How do I connect to the !@#$%^& UvA wireless with Linux?!

Connecting to the UvA wireless with your Linux laptop is easy... if you are equiped with an NP oracle. Or, if you happen not to have one handy, you can follow these instructions:

  1. Get your wireless card working. (Sorry, this tutorial assumes that your wireless card already works, and that your only remaining problem is connecting to the UvA network.)
  2. Open the NetworkManager applet. It should be in your system tray or notification area. If you're using GNOME, then it should show up on one of your gnome-panels, possibly along the top or bottom edge of your screen.
  3. You should see several wireless networks, including ones called uva and eduroam. Select uva.
  4. When you select the uva network, you will see a dialog like this one, asking for your network settings: The settings you need are:
    Wireless securityDynamic WEP (802.1x)
    AuthenticationTunneled TLS
    Anonymous identityanonymous@uva.nl
    CA certificatethis certificate
    Inner authenticationPAP
    Usernameyour_UvANetID@uva.nl
    Passwordyour_UvaNetID_password

    Notes:

    • The certificate provided by the UvA is both broken and not even the right one! It does not follow the relevant standard (RFC 1421), and so NetworkManager doesn't recognize it as a valid certificate. (For the sordid details, see this bug report.) The certificate provided above is both standards-compliant and the correct one, so should work.
    • The username and password you need is for your UvANetID. Your UvANetID is not the FNWI account you use to login to the machine at your desk, nor is it (necessarily) the same UvA email address.

  5. Hit the Connect button.
  6. Wait.
  7. Continue waiting. You might not connect to the network on your first try. Double-check your settings and try again.
  8. Congratulations! You are now connected to the UvA wireless, no thanks to ICT.

Problems

Your instructions are wrong.

Don't just sit there stewing, man! I am not a mind reader. Tell me.

Colophon

This page was hand-coded in Vim. Last modified 10 May 2010.