2. A guide to Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is somewhat complicated at first glance because there are multiple networks available and each works differently.

Available networks:

• UniOfCam — This is a University-wide Wi-Fi network, which you can access from many places around Cambridge. It’s very easy to connect to – simply connect to the network, and you will be prompted to supply your Raven login details. Once logged in you can use the internet as normal.
• eduroam — Not only is this a University-wide network, it works at lots of other academic institutions too, both in the UK and around the world. Once it’s set up you can connect to any eduroam network around the world just as you would in Cambridge.
• UniOfCam-IOT — This is a University-wide Wifi network — generally for devices which can’t work with either of the other wireless networks or the wired network — generally smart appliances like Amazon Echo or Google Home.

UniOfCam is great for quick access on your laptop or mobile device when you’re in the library or elsewhere, but the downside is that you have to log in every time you connect. Eduroam is more hassle to set up, but once you’ve done it, your device will log in automatically whenever it can get a signal, with no interaction. It also covers a huge number of sites around the country (and the world) which can sometimes be useful.

My recommendation is to spend the extra five minutes to set up eduroam, and then just use UniOfCam if you using a device temporarily or if you are in the process of setting up eduroam access.

Setting up eduroam is slightly complex, but the UIS has some good straightforward guides to help you do it. On laptops/PCs there’s a nifty little application that’ll do it all for you, while on mobile devices some manual number entering is required. Here’s the guide: https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/wi-fi Or you can like other people google “Cambridge Eduroam” to find the same guide

I’ve found the coverage of the uni networks is sufficiently decent so that i barely need to use data while there. However beware there are certain things you shouldn’t be doing on the uni networks.