eduroam

eduroam is a hugely popular worldwide network access service which is implemented on a federated basis. Participating organisations, using their existing infrastructures, connect to national NREN-operated RADIUS systems and overlay eduroam network services, which adhere to comprehensive technical standards.
The animation 'What is eduroam?', created by AARNet (the Australian research and education network), designed especially for end users, serves as an excellent introduction to what eduroam means to the end user and the benefits it provides.
Essentially, eduroam provides the user with authenticated network logon and access to the Internet through a single Wi-Fi profile and set of credentials, wherever the service has been made available by participating organisations. Connection can be seamless and automatic. Wired connections can be supported too.
By eduroam-enabling the network, organisations can provide guest network access services to visitors without the need for guest account management, saving time and cost for both the organisation and the visitor. eduroam is increasingly seen as a ‘must have’ and results in the organisation becoming increasingly attractive for academic collaboration and co-operation, research, conferences and more informal visits.
eduroam Implementors
For information about how you can implement eduroam at your organisation, please see the support and advice section below, or visit the eduroam service pages on the community site.
eduroam users
For information about how to become an eduroam user, please see the support and advice section below, or visit the eduroam users pages on the community site.
Janet is the UK provider of eduroam.
Today’s research and education community is increasingly mobile, and depends on technology and the Internet to collaborate and communicate. eduroam was created to meet these needs.
Without the need to register for guest accounts or remember extra passwords, you can simply open your laptop or activate your mobile device, and eduroam automatically authenticates you with your home institution and handles authorisation via the institution you are visiting.
This not only benefits you in your role as researcher, teacher or student, but also reduces the support burden for institutions, making it simple to provide access for visiting users without adding to the administrative workload. Visit the Janet Community site to find out more about the requirements for both Home and Visited institutions, and how you can use eduroam as a user, both at your home institution, and visiting another eduroam-enabled institution.
Your home and visiting users can log on at any full-service eduroam network using their own username and password.
You or your users provide exactly the same credentials as on your home network, for all sites visited – without having to refer to the home IT department, or the IT department of the site being visited.
Check-list for end-users
If you are a new eduroam user, or find yourself being asked questions by new-users on a frequent basis, visit the Janet Community site for this handy checklist for new users. It will take you through the steps to make sure you are able to use the eduroam service easily.
Using eduroam day-to-day
Once you have eduroam set up, and are planning to visit another eduroam enabled site, you might find it useful to visit the Janet community website for a handy guide for using eduroam day-to-day.
Choosing a Home or a Visited Service
You can choose to offer eduroam as a 'Home' and/or 'Visited' service. In order to decide, you will need to know the difference in the offerings.
Home service
With a Home service, your users can gain authentication at other eduroam sites they might visit (ie the Home site acts as an identity provider).
Visited service
Visited service sites provide an eduroam guest network that supports users visiting from organisations that provide a Home service.
The idea of such a flexible approach is to be as inclusive as possible and to allow you to implement the type of service that suits your policies and local infrastructure/technical expertise.
The full requirements of a Home or Visited Service can be found on the Janet community website here: General requirements of home and visited service.
Type of Service Offered at UK Institutions
This provides a full listing of the UK institutions offering eduroam, and whether that offering is a Home Service, a Visited Service or both. In addition, links to the relevant organisations web page is included, where available. Visit the Janet Community site for the full listing of participating organisations.
UK eduroam-enabled institutions
You can check which institutions are eduroam-enabled by visiting the Janet Community site and looking for the link 'where can I use eduroam UK' which will enable you to search using either a graphical map, or the eduroam site-finder.
World-wide eduroam-enabled sites
For full details of the eduroam service available at a particular organisation overseas, please visit the website of the organisation from the link 'where can I use eduroam worldwide' and then navigate to the relevant national NREN eduroam site and then through to their links to the places you plan to visit.
In the case of Canada, you will need to go to the Canadian eduroam map page - follow 'eduroam at xxx' links from the lollipops to take you directly to the institutions' web sites.
