built-in Wi-Fi with multiple antennas (but it might be far insightful to state it that way.) Macs have had dual-band (2.4 AND 5GHz) built-in for a long time.
802.11 b, and 802.11g are only directly supported on the 2.4GHz band. So these will not work, except as they have been hacked to fit inside newer standards.
802.11n can work over either 2.4GHz or 5GHz band. It has the possibility of greatly increasing the data rate by using multiple antennas -- the data are derived from the difference between the signals received at the various (typically two) antennas. It has a backward-compatibility mode available, which lowers the throughput, but can support older 802.11g and a few 802.11b devices.
[THIS decreased throughput may be what the School is trying to avoid by specifying 802.11ac, and not necessarily supporting backward compatibility, including all the way back to 802.11b. Because of their choices, they need more access-points, and the costs may be forcing them to say, "no backward-compatible devices that eat away at Bandwidth available."]
Their requirements may not be as Draconian is practice as they appear on paper. If this were my situation, I would go to the school with an 802.11n-capable Mac, and try it (if you could get an "everybody" password). But older 802.11g-only Macs will NOT be likely to work.
