Top 3 Reasons to Use Eduroam

The “UMBC Campus” wireless network will transition to a much more improved network: eduroam. The network provides encrypted traffic for any device you use and features a one time setup process that can be used on any campus that supports eduroam, not just UMBC. UMBC will discontinue the UMBC Campus WiFi SSID name later in calendar year 2015. Eduroam is supported on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. 

1. Availability: Originally developed in Europe, eduroam also supports people in higher education using wireless networks at other higher education institutions. Eduroam has expanded beyond the 1900 institutions using it in Europe to include over 30 countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States. So any UMBC student, faculty or staff member traveling abroad can use their UMBC email address and password to access WiFi around the world. In Maryland, UMCP, Loyola, University of Baltimore, and JHU have implemented eduroam and you can use their WiFi when visiting those campus.

2. Quick and easy: Damian Doyle, Director of Enterprise Infrastructure and Support, thinks eduroam is great for students. When asked about the main advantages, he said “eduroam can remember your login information allowing your device to automatically connect to the wireless network.” Setup for eduroam usually takes less than 5 minutes and once set up, the network works flawlessly. 

3. Security: Eduroam provides a higher level of security than conventional, unencrypted wireless. When students use eduroam, all traffic between their devices and the wireless access point is encrypted using WPA2 providing another reason students should switch to eduroam sooner rather than later. 

It’s not just Doyle who likes eduroam, UMBC students like it too. Aaron David, a senior computer engineer said “I mainly use eduroam since I only have to log in once on a device and then it will automatically connect and authenticate for me from then on. Also, it is encrypted whereas UMBC Visitor and UMBC Campus aren’t.”

Students who need help during the setup process can consult the UMBC FAQ on eduroam. The process however is relatively simple. “In most of our experience connecting to eduroam is fairly straightforward,” Doyle said. “We have a set of videos and tools available on the DoIT website that help people connect. The main issue is that people have to put in the entire username with domain name, so damian@umbc.edu, not just damian,”

“I honestly didn’t use eduroam at first because I didn’t feel like going through the setup process on all of my devices,” said David “but it really isn’t difficult to set up and once it is, you can just forget it and it works.”

UMBC students can connect to an upgraded network, all for free. The transition should be smooth and seamless as Doyle said “ In general we are planning on working through publications, the department IT staff and the Office of Residential life to try and spread the word to migrate folks to eduroam.”