Troubleshooting Useful Tips Windows 8

How to fix eduroam on Windows 8

Windows 8 should be easy to connect to eduroam. Simply go to your wireless networks and click on “eduroam”, enter your username and password (including @your university in the username). However, if that doesn’t work, you can try these steps.

How your settings should look like

Networkname / SSID: eduroam (note: all should be lowercase!)
Verification / Authentication: WPA2 with IEEE 802.1X (sometimes called: WPA Enterprise)
Encryption: AES
Authentication method: AEP (PEAP)
Authenticationprotocol: MS-CHAP-v2
Outer Identity: leave ‘Outer Identity’ empty. (you could try changing this to your username if connecting doesn’t work)
Username: Your username (most of the time this is your (students) email)
Password: Your password (most of the time this will be equal to your blackboard password)

What is the problem (most of the times)

When connecting to the eduroam network, windows automatically select the settings he think are best. Most of the times, windows is correct and you are able to connect to the network without any problem. However, sometimes windows makes a mistake and you wouldn’t be able to connect. For some unknown reason, windows makes this mistake a lot more for the ‘eduroam’ network then any other wireless network.

  • Windows will try to connect to the network using the Extensible Authentication Protocol TTLS
  • This is incorrect, and has to be changed to Protected AEP (PEAP)

How to fix it

  1. Open the Network and Sharing center, by right clicking the networking icon in the taskbar or opening start and typing: “Network and Sharing Center”
  2. Click on your wireless connection
  3. Click on your current wireless connection
  4. Click on Wireless Properties
    2014-05-19_11-36-41
  5. Click on Security
  6. Set Security Type to WPA2-Enterprise
  7. Set Encryption Type to AES (should be only option)
  8. Change Microsoft EAP-TTLS to Microsoft Protected EAP (PEAP)
  9. Click on OK to save your settings
  10. Reconnect to the network.

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But what if it still doesn’t work?

Don’t worry, there are still some steps we could take to try and fix the problem. This will take some more time, so be prepared and start by reading the step by step tutorial one first time before following the steps carefully. Lets get started!

 

Use a “\” before your username to avoid trying to join a domain

Since the username for eduroam includes the University’s email adress Windows 8 can misinterpret this as the user trying to join a domain. This is a mistake and eduroam does not work on this model. Just put a “\” before your username to avoid this problem.

Manually configure your computer for eduroam

If all of the above has failed, we can also try to manually connect to the network. This will take some time, so start by reading all the steps before following them! Let’s get started:

  1. From the new Metro Start screen press Desktop.
  2. Right-click on the wireless icon in the bottom right of the desktop and select “Open Network and Sharing Centre”.
  3. Select “Setup a new connection or network”.
  4. Select “Manually connect to a wireless network” and click ‘Next’.
  5. Enter the following details:
    Network name: eduroam
    Security type: WPA2-Enterprise
    Encryption type: AES2014-05-19_11-49-28
  6. Click on Next
  7. Click Change connection settings.
  8. Select the Security tab.
  9. Click Settings.
  10. Tick the box labelled ‘Connect to these servers‘ and type your server in the box below.
  11. In the ‘Trusted Root Certification Authorities:’ window tick the box labelled “AddTrust External CA Root“.2014-05-19_11-50-48
  12. Click on OK.
  13. Click ‘Advanced Settings‘.
  14. Tick the box labelled ‘Specify authentication mode‘ and select ‘User authentication‘ from the dop down menu.2014-05-19_11-51-51
  15. Click on OK then OK‘ again and then Close
  16. Click on the Wi-Fi button in the bottom right corner of the desktop.
  17. Select ‘eduroam‘ and press ‘Connect‘.
  18. Click the OK button

You should now be connected to the eduroam wireless network.

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