Wifi

Overview

Available wifi networks on campus

The recommended network for staff and students is eduroam.

Eduroam in York city centre

Eduroam is available in York city centre, allowing staff and students to connect to wifi when out and about in York.

Once your device is set up to use eduroam, it will connect automatically when you're near wifi hotspots in the city centre.

Please note: the network in the centre of York is not an extension of the University's wifi network. For security reasons, facilities that are only available on campus will not be accessible. However, you can use the Virtual Private Network or Virtual Desktop Service to access these resources.

Eduroam at other universities

You can use your York username and password to access the internet at participating organisations:

• World map: where can I eduroam?
• List of UK institutions

Please check that you can connect to eduroam at the University of York before visiting another organisation.

If you need any help connecting to eduroam, please contact the Library and IT Help Desk.

Setup guides

Setup guides

You can setup your device using the automatic setup tool, or by following the manual setup guides.

We recommend trying the automatic setup first.

Automatic setup

Manual setup

If the automatic setup doesn't work on your device, try the manual setup guides:

See also

• Filestore
• Printing, photocopying and scanning

Help & troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

If you can't get connected, please see our step-by-step troubleshooting guide:

• Troubleshooting

System requirements

To connect to the wireless network you will need:

• a computer with an 802.11 a/g/n/ac wireless LAN card or integrated wireless network adapter
• a network client that supports 802.1X/PEAP/MS-CHAP-V2 authentication (most operating systems include this as standard)

Wireless vs wired

The wifi speed depends on many factors, including levels of usage, and the device being used.

A wired connection will always provide better reliability and faster speeds.

Apple Devices

Some users may have iCloud Private Relay enabled on iOS/iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey. Unfortunately this feature is not supported on the University network.

Please see our iCloud Private Relay Support Page for more information.

Games consoles

To connect to eduroam, your console will need to support WPA2-Enterprise. This information should be available in the product description for the console.

If your console doesn't support WPA2-Enterprise, you can still connect to a dedicated wifi network called mydevices - see the Overview tab on this page for details. You can also connect to the wired network in study bedrooms on campus. For more information, please see:

• Wired network: students

Printers

If you are living on campus, you don’t need your own printer as printers are available across campus via our York Print Plus service. 

But if you do decide to bring your own, you won’t be able to connect it to the campus wifi or wired network. You’ll need to connect it directly to your computer using a USB cable (most printers include one of these in the box) and make sure the printer’s wireless functionality is switched off.

Other wifi devices (smart home devices etc)

Phones, tablets and computers connect to our wireless or wired network using enterprise authentication known as 802.1X (on wifi this is sometimes called WPA2 Enterprise).

At the moment, most wifi devices that don't support 802.1X can't connect to our wifi. The exception is games consoles (see above). However, some devices may work when connected to the wired network, including:

• Games consoles
• Smart TVs

You'll need to register your device for our 'mydevices' network before you can connect it:

• mydevices

As a general rule any device designed for a domestic setting and controlled from a phone or tablet won't work.

For example, you can't use the following on eduroam:

• wireless printers (but you can turn off the wifi and use the USB cable)
• media devices such as Sonos audio systems
• Apple AirPlay
• Google Chromecast
• NOW TV box
• smart domestic devices such as wifi kettles and wifi lightbulbs (eg Philips Hue)
• early models of the Amazon Kindle

If in doubt, before purchasing or bringing a device to campus it's always worth contacting us to check whether you’ll be able to connect it to the network.

Areas not covered by wifi

If you find an area that is not covered by eduroam, please let us know. We will investigate whether we can extend coverage to that area.

Library & IT Help Desk

If you're having problems using wifi, get in touch with the Library and IT Help Desk.

Our commitments

Your responsibilities

Terms and conditions

This information is intended to supplement the University's terms and conditions:

• eduroam (UK) Policy

To help us keep the network running smoothly, please note the following guidelines.

If you have any questions about appropriate use, or whether it's ok to connect a device to the network, please contact us for advice.

Don't set up or enable personal hotspots

Many mobile phones and other devices allow you to create a personal wifi hotspot, usually using your 3G or 4G network. We ask you not to use this facility while on campus. Personal hotspots interfere with the campus wifi, causing significant local disruption.

Using Bluetooth

Please minimise your use of Bluetooth devices on campus, especially indoors. Bluetooth uses the same frequencies as wifi, and can cause local disruption to our wireless network.

Prohibited devices

You are not allowed to use any of the following on the campus network. They can cause significant disruption and/or pose security risks.

• switches and repeaters not authorised by IT Services
• network routers of any kind
• any device which can provide DHCP services or otherwise offer IP addresses - this includes:
  • personal and domestic routers
  • personal firewall devices
  • personal hotspots such as mifi devices
  • laptops or PCs set up to provide Internet Connection Sharing or its equivalent
• wireless access points or repeaters not installed and managed by IT Services
• wireless printers
  • you may use a wireless printer if it's connected via a USB port and the wireless functionality is switched off

Network location

On first connection, Windows users will be prompted to choose a network location.

We strongly recommend you choose Public network. This stops your computer from being visible to other computers around you (eg other people using eduroam).

Depending on your security settings, choosing one of the other options may result in other people being able to see your files.