eduroam gives students, researchers and staff quick and easy access to the fixed and wireless networks at their own institutes and at other institutes that offer the service, whether in the Netherlands or elsewhere.
How does eduroam work?
eduroam uses globally interconnected authentication servers to allow users to connect easily to the network of an institute where they are a guest by means of their own wireless device. For example: a student at Delft University of Technology is taking some courses at Eindhoven University of Technology. He can use eduroam to utilise the fixed and wireless networks at both institutes, without any additional configuration being necessary. The method of authentication makes it extremely secure.
Secure connection
The basis for eduroam is a hierarchy of linked authentication servers via which user details can be transported securely between institutes. The user's own institute keeps track of these details and checks them, including when the user is a guest at a different institute.
Authentication
When a user of the University of Twente (UT) is a guest at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (HU), for example, the authentication server at the HU will send the user's details to the UT. Only when the authentication server at the UT indicates that the user is known to it (i.e. the user name/password combination is correct) will the server at the HU give the user access to that institute's network.
More information about the eduroam service