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With ‘eduroam,’ MIT offers remote access to MITnet

With ‘eduroam,’ MIT offers remote access to MITnet

MIT recently joined the network-access service eduroam and began broadcasting the “eduroam” SSID on Aug. 19, adding to the more familiar “MIT,” “MIT GUEST,” and “MIT SECURE,” according to a news article on MIT IS&T’s website.

Eduroam’s website says that it “allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity … when visiting other participating institutions.”

The system works by providing what can be abstracted as a secure tunnel from a user’s computer connected to the Wi-Fi at any participating institution to the network at their home institution, according to the eduroam-US website. This allows the user to not only access the Internet, but to access their home institution’s network as they usually would on campus.

MIT students and staff can take advantage of eduroam by using their Kerberos accounts, allowing them to connect to MIT’s network from any of the eduroam campuses around the world, including Boston University and approximately 180 others in the U.S.

—William Navarre