University unveils global Wi-Fi access for students

Carissa Haslam|Staff Photographer
Duquesne’s CTS announced its participation in Eduroam’s global Wi-Fi.
Carissa Haslam|Staff Photographer
Duquesne’s CTS announced its participation in Eduroam’s global Wi-Fi.

Hallie Lauer | Features Editor

11/01/18

At one point or another, we have all been there. We find something funny online and when we try to show our friends, we are met with that spinning circle while our phones search for internet to connect to.

Well, with your Multipass login, problem solved. Duquesne has recently announced that it is now participating in Eduroam — a wireless, worldwide internet access system. Eduroam, short for education roaming, is a way to improve the guest network at Duquesne while also allowing students to have access to internet when visiting other institutions.

Eduroam was created in order to improve research capabilities and educational resources.

According to their website, Eduroam is at 12,000 locations worldwide spanning 89 countries and more than 450 in the U.S. In the Pittsburgh area along with Duquesne, both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University participate in Eduroam.

Students, staff or faculty visiting those campuses can now use their multipass credentials to log onto the internet, without having to go through their guest access.

According to the website, Eduroam is “based on the most secure encryption and authentication standards in existence today.”

Credentials are also protected because instead of sending credentials to the site you are using, they are sent instead back to the home institution of the user — in this case that would be Duquesne.

“Once your credentials have been verified by your home institution, that information is returned to the institution you are visiting so you can access the Eduroam wireless network,” said Hank McCarthy, the manager of network and telecommunication services for Duquesne’s Computer and Technology Services (CTS).

Although Eduroam was created ten years ago, the decision for Duquesne to join was a recent one.

“This decision was made thanks to the university’s relationship with Internet2 and other universities in the Pittsburgh area who already use the Eduroam service,” McCarthy said. “This was made possible by all the recent wireless upgrades across Duquesne’s campus.”

Internet2 is “computer networking consortium” according to their website that connects universities and institutions for research and education purposes.

While Eduroam is mostly at colleges and universities, places such as airports and libraries have also started signing on, according to the Eduroam website.