What is eduroam?

eduroam is short for "education roaming".

eduroam is a global service enabling staff and students of educational, research and related institutions to visit another eduroam participating institution and connect to the visited institution's wireless network automatically, i.e. with minimal effort for both user and visited institution.

Eduroam infrastructure provided by Australian Synchrotron, AARNet and global NRENs enables a visitor's 'home institution' to authenticate the visitor remotely. Upon successful authentication, Australian Synchrotron grants wireless network access to visitors authenticated via eduroam. Other eduroam participating institutions similarly grant network access to visiting staff from Australian Synchrotron.

If configured correctly, the eduroam user should be able to get a network connection at a visited institution just by opening their laptop or activating their phone or tablet device.

The physical locations within Australian Synchrotron providing eduroam access to their networks are:

  • Main Building
  • NCSS
  • Guest Houses

More about eduroam is available from AARNet, the eduroam AU ‘roaming operator’.

eduroam Policy

Trust in eduroam authentication is underpinned by use of a proven secure technical infrastructure and protocol, and a set of policies to which all eduroam participants are required to comply.

In participating in eduroam AU, Australian Synchrotron agrees to conform to the Global eduroam Policy and the eduroam AU policy maintained by AARNet.

What is the users' responsibility in using eduroam?

eduroam AU policy states that users must conform to their home institution's networking Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

Users are recommended to read and comply with the Acceptable Use Policy of visited institutions.  Visiting eduroam users should refer to Australian Synchrotron's Acceptable Use Policy.

What about user privacy?

The eduroam protocol prevents your institutional password from being revealed to any eduroam server other than your home institution’s eduroam server. So your login password is protected and remains secret between you and your home institution.

However your username is visible to the Australian Synchrotron RADIUS server and other eduroam infrastructure servers involved in getting your authentication request from your device to your home institution, and may be included in logs. Such logs are required to be protected by the institution running the RADIUS server.

Australian Synchrotron’s Wireless Settings

  • SSID: eduroam
  • Security: WPA2 Enterprise / 802.1x EAP
  • Encryption: AES

Australian Synchrotron Staff using Eduroam

Authentication parameters for Australian Synchrotron staff are:

  • EAP Method: PEAP
  • Inner Method: MSCHAPV2
  • Identity: <short user name (first seven letters of your last name and the first letter of your first name)>@synchrotron.org.au
  • CA Certificate: Will auto detect

Australian Synchrotron staff should configure eduroam locally (i.e. while on Australian Synchrotron campus) for authentication to Australian Synchrotron before travelling to other eduroam participating institutions.

Visitors Using eduroam at Australian Synchrotron

Who can use eduroam at Australian Synchrotron?

eduroam is available to general staff, academics, researchers and students from eduroam participating educational, research and related institutions globally.

How do I use eduroam at Australian Synchrotron?

Note: as an eduroam user, you should have already configured access to eduroam while on your home campus, using the authentication parameters provided by your home institution local eduroam webpage.

Accessing eduroam successfully within Australian Synchrotron requires only that your configured wireless network connection and encryption protocol is compatible. The wireless encryption protocol used by Australian Synchrotron access points is the WiFi standard "WPA2/AES" (also called WPA2 Enterprise).

Note: There is no need to change any of your authentication parameters. These are only relevant to your home institution. If you have successfully configured authentication to eduroam at your home institution, you should be able to access Australian Synchrotron campus's network via eduroam with no change to your setup.

Where exactly can I use eduroam within Australian Synchrotron?

Australian Synchrotron provides eduroam at the following locations:

  • Main Building
  • NCSS
  • Guest Houses

Network Services Provided

Australian Synchrotron provides full outbound access.

How do I get support in using eduroam?

When you're on an Australian Synchrotron campus and connect to eduroam, you may experience difficulty in getting a network connection due to several reasons e.g.an issue with your device configuration, wireless networking, institutional eduroam operability or eduroam infrastructure operability.

If network access issues occur, in the first instance eduroam users should contact their home institution's IT helpdesk to seek support.

If this is not feasible, or if the home institution can’t resolve the issue, users may contact the Australian Synchrotron IT support at it.support@synchrotron.org.au

If required, your home institution's or Australian Synchrotron eduroam support staff will contact AARNet, the eduroam AU national roaming operator, for additional assistance.

What Usage Logs are kept by Australian Synchrotron and what are they used for?

Eduroam trust between Australian Synchrotron and users’ home institutions (those authenticating their users) is supported by the ability to trace a particular network access event to an authentication of a 'real user' by their home institution.

Home institutions agree to take appropriate action on behalf of Australian Synchrotron in case a user doesn’t comply with Australian Synchrotron’s network Acceptable Use Policy.

In order to provide this traceability, network access transactions via eduroam are logged by Australian Synchrotron, with logs being retained for a period of six months. Access to usage logs is restricted to authorised personnel and authorities as required by the law.

 

Usage logs may also be used for purposes of service trouble-shooting and user support.