eduroam/JANET Roaming Service

Executive Summary

Use the eduroam wireless network name (SSID).

All CMS wired laptop network sockets now support eduroam based authentication. The configuration for wired eduroam is slightly different than for wireless.

Quickstart: Configuring eduroam on your wireless device

Cambridge users, first time:

  1. get your identifier and token
  2. follow the relevant instructions
  3. read the further details

Visitors:

  1. you will need authentication credentials (often an identifier and password) from your home institution
  2. read the further details

Introduction

eduroam is an international initiative that allows members of educational establishments to gain internet access at other member sites easily, using credentials from their home site in a secure manner.

Authentication details (username/password) are configured into the user's computer and tested at the home site before departure. These details are used automatically at the destination site when the computer discovers the eduroam network is available. Janet is the UK provider of eduroam.

At the CMS we started offering the eduroam service on 11th October 2010 intending it to (eventually) replace the old unencrypted wireless networks which impose many more restrictions on what can be done. In the first four weeks we saw over 32000 eduroam authentications though this actually only represents use by about 260 unique Cambridge users and about 35 from further away. The number of eduroam users continues to rise as more people configure their devices.

During February 2012 we finished updates to support eduroam based authention on all our laptop network wired sockets. All the laptop network sockets now supports IEEE 802.1x based authentication using eduroam credentials - but will fall back to our existing web-based captive-portal for devices which do not support 802.1x, or have not yet been configured.

Details for Visitors

The CMS implementation of eduroam (JANET Roaming Service) complies with the JRS Tier 2, supporting WPA-TKIP and WPA2-AES with private IP addresses (which are NAT'd) and no IPv6 support.

Outbound ports are blocked are essentially the same as our existing service on wired sockets.

Please read the University of Cambridge Computing Service guide for visitors using eduroam:

Visitor printing

while using networks in the CMS visitors have access to our printers via the usual CUPS or Windows print mechanisms. Note that we do log all print requests with sufficient details to be able to make a complaint to your home institution if there appears to be abuse.

Details for Cambridge users

Please read the University of Cambridge Computing Service guide for using eduroam:

Note that when connected to a wired Lapnet socket you can access the UCS Tokens service without needing to use our web authenticator first.

Printing

While using networks in the CMS all Cambridge users have access to our printers via the usual CUPS or Windows print mechanisms. Note that we do log all print requests with your CRSid; ie we could track you down if there appears to be abuse.

Wired Eduroam (laptop network socket and cable)

The wired eduroam service is available in all Pavilions and the Core using the standard laptop network wall sockets. Note: Laptops which have been configured for wired eduroam may be slow to connect to wired networks outside the CMS where this is not available.

Documentation for configuring wired eduroam for different operating systems: