St. Thomas joins nationwide Wi-Fi network

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Sophomore Lauren Knisley uses her laptop for studying in the Anderson Student Center. St. Thomas recently joined eduroam, allowing students, faculty and staff to easily access Wi-Fi while on other campuses. (Mary Brickner/TommieMedia)
Sophomore Lauren Knisley uses her laptop for studying in the Anderson Student Center. St. Thomas recently joined eduroam, allowing students, faculty and staff to easily access Wi-Fi while on other campuses. (Mary Brickner/TommieMedia)

Students, faculty and staff are now able to easily access a secure and encrypted wireless network while visiting other college campuses across the country simply by entering their St. Thomas username and password.

The network, called eduroam, provides internet for nearly 500 other colleges across the country and 77 countries around the world, according to the company’s website.

Sophomore Tracy Meichsner likes the idea of having an easy way to access a Wi-Fi network and is looking forward to simplifying the process while on other campuses.

“It definitely makes things a lot easier than having to sign up as a guest every time you’re on a different campus,” Meichsner said.

Senior Systems Administrator Daniel Strojny feels that eduroam will benefit college students, faculty and staff.

“St. Thomas users who visit other eduroam campuses will be able to connect effortlessly to the Wi-Fi network in those locations and remain online even after extended periods of time,” Strojny said in an email.

Visitors to St. Thomas can access the Wi-Fi by entering the username and password from their institutions. While the UST-Open Wi-Fi network is still available for guests, eduroam will provide a safe, encrypted connection for those from other institutions.

“As opposed to using UST-Open for wireless access, which requires a person to reauthenticate and accept our acceptable use policy at regular intervals, visiting eduroam users can automatically connect and stay connected for the duration of their time at St. Thomas,” Strojny said.

While St. Thomas users will have the option to connect to eduroam, Strojny encourages users to continue to use the UST and UST-Open Wi-Fi networks. Since eduroam acts as a guest network, users won’t have access to university specific resources such as library databases.

“Because St. Thomas usernames and passwords will work with both eduroam and our UST networks, some users may inadvertently connect to eduroam instead of UST while on our campus and limit some of their access,” Strojny said. “St. Thomas users on our St. Paul or Minneapolis campuses should always connect to UST or UST-Open.”

Mary Brickner can be reached at bric0029@stthomas.edu