University of Minnesota
Office of Information Technology (OIT)
www.oit.umn.edu
oitweb@umn.edu

Office of Information Technology (OIT)


Office of Information Technology (OIT) > Wireless > Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing issues with the wireless service, please contact technology help staff at (612) 301-4357 immediately. We need information from you to diagnose many wireless problems such as your Internet ID and computer MAC address. It also is easier to track a problem through the network as it is happening.

Maintenance Notice

In February, OIT engineers are installing a new security certificate for "wireless.netaccess.umn.edu." OIT engineers are changing from a certificate with a one-year renewal to a different type with a three-year renewal because of a renewed validity period for the certificate. This means wireless network users must change their computer configuration settings to accept "AddTrust External CA Root." After February users may remove the "Thawte Premium Server CA" check. See the new user guides in the Securing Your Data section of this website.

Deleting an Existing Certificate

  1. Run the Keychain Access program. It can be found in the Applications\Utilities folder.
  2. Click "Show Keychains" at the bottom of the screen. In the upper-left of the window an area titled Keychains appears.
  3. In the Keychains area click"X509 Anchors."
  4. Scroll through the list of certificates until you find the one you want to delete.
  5. Click the certificate you want to delete, and from the Edit menu choose "Delete."

Cannot Connect to Wireless

Check the signal strength for wireless. If it is low, move toward a location with higher signal.

Check the wireless map for more information.

Wireless Access Works Inconsistently

Cause

Drivers are not updated to the level of support necessary.

Resolution

Make sure you are using a supported wireless card and driver when connecting to the network.

Use the "UofM Secure" SSID

We recommend you use the "UofM Secure" SSID to ensure safer and more convenient access to the University wireless network.

The "UofM" SSID was set up to provide a way to migrate over from the old system easily. A goal of the wireless deployment effort is to encourage encryption of University data using the "UofM Secure" network. An additional benefit of the "UofM Secure" SSID is that Usernames and Passwords are stored on your PC, so there is no need to authenticate multiple times. Roaming from AP to AP is also supported. This also prevents users from experiencing the complications of inconsistent wireless access described above.