Network, WiFi, and VPN

Summary of How to Use Wireless at Hampshire (TL;DR)

Preferred Option for Students, Faculty, and Staff

Use 'eduroam' everywhere. It works everywhere in the entire Five Colleges and at many other institutions around the world. Your username is the <abc12@hampshire.edu> form (make sure the hampshire.edu is on the end), and your password is your normal Hampshire password. You may need to accept a certificate from "lelantos.hampshire.edu" the first time you sign in.

If for some reason that doesn't work for you, we have a second option available.

Alternate Option general info

If you use an iPhone, make sure "Private Wifi Address" is turned off. See these instructions from Apple.
If you use Android, disable MAC address randomization. Open the Settings app, select Network and Internet, Select Wifi, connect to the chosen network, tap the gear icon next to the current wifi connection, select Advanced, select Privacy, and select 'Use device MAC'.
If you don't turn these features off, you will have to re sign in frequently. If you turn them off, you will only have to sign in once ever.
'hampguest' is for guests. It has many restrictions on its access.

Alternate Option for Students

When in the dorms, connect to the dorm-named network ('enfield' in Enfield, 'dakin' in Dakin, etc)
When in academic areas, connect to 'gromit'
If it tells you you have no internet access, open a web browser and try to go anywhere. If you're not automatically redirected to our sign-in page, type "netreg.hampshire.edu" into the address bar of the web browser
For more details, including how to register a device that doesn't have a web browser, see below.

Alternate Option for Faculty and Staff

Connect to 'wallace'
If it tells you you have no internet access, open a web browser and try to go anywhere. If you're not automatically redirected to our sign-in page, type "netreg.hampshire.edu" into the address bar of the web browser

Details and additional information about network access at Hampshire College

What if I want to use a device that doesn't have a web browser?

If you have a device, such as a smart lightbulb, a Google Home device, Alexa, game system, etc, that you want to use on our network, you can manually register it on the dorm-named networks. You cannot manually register on eduroam. Details here.

Additional wired network details

There is wireless connectivity in every dorm room and wired ethernet connections in most. Almost all computers today come with wireless connections, but not all come with a wired (ethernet) port. If you have a desktop, you probably have one built in, and you'll be all set. If you have a laptop and you want to use a wired connection, you may need to purchase an adapter to do so.

If you choose to use an ethernet connection you will also need an ethernet cable to connect to the wall jack. Many rooms have a beige wall plate with two ports - one labeled "Voice" and one labeled "Data". The "Data" port should be ethernet, but in a few cases, the "Voice" port actually is. Other rooms have wall plates with blue ports in them that should provide ethernet connectivity. If you have a small 5.5" x 3.5" rectangular white device on your wall with a lit-up-blue "U" logo on it, lucky you - you have a wireless access point in your room, and there should be four network jacks on the bottom of it that will provide gigabit connectivity to our network. Access points of other sizes may have ports on them that look correct, but they will not work to access our network.

Ethernet does provide lower latency, sometimes higher speed, and generally greater reliability. In particular, if you are gaming, you may prefer to access our network using a wired connection.

NetReg: Network Registration and Activation

If you use a dorm-named network, a wired connection in the dorms, 'wallace', or 'gromit', you will need to register. Registration is required for both wired and wireless connections. You can register as many devices as you want and it only needs to be done once per network interface. You do not need to re-register if you change rooms, but you will need to register for both wired and wireless connections.

When you first connect, open up any web browser. You will be redirected to the NetReg page, which requires you to login using your regular Hampshire account. If you're not redirected automatically, just type "netreg.hampshire.edu" into the address bar in your web browser. As mentioned below in more detail, turn off any custom DNS settings or "private wifi" settings.

Trouble with NetReg?

If you have trouble registering your device with us it may be because of incompatible DNS (Domain Name Service) settings; your device may report no internet service. DNS is responsible for interpreting web address that are typed into web browsers (www.hampshire.edu, for instance) and pointing the browser to the corresponding IP address. Sometimes DNS settings are changed to use a specific DNS service--commonly Google--but that is incompatible with our NetReg system as well as some other security features we use on our network. Our DNS settings should automatically be set up on your device unless you have some previous manual settings. Instructions for accessing DNS settings on a Mac can be found here, but do not use the Add ("+") function--only use the Remove ("-") function to remove any settings that are removable (you cannot remove our automatic settings). Similarly on Windows you can access the settings here and just remove any DNS settings that may have been preset.

Details about Wireless on Campus

We currently have wireless connections available in all public spaces, including the library, academic buildings, and the dining commons, as well as in all student housing.

There are four discrete wireless networks available in academic areas:

Eduroam (private): Eduroam is a global federated wireless network for the research and education community. It allows members of participating institutions to use the same wireless configuration they use at their home institution when visiting other participating institutions. Hampshire community members may find this particularly useful because it has been implemented at all of the Five Colleges; if you set up eduroam at Hampshire, you can go to the other institutions in the Five Colleges and be instantly online.
Hampguest (public): This network does not require a login and has an entirely separate connection to the Internet. In this way, it is like sitting in an internet cafe; you are not really on Hampshire's network while using this wireless network, and as such cannot access anything that is on-campus only, and on-campus services will be slower than when using wallace or the dorm networks. This network is only available in the public areas of campus. Students should register their guest's devices under their names if they have guests that need access in the dorms. In this way, you are taking responsibility for the actions of your guests on our network.
Gromit (private): This network requires a current Hampshire login, and provides full, direct access to on-campus services, with the exception of certain resources only available to faculty and staff.
Wallace (private): This network requires a current faculty or staff Hampshire login, and provides full, direct access to all on-campus services.

In the dorms, the network name matches the housing area, and requires a Hampshire login, like Gromit. For instance, in Merrill, the network name is "merrill."

Private wireless access points are not supported and should not be used. They will cause problems for you and your neighbors. If you have poor wireless in your housing area, please submit an IT ticket on TheHub.

Peer to Peer Filesharing, Copyright Info, and Network Management

We are aware of the fact that there are legal and illegal uses for P2P, and differentiating between the two is problematic. Therefore, we may need to limit all uses of P2P, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We ask that users of our network limit their use of P2P to legal and reasonable activities, and have respect for the other users of our network.

We will not and do not provide support or troubleshooting assistance of any kind for P2P activities. Please note that sharing of copyrighted material with persons not authorized to have possession of such materials is illegal and is punishable by fines and/or imprisonment.

VPN

VPN allows Hampshire employees and students to access Hampshire services from off campus that are not normally available from off campus. If you're planning to use it, you should install and test it before you need it.

About our Network

Hampshire College's network consists of a fully-switched infrastructure with a 10-gigabit fiber backbone in a star topology and at least 100base-T to the desktop. In many cases, there is gigabit to the pillow, and our multimedia labs all have gigabit. Every building on campus has ethernet and wireless coverage. Hampshire gets its server connectivity, which is highly redundant, through the University of Massachusetts, and its commodity bandwidth through Crown Castle, both running over the Five College Fiber Network. We have more than twice as much bandwidth per student than any other institution in the valley, and our 2Gbit connection has only rarely gone over 50% utilization.

Security is a serious concern for all academic institutions, and Hampshire College is no exception. We follow a traditional security model consisting of edge firewalls, NAT, distributed routing with OSPF, many virtual Local Area Networks with associated subnets, access control and routing at building edges as well as in the core, a regular patching and update schedule, and SSL encryption of all sensitive traffic.

Interested in more details? View the technical description of our network.