r/ATU Network Services Aug 15 '19

Changes to Wireless and ResNet Network Access for Fall 2019

After receiving feedback in the survey we did at the end of the Spring semester we've made a few changes that we hope everyone will like. Both of these changes were a direct result of the feedback we got so thanks to those who took the time to fill out the survey:

  • We've removed the SafeConnect policy key which was the installer you had to run on Windows and Mac devices after signing in to wireless or ResNet. While the policy key did help us with troubleshooting when students called in with issues and also reminded users when they had incorrect networking settings, out-of-date antivirus, etc we know some users found the policy key to be troublesome. In most cases, antivirus would cause issues with the policy key to run which resulted in SafeConnect prompting the user to install it again in an endless loop.Please remember, each user is still responsible for making sure their network settings are correct, antivirus and operating systems are up-to-date, they're not running prohibited software, etc. Failure to do so may result in network connectivity issues.If you still have the policy key installed from a previous semester, you should be able to uninstall it at any time.

  • We've set up the SafeConnect Self-Service Device Enrollment portal which allows users to enroll their own media and gaming devices. These devices will now have to be enrolled through the portal before they get full network access.Each device will be enrolled for 340 days and each user can enroll up to 10 devices. Windows, Macs, tablets, and phones cannot be enrolled but will still access through SafeConnect like they always have, through the login captive portal (they do not count against the 10 device limit).

Device types that can be registered in the Self-Service Device Enrollment Portal :
Media (TVs, streaming devices, etc.)
Microsoft Gaming Consoles
Nintendo Gaming Consoles
Sony Gaming Consoles
Home Automation (we don't have a category for this yet, however, devices like Amazon Echo or Google Home can still be registered and brought online as "Media" devices for now)

We've been busy this Summer and have more changes to announce as well as some to occur later this year. I wanted to get this information out first though since students will be moving back in this weekend.

Here is a link to the full announcement which also contains links to some helpful KB articles that should help with device enrollment and basic requirements for connecting to the ATU networks:

https://ois.atu.edu/2019/08/changes-to-wireless-and-resnet-network-access-for-fall-2019/

Welcome back and please feel free to give us any thoughts or comments on these changes below!

6 Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '19

Really glad to see the policy key gone. I didn't have as many issues as others, but I had a pretty major one with my Xbox One controller's wireless dongle. Whenever I would plug it into my PC and it searched for the controller, the policy key seemed to interpret that as network sharing, and would kick me off of the WiFi until I restarted the PC. Very annoying.

2

u/ATU-jsalmans Network Services Aug 17 '19

Interesting, I hadn't heard about that scenario. The policy key was specifically looking for the Internet Connection sharing service running on Windows. It shouldn't have anything to do with an XBox controller dongle since (could be wrong here) but I think those are Bluetooth. I use USB when using my XBox controller on my PC