UCanCONNECT

In a UCanCONNECT zone, your wireless card software will normally indicate that you are located in an area served by "UCWIFI". This is also known as the "SSID" (Server Set ID) and is a beacon that the wireless network transmits to inform you of its presence. Clicking on this option will allow your wireless card to connect to this "UCWIFI" zone.

If you have difficulty with this initial connection, there are a number of settings for your wireless card software that you may need to check:

1. WEP - none, there is no WEP key. WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is an encryption algorithm once used to protect wireless communication from eavesdropping and to prevent unauthorized access to a wireless network.
2. PSK - none, there is no PSK. PSK (Pre-Shared Key) is essentially a security "password" supplied by the user during initial connection to the wireless system.
3. Set your Wireless Card to obtain address from network (DHCP). DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol for assigning dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network.

The default settings are normally all you will need.

VPN connection

Once you have successfully joined the UCanCONNECT zone called "UCWIFI", your computer is part of the Wireless network. You can now communicate with the UC Campus network by setting up a connection from the Wireless network to the Campus network. This is called a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection and is an inbuilt feature of Windows XP, Windows 2000 and the Mac OSX. A VPN connection is easy to configure and only needs to be setup and saved once.

VPN for Windows XP/2000

To make a VPN connection for Windows XP/2000 operating systems:

1. Open Internet Explorer and select the Tools menu -> Internet Options. 
2. Click the Connections tab and in the Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings click the Add...button. 
3. In the New Connection Wizard dialogue box which appears, select 'Connect to a private network through the Internet' and then click next. 
4. Students now need to enter 'student.ucwifi" and then click next. Staff should enter "staff.ucwifi".
5. Enter a new name for the connection. We suggest you use UCanCONNECT but this is not necessary. Then click Finish.
6. You should see the 'Virtual Private Connection Settings' window. In this window tick the 'Use proxy server for this connection' box. For the address enter "proxyhost.canberra.edu.au" and for the port enter "80". The 'Bypass proxy server for local addresses' should be ticked. Now click OK.
7. You should see the 'Internet Options' window again. In the 'Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings' area make sure 'Dial whenever a network connection is not present' is selected. Then click OK. 

After completing the initial configuration, you can connect to the Campus network each time you join a UCanCONNECT zone by clicking on your saved VPN connection parameters in the Network Connections folder in Control Panel. Alternatively, when you connect to a UCanCONNECT zone and try to access a web page in Internet Explorer, you will be prompted to dial a connection. Select UCanCONNECT and enter your student or staff user ID and password and click OK. You will now be connected to the University of Canberra Campus network.