Wireless LAN Access in Engineering Buildings

Introduction and Limitations

Priority for cabled ports is given to School owned desktops and laptops. Anyone wishing to use a personally owned laptop that is capable of wireless access, should use this method of network access instead.

  • The Engineering Wireless access points (WAP) installed within the School's buildings are connected to the University's central wireless service. This allows a common method of wireless access from a laptop anywhere within the University.
  • The Engineering WAPs support the 802.11g and 802.11a wireless standards.
  • Wireless cards conforming to the older 802.11b standards are not supported, and will not be able to connect.
  • Wireless is a shared resource. Each radio installed in a WAP (there is one radio interface for 802.11g and one for 802.11a) has a bandwidth of 54Mbps. The overhead for the wireless protocols take up a considerable chunk of this giving an effective data throughput of between 20-25Mbps shared between everyone associated with a given WAP/radio. You should therefore try to be a conscientious user of the available bandwidth.
  • Within the University, you must not set up your machine to "bridge" between wired and wireless ports. On some versions of Windows, this is called `network for home or small office' - please do not enable it within the University under any circumstances, to do so will be an explicit breach of the University's Computing Use Regulations.

How to Use

While it is a simple task to associate your client with the central wireless service, the actual process varies between different operating systems. General instructions can be found in the IS Step by Step Guide.

The recommended network to connect to which gives secure authentication is eduroam.  This does involve some work in setting up but once setup gives secure access and allows access to other participating institutes around the world.  More information here. If you can't setup eduroam then these alternatives are available:

  • For Eng Staff/Postgrad Windows users, we recommend using the Eng (SEE) VPN remote access service. You authenticate using your Universal Username (UUN) and SEE password, which will effectively bring your laptop back inside the Engineering firewall, allowing access to Engineering resources. NOTE the VPN service mentioned in the central wireless service pages is for the main University VPN, not the Engineering VPN service.
  • For Eng Staff/Postgrad non-Windows users or Undergrads using any operating system, the IS Wireless Gateway method is best. You must register for this service from a non-wireless client before using it for the first time, using your UUN and EASE password. When you connect to the Central wireless network, you need to login to the Wireless Gateway login page.  This is done from a web browser by trying to contact any web page and you will be redirected to the login page . Once authenticated, general web browsing is permitted and you can also access Engineering by using one of Engineering remote access methods.

Wireless Access for Visitors

If a visitor is from an institution that is signed up to eduroam then they can just connect to the eduroam wireless network and use their login credentials from their home institution.  Otherwise any member of Engineering staff can create a temporary wireless account for visitors for up to 7 days duration.  For anything longer then the visitor should be added to the Visitor Registration System (VRS).  More information about temporary wireless accounts is available here.  For information about the VRS please speak to your Institute Secretary