Wireless Access for UCAR-NCAR Guests

Wireless Access for UCAR-NCAR Guests
Herb Poppe
hpoppe@ucar.edu
NCAR - SCD - DSG
(303) 497-1296
October 2003
Edition 1.0

Overview

Welcome to UCAR!

UCAR makes its wireless network available for the use of guests provided that they have a staff sponsor. From our wireless network you will be able to access the Internet, reach your home institution, or access UCAR network and computing services that have been specifically made available during your stay.

This document details the process of connecting to the wireless network and reaching the Internet from an example Windows XP session. Even if you are running a different version of Windows or have a Macintosh, this document can still prove helpful in using our wireless network.

Procedure

A UCAR staff member will have created a wireless access account for you. Your account username and password are:

Username: ______________________
Password: ______________________

This account will only be active during this stay.

In order for you to access the Internet from your laptop, you must first make a connection to UCAR's wireless network. (For non-Windows XP users, the following note may prove useful.)

To complete the process, you must log into a secure web page with the username and password of your wireless access account.

Making the wireless connection

When your Windows XP laptop comes within range of a UCAR wireless access point, it will respond as follows, provided that the wireless card is enabled:

Figure 1: Pop-up informs you your laptop is in range of a wireless access point.

Click on the the bubble to bring up the "Wireless Network Connection" dialog box shown in Figure 3.

Should the bubble go away before you have a chance to click on the icon, you can bring up the "Wireless Network Connection" dialog by selecting "Wireless Network Connection" from the "Connect to" menu item from the "Start" menu.

Figure 2: Select "Wireless Network Connection" from the "Start" menu as an alternative to clicking on the pop-up bubble.

Figure 3: Connect to the "UCAR" wireless network.

UCAR doesn't use WEP because it is no longer secure. You can ignore the warning because we provide an alternative security mechanism.

Click on the "Allow me to connect to the selected wireless network..." checkbox, and then click on "Connect".

When you successfully connect to our wireless network, you will briefly see the following pop-up bubble.

Figure 4: Pop-up informs you that your laptop has successfully connected to a wireless access point.

If the pop-up does not appear, or you otherwise want to check the connection status, select "Wireless Network Connection" from the "Connect to" menu item from the "Start" menu.

Figure 5: Select "Wireless Network Connection" from the "Start" menu to display the "Wireless Network Connection Status" dialog box.

Figure 6: The "Wireless Network Connection Status" dialog box.

If a wireless connection is active, the "Wireless Network Connection Status" dialog box is displayed, showing the signal strength and other parameters of the wireless connection.

Note: If you are not running Windows XP, which has a consistent user interface for working with wireless configuration and connection, regardless of the wireless hardware, the following information should prove helpful in configuring your vendor specific software.

Our wireless network requires neither an ESSID nor encryption key to access. Depending on the settings of your home institution, you may or may not need to reconfigure your wireless settings. If your software supports the creation of multiple wireless "profiles", you may wish to create a new profile for your UCAR connection so that you won't have to destroy your home institution configuration. Otherwise, if your home institution requires an ESSID, or WEP to be enabled, you will need to remove the ESSID and turn off WEP in order to connect.

Different vendors vary in exactly how they set the default ESSID. Most simply require you to leave the ESSID field blank. Others, such as Netgear, require the word "Any" in the ESSID field. As a failsafe, you can specify the actual ESSID which is "UCAR". Note that if you set this, your wireless software may need to be reconfigured when you return to your home institution.

Authenticating

Even though you have successfully connected to UCAR's wireless network, you will not be able to access the Internet, your home institution, or UCAR networks and services until you authenticate with the secure Web server, wireless.ucar.edu.

To connect to the Web server, open your Web browser (the examples below are illustrated with Internet Explorer), enter "http://wireless.ucar.edu" into the "Address" field, and press <Enter> (or <Return>) to connect to the server.

Figure 7: When you connect to wireless.ucar.edu, you will need to accept the security certificate.

The dialog box warns you that you have not yet chosen to trust the company that issued the certificate. That is because the certificate has been issued by UCAR, on its own behalf.

The name on the certificate is valid; it does not match the name of the site because the name on the certificate is the IP address of the site, not its DNS name.

Click "yes" to accept the security certificate; you will be connected to the Wireless Network Authentication Gateway.

Figure 8: The main page of the Wireless Network Authentication Gateway.

Click the "LOG IN" link" to begin the login process; the "HTTPS Heartbeat Login page" is displayed.

Figure 9: The "HTTPS Heartbeat Login" page.

Enter your guest account name (shown here as "visitor").

Select "Seminar or Guest User".

Click on "Log In".

The "Logging in as ..." page is displayed.

Figure 10: The "Logging in as ..." page.

Enter the password for your guest account.

Click on "Log In Now"; the "Heartbeat" page is displayed when you successfully log in.

Figure 11: Successful login to the Wireless Network Authentication Gateway.

Once you have logged in successfully, you will be on a network external to UCAR's security perimeter (firewall). You can use any Internet capable program (Web, FTP, e-mail, Telnet, SSH, etc.) to connect to sites on the Internet, your home institution, or UCAR network and computing services that have been specifically made available during your stay. These connections will of course be subject to whatever firewall exists between your computer and the systems to which you try to connect.

To maintain your connection via the gateway to the Internet, etc., you must leave your Web browser running and open to the "Heartbeat" page. The window containing the page may be maximized or minimized. If you close the Web browser, close the Web page, or log off, you will be unable to open new connections; however, your existing connections will remain active and you can continue your ongoing work without disruption.

To log out of the wireless gateway, click the "Log Off" link on the "Heartbeat" Web page; your browser displays the "Logged Off" Web page.

Figure 12: Successful logout.