The eduroam service, provided by Janet in the UK, is a federated service.
eduroam enables Janet-connected organisations to offer high quality secure network services for visitors from other eduroam-enabled organisations - without the need for guest account management, saving IT Support workload.
The eduroam infrastructure is based on 802.1X standard technology and RADIUS proxy servers which handle authentication requests within participating institutions. Find out more about how it works - visit the Janet eduroam Community Group on the Janet Community site.
Eligibility
Any Janet customer organisation is eligible to participate in the provision of eduroam at no additional charge. Please visit the eduroam service pages on the community site to find out how to implement eduroam at your organisation.
Individual users do not need to separately join the service. Instead, if you are a member of a participating organisation and you have a network logon account, you can use eduroam. Please visit the eduroam users pages on the community site to find out how you can use eduroam.
Terms and Conditions
Use of the eduroam service on Janet is subject to adherence to the:
Applying to join eduroam
Using the eduroam Application Form as a template, email your application with your organisation details and email the Janet Service Desk.
Due to the investment in effort required from your organisation to set up and to effectively promote eduroam to your organisation's user-base, and ensure wide take-up, applications can only be accepted from directors or network management contacts registered with Janet.
To check if you are registed please email the Janet Service Desk.
Service Level Description
Security
Please ensure your organisation understands and adheres to the Janet Security Policy.
Service Description
eduroam provides federated hassle-free wireless/wired authentication access to visitors at participating customer sites.
Wireless access is granted to users using their own username and password without the visited organisation needing to provide and administer network accounts for visitors.
Hours of Service
The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year.
Charges
This service is centrally funded.
Target Availability
The target availability for the national RADIUS proxy is 99.5% during the hours of service defined above, measured monthly over a 12 month period, excluding service-affecting maintenance.
Service-affecting maintenance is capped at 0.5% and is normally carried out with at least two weeks' notice.
Fault Management
Faults with the service may be reported via the Janet Service Desk on Tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: service@ja.net.
For full details please visit the Janet Service Desk pages.
Resilience
The National RADIUS Proxy Servers are hosted on separate platforms located at a number of Janet colocation sites.
Customer Responsibilities
The customer, prior to using the service, is responsible for:
- providing and registering an organisational RADIUS proxy server.
The customer is responsible on an ongoing basis for:
- complying with the eduroam(UK) technical specifications
- keeping service information and contact details on the Support server up to date.
Request for Service
Request this service via the Janet Service Desk on Tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: service@ja.net.
Alternatively you can use the eduroam application form.
Sevice Delivery Time
Access to the National RADIUS proxy service will be enabled within 15 Business Days of receipt of all necessary customer information and the customer's completion of configuring its RADIUS proxy.
An initial response to any inquiry will be given within eight Business Hours.
Terms and Conditions
Please ensure your organisation understands and adheres to the Janet Terms and Conditions
Escalation
If you are experiencing an issue with the service, and wish to escalate the issue within Janet please contact us via the Janet Service Desk on Tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: service@ja.net. For full escalation details, please visit the Janet Service Desk pages.
Technical support
- Technical support is provided by eduroam Technical Specialists and is available at no extra charge, to any organisation participating in eduroam or considering joining. If you have any queries then please email the Janet Service Desk.
Frequently Asked Questions
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It is also worth visiting the eduroam FAQs on the Janet Community Site, before lodging a technical enquiry, as you may find the answer to your query there.
Additional support
- eduroam user information
- Support for eduroam implementors - (e-mail support, on-site consultancy, trouble shooting guides, test functions, training courses)
Nb. technical support enquiries can only be accepted from customer technical contacts registered with Janet. You can check if you are registered by emailing the Janet Service Desk.
For additional help on understanding and implementing eduroam, please follow the links below.
- Technical Library
- Essential Service Documentation
- Technical Guides and Trouble Shooting Flowcharts
- The animation, 'What is eduroam?' created by AARNet, is designed especially for end users to help spread the message and benefits about eduroam services.
All guides are also available by visiting the Janet Community Website.
