After being absent for a week from UOM, the first thing that I did today was test the UOM Wi-Fi given that my account has been activated. See the previous post for the terms, FAQ & instructions.
The first thing I did was connect to the network Wifiprovisioning, the security key being uomwifi01. Try to browse any web page and you’ll be asked to provide a username and password.
According to the instructions, the username should be as follows: uowmwifi|username
That’s wrong. The “ | “ is a actually a “ \ “
So what you should enter is:
uomwifi\id
password
Following this, you’ll be taken to a page where you can request a User certificate (tied to your ID & MAC address) that will allow you to use the uomstudent Wi-Fi network.
Select a User Certificate type…
Select a key strength. I should point out that I couldn’t select a key strength.
& boom. Doesn’t work. Maybe I should have followed the instructions more closely & installed the CA certificate first…
Back to home page & downloading a CA certificate.
Installing…
2nd try…
WTF? I suppose this is because the retarded browser doesn’t allow me to select the key strength… Let’s use my other phone, the one with a proper OS and browser.
Enter username & password.
Doing it properly this time by installing the CA certificate first.
Yes, yes, yes.
Back to requesting the user certificate…
At last, I could choose the key strength.
& waiting…
… waiting… & waiting because THE KEY NEVER APPEARED!!!
So, as it turns out, accessing the UOM Wi-Fi system is not hard, but impossible. Both of my Linux-powered N9 and N900 couldn’t cope with the absurdity of this Active Directory UOM-WIFI-CA-CA.
If they don’t want us to use Wi-Fi, please stop providing it instead of making it so mind-boggling that I have to embark on a course of Wi-Fi security to be able to use it. You don’t need to be an electrical engineer to be able to turn on a light switch.
5 years on, & I still can’t use Wi-Fi at UOM.
Update 13/2/2012:
Went to try the UOM Wi-Fi again… & guess what?
It still won’t let me access because I don’t have a certificate. Mind you I tried all possible EAP types – TLS, TTLS, PEAP (& the various sub-authenticating protocols – GTC, MSCHAP, MSCHAPv2) with every possible combination of my username & password.
Of course, I also unsuccessfully tried to get a certificate. Perhaps I’ve been blacklisted… Who knows? I guess I’ll just enroll on a Wi-Fi networking course, CCNP.
So, to summarise:
- I can’t access UOM Wi-Fi.
- I can’t access UOM Wi-Fi because I can’t login.
- I can’t login because I don’t have a certificate.
- I don’t have a certificate because it won’t let download a certificate.
- I still don’t have access to UOM Wi-Fi.
Update 15/2/2012:
The other day, I went on the Internet and I found this. Apparently, if you have a Maemo/Meego device, you need to manually setup the Wi-Fi connection for it to work.
So today, I tried it out on both of my devices. According to the tutorial, you have to use username@domain as the manual username, which would be username@uomwifi or uomwifi\username for UOM.
Long story short, I tried out the various combinations on all the different authentication protocols (PEAP – GTC, EAP MSCHAPv2, MSCHAPv2, TLS, TTLS – GTC, EAP MSCHAPv2) &…
… it didn’t work. :)
Update:
I got a Lumia 800, running Windows Phone, for trial & I tried UOM wifi on it. & it... worked. :(
Update 2:
On an iPod Touch... Enter username/pass. Accept Certificate. Only 2 steps.
Related:
- Wi-Fi at UOM
- dpkg.me - Unofficial guide for UOM’s WI-FI
- Nayar's blog - UoM Wi-Fi on Linux (Kubuntu)
