Summary of IU Wireless Changes:
How it impacts access to web
pages
Before the fall 2007 semester, students, faculty, and staff who wanted to make wireless connections to the IU network had to register their computers MAC address and use Virtual Private Networking (VPN) for authentication and encryption. VPN was required to make a wireless connection to the IU network.
Beginning the fall 2007 semester, UITS changed the way the wireless infrastructure works at IUB and IUPUI. Registered computers can now make wireless connections to non-IU websites (i.e., the commodity Internet) without using VPN, but still cannot make wireless connections to any IU resources without first establishing a VPN connection.
Effective September 27th, registered computers without a VPN connection established will have unrestricted access to the commodity Internet, plus limited access (using secure protocols) to some IU resources. See http://kb.iu.edu/data/avra.html for a list of allowed protocols for registered users without VPN.
Please note that wireless devices without VPN connections will not be able to access IU web resources that use non-secure HTTP over port 80. HTTPS is one of the allowed secure protocols accessible without VPN, but HTTP sites at IU still require VPN for wireless access. This may cause some confusion for people trying to make wireless connections to IU websites.
Because individuals may mistakenly report a service outage to webmasters, we would like you to help notify your webmasters of the change by forwarding this note to the appropriate parties. If they or you have further questions, contact the Support Center.
UITS still recommends that students, faculty, and staff use VPN whenever making wireless connections to the IU network. VPN encrypts the wireless session and allows full access to IU services. If your customers need help setting up a VPN connection, please direct them to the IU Knowledge Base document "The basics of VPN at IU" - https://kb.iu.edu/data/ajrq.html.
