“Eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community.” – Eduroam
What is eduroam?
Eduroam is an international roaming service for higher education and research institutions. Basically, it works by using a Network of servers to allow an institution’s users, (e.g. students, faculty, staff) to stay connected to the network of their “home institution”. So for instance, if you were on the University of North Carolina’s campus and needed to access WiFi, you could use your USF login credentials and password to Connect. Because both UNC and USF are eduroam participating institutions, you can use the network to connect the two. There are more than 6,000 of these hotspots around the entire world. This means that you can travel to a university in Italy, or even study abroad, and connect easily to the internet server there using your USF info!
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Why is it Important?
Instead of having to individually connect to the network at every new university you visit, your device will automatically connect itself
The network serves mostly research and education communities, however you can also find these hotspots in places such as coffee shops! Not to mention, it’s free to connect to. The network makes it much easier and simpler to stay connected while traveling. What’s especially important about this software is that it protects your info from any insecure servers. So, there’s no need to enter your username and password anywhere that may compromise that information. It’s harder to feel this sense of security when connecting to other free hotspots.
At USF, CloudPath is utilized in order to bypass the need for manual setup on devices. Cloudpath is a software that “enables any IT organization to protect the network by easily and definitively securing users and their wired and wireless devices—while freeing those users and IT itself from the tyranny of passwords.” This quote is pulled directly from the Ruckus Wireless website. The utilization of Cloudpath means that instead of having to individually connect to the network at every new university you visit, your device will automatically connect itself!
What You Need to Do to Prepare to Travel
According to the eduroam website, preparing your device for universal connection is incredibly easy. They write:
“With eduroam installed on your laptop, mobile phone, or other device, there’s no need to request special accounts or borrow other people’s IDs – just activate your device and you should be online.”
To download the software onto your device, visit www.eduroam.us/get-started/support.
In summary, here are some of the things you need to do to ensure you will be able to connect to eduroam:
- Make sure the institution you are traveling to is enrolled in eduroam
- Install the software onto your devices (e.g. mobile phone, etc.)
- Upon arrival, activate the network on your device to connect
- Simply follow the on-screen instructions, step-by-step
To connect to eduroam while on the USF campus, you can visit netconnect.usf.edu/enroll/UniversityofSouthFlorida/Production/process.
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