A new way to set up eduroam
This Summer, we’ve made a new eduroam setup tool available for staff and students. It’s called the eduroam configuration assistant tool, or eduroam CAT for short.
The way we previously configured eduroam meant that students and staff needed to be in St Andrews, on University premises, to connect their devices. You were required to connect to a wifi network called ‘uos-connect’. This allowed you to open our eduroam setup page, connect.st-andrews.ac.uk, in your browser, regardless of whether you have an internet connection.
You can read the setup guides for connecting to eduroam via uos-connect on the IT website.
Why did we introduce eduroam CAT?
We introduced this tool so that students could:
- set up eduroam on Androids more easily
- use eduroam hotspots around the world before they arrive
- get online as soon as they move in
Set up eduroam on Androids more easily
Eduroam CAT is a web-based tool which configures your eduroam wifi settings for you by downloading the eduroam installer.
There’s even an eduroam CAT app in the Google Play store which Android-users can download. If you download the app and use it to connect to eduroam instead of the uos-connect method, you won’t need to enter the additional settings like EAP method etc.
iOS users will visit https://cat.eduroam.org in a browser on their mobile devices instead.
Use eduroam before you get to St Andrews
One of the benefits of using eduroam as a University is that all staff and students can use their credentials to connect to eduroam wifi at any other participating institutions around the world. However, to do this, they need to have set it up on campus first. Find a full list of these locations on the eduroam website.
By introducing this new setup method, students can configure eduroam wifi on their devices and connect to eduroam-participating institutions before arriving in St Andrews. Many airports use eduroam so it’s worth doing if you’re flying oversees during the Summer.
Although this was the main reason we introduced it, there’s nothing to stop students using this once they arrive in St Andrews as well.
Get online as soon as you move in
If you’ve set up eduroam ahead of moving it, it means you can get in the door, unpack and enjoy your first day in St Andrews, without worrying about configuring your devices.
Will eduroam CAT replace uos-connect?
No, we’ll still need both. Eduroam CAT requires an internet connection, where as connecting to uos-connect doesn’t.
This means that smartphones and some tablets, which use mobile data for internet access, can connect via eduroam CAT but laptops, which need wifi or an ethernet cable, will need to connect via uos-connect.
Alternatively, you could use a mobile device as a wifi hotspot while you connect to eduroam via eduroam CAT on your laptop.
How does it work?
Open a browser or app store and go to https://cat.eduroam.org. Then download the University of St Andrews eduroam installer to set up your device.
Instructions for Windows, MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, and Androids can be found on the IT website.