Towards the end of April 2012 users connecting to the 'lancaster' wireless network may have noticed some problems with getting the initial connection and logging in. This was due to the load placed on the lancaster network by devices which were connected to it but not authenticated on it. To remedy this, ISS have made some changes and some things that users may have been used to doing on lancaster will no longer work. The specific changes are detailed below.

The login page has changed

The lancaster network is now being served by a new device, which means the look and feel of the login page has changed.

The new login page looks like this:

WHAT HAS CHANGED
Authentication URL	The URL in your borwsers address bar will have changed from: https://open-vpn01.lancs.ac.uk/login.pl to: https://wireless-connect.lancs.ac.uk/

The address in the address bar that you are redirected to for login purposes has changed from https://open-vpn01.lancs.ac.uk/login.pl to https://wireless-connect.lancs.ac.uk/. The new login page is secure, and your browser should not warn you of any problems with the security certificate when connecting. If it does, or if the address is not for https://wireless-connect.lancs.ac.uk/, please contact the ISS Service Desk.

It is no longer possible to connect to the University VPN without being fully authenticated on lancaster

In the past it was possible to connect to lancaster and then immediately connect to the University VPN without going through the intermediate stage of authenticating via lancaster's web login page. Unfortunately the new web login system does not support this functionality. You must fully log in via the web login page otherwise the new system will keep destroying your connection to the network and forcing you to reconnect. ISS apologise that this makes using lancaster more awkward, and would like to reiterate that wherever possible the secure eduroam service should be used instead.

It is necessary to connect to the University VPN to access on-site resources

Due to the lack of encryption and data confidentiality on the lancaster network, no direct access is availble to on-site network resources (e.g. staff email servers, central filestore, network printers). To access these resources (for example to access a departmental shared folder or to connect via remote desktop to your office computer) you must first connect to the University VPN.

For more information, please contact the ISS Serivce Desk on x10987.

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