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Wireless Network Information

Darwin College operates a wireless network available to all College members who have a computer with a wireless network card which uses the 802.11b or 802.11g standards (also known as Airport or Wi-Fi). The following information should help you get started using the network.

The current coverage areas are:

Full coverage:

The upstairs area of the Study Centre including the Finley Room, Newnham Terrace 1, the Reading Room, the Parlor, the Bar, the Common Room, the Entertaining Room, the Old Library, the Fellow's Study and the upstairs Seminar Room. Newnham Rd 45, 5 Wordsworth Grove and 10 Barton Road are also covered.

Partial coverage:

The downstairs areas of the Study Centre, parts of the Rayne Building and the Gardens.

Connection Instructions:

• In the coverage areas you should pick up a network named "Darwin Wireless".
• To use the network you need to configure your network interface to get its IP configuration automatically by DHCP.
• To get from this local network to the Internet, you need to authenticate. If everything else is set up as outlined above, all you need to do is open up a web browser and connect to any web-site. This request should be intercepted and you should see a screen requesting you to authenticate to the Darwin Network. You do this by entering your Study Centre login and password. Once these have been accepted you will be directed back to the page you originally requested, and your computer will be able to connect using other network programs (like Mail.app or Outlook).

Things to keep in mind:

• Before you log in with the web browser, you cannot make any connections with any other programs. Only when you have logged in will e-mail and similar software work.
• To keep your session 'alive' you need to accept pop-ups from the authentication server, and keep the window open, even if you are not using the web browser for other things. If you don't, you will have to re-authenticate after 10 minutes. If you are using a pop-up blocker, you need to exclude the server 131.111.194.5 from the block, or turn the blocker off while logging in.
• The wireless side of the network is insecure. Do not use network programs which use plain-text password where secure alternatives exist (eg. use ssh instead of telnet), turn on SSL in your mail program if it supports it (eg. Mulberry does), always use secure (https/SSL) versions of web sites when they are available (eg. https://webmail.hermes.cam.ac.uk).