Eduroam Wifi Service

If you have used the Hopkins wifi or GuestNet system at Hopkins, you may have noticed a third option called eduroam lurking around in the "available networks" list. Aside from a quick email sent by the IT department sometime during the fall 2013 semester, stating that it is a new site for visitors to use while on the Hopkins campus, not much is known about the service. After some digging, the STS TechBlog is happy to help summarize the important information you need to know about Eduroam.

Eduroam as a name is made from combining two words: education and roaming. The idea behind the creation of eduroam in general is that visiting students are somewhere between a Hopkins student and a non-affiliated campus visitor, and therefore exist online somewhere in between the Hopkins wifi and GuestNet. The eduroam service is available to every student from any US institution, or more generally anyone who has an email address that ends with @.edu. CORRECTION: It can be used from any email address associated with a participating eduroam site, not just @*.edu.

The eduroam system is able to take the information from that visiting student's home institution and authenticate it on a server-system stored at Hopkins. It's also a way for the home institution to continue to provide free wifi access for computers and smartphones to their students, faculty, and staff, even when their affiliates are on the other side of the world!

Eduroam is managed by an independent company with academic partners all over the world. The company was started in 2003 by a task force at TERENA focused on mobility, specifically to provide "roaming network access across research and education networks." After a series of extensive tests in Europe (where the company is based), other countries and institutions started to join list of partners. In 2010 the membership group became so large that a Governance Committee was formed. This committee is made of nominated members from North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, which goes to show how far this company has spread in only 7 years. A list of world partners can be found at this link, and a list of partners in the USA can be found using this link. For more information on eduroam's formation or technical aspects, please visit their website.

If you are hosting a friend from another school at Hopkins, all he or she needs to do is set up her mobile device or laptop to recognize the eduroam system, and then sign in using her credentials. Remember how you had to change features and check off boxes to be able to use the Hopkins network? It's the same thing for eduroam with some minor adjustments. Note that these changes should be made according to the home institution's system, not necessarily the Hopkins system. 

You will need:

• TCP/IP: DHCP
• EAP type of the home institution
• Network authentication: WPA2
• Data encryption: AES
• Authentication method/protocol of the home institution
• Certificate authority of the home institution

When your friend logs in, he or she should use his or her full user ID at the home institution as the username and the password associated with that account. For example, the full username is jhopkin1@jhu.edu and my password would be laX.bro1876 (just saying). If you want to connect to the eduroam system at Hopkins as a Hopkins student, then you will need the following:

• TCP/IP: DHCP
• EAP type: PEAP
• Network authentication: WPA2
• Data encryption: AES
• Authentication method: MSCHAP-v2
• Certificate authority: Comodo/AddTrust External Root CA
• Server name: freeradiuspilot.win.ad.jhu.edu

To use eduroam at an institution in which you are the visitor, you will need to acquire information regarding the network authentication type and data encryption method of the home institution. Don't forget to use your full username! Everything else will be the same as if you were at Hopkins yourself. 

If you have any questions or issues, feel free to comment below or go to the Technical Assistance center in the basement of Garland Hall. Now get traveling!