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Interruptions to network connectivity and changes to eduroam Wi-Fi - updated

12 Feb 2021

You will need to update eduroam Wi-Fi on your phone, tablet or laptop, if it is not managed by the University. There have been some slight changes to the network upgrade.

Hand holding a Wi-Fi logo

IT Services are planning two pieces of work which will affect your connectivity to the wired and Wi-Fi network; changes to eduroam, and an upgrade of the network.

1. Changes to eduroam

As part of the University’s network modernisation, IT Services and its partners are replacing and upgrading Wi-Fi equipment in many University buildings.

Before this happens, a change needs to be made to our eduroam service, which means all staff and students should change their eduroam settings on any computers and mobile devices which are not managed by the University.

This work is scheduled to take place from 6pm-9pm on Monday 15 February and Tuesday 16 February, and there may be intermittent Wi-Fi connectivity in some buildings while the work is carried out. View “Eduroam certificate replacement” on the upgrade schedule for more information. Wired connectivity is not affected.

There is a ‘crossover period’ meaning you can make these changes now, continue to use eduroam as normal, and not have to take any further action.

Please ensure you change your settings before then, otherwise you may find you have connectivity issues after the above dates. If you’re not currently on campus or in halls, we recommend you do this before you return, to avoid issues when back on campus.

While this has been thoroughly tested on a number of different devices, we advise you not to apply this update immediately before critical work (eg exams or activities with urgent deadlines) in case you need additional help.

You will need to download the newest version of the eduroam Configuration Assistant Tool (CAT) to apply these new changes. You likely used an earlier version of the CAT to set up eduroam on your own device in the first place.

Please do not try to install the CAT on a University managed laptop. The settings will be changed automatically.

You can use the UoM_WiFi network as a temporary workaround if you’re having trouble connecting to eduroam.

Instructions:

2. Updates to University network

Work on improving the reliability of the University’s network will cause occasional short disconnections to the entire network between 7pm on Sunday 14 February and 1am on Monday 15 February. We are expecting five disconnections of approximately five minutes each during this time.

Additional information: 

In addition to the above five momentary disconnections between 7pm on Sunday and 1am on Monday, there will also be a number of short pauses to network connectivity on Friday and Saturday.

During this time, network connectivity will be paused for a maximum of 30 seconds, after which, connectivity will automatically resume. Most users will not notice any impact, however any colleagues using remote desktop may need to log back in.

On Friday, we expect this to happen three times between 9pm and 12 midnight, and on Saturday, we expect this to happen four times between 10am and 9pm. Due to the nature of the work, it’s not possible to state exactly when these pauses will be. 

Keep informed about other upcoming IT work

Staff and students can sign up to the IT Planned Work mailing list to receive occasional notifications of upcoming work, which may cause an impact to some IT services: