How to connect to eduroam

Connecting to eduroam is very simple:

  1. Connect to the wireless network named eduroam
  2. When prompted for credentials enter your username and password
    • Your username will be in the form <username>@<university>.ch (eg. jdoe@unil.ch some universities allow you to use your email address)
    • Use your normal password
  3. When presented a untrusted certificate, verify that it was issued to your university before accepting it. If you don't do this, your password might get stolen!
    • Important for Android users: if you select 'none' or 'N/A' (or similar, depending on the Android version and your language settings) in  the certificate settings, it will NOT be checked! You must install the approriate CA certificate provided by your home organization.

You are now connected to eduroam and you can access the internet. Your credentials are stored on your computer, so that when you next time are close to a eduroam hotspot, your computer should connect automatically.

If you need to access resources at your home university, you might need to use your VPN client.

Simplify your configuration with CAT

To avoid having to verify certificates manually, some universities provide thier configuration via the CAT tool. If you install the eduroam profile of your university, your computer will automatically connect to eduroam.

A note on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad): iOS does not allow to specify connection priorities. Instead your device will reconnect to the network it was last connect. So even if you have installed the eduroam profile and are close to a eduroam hotspot, your device might connect to eg. a public Swisscom hotspot that is also within range. The only way to avoid this is to disable the auto-join feature (see Swisscom guide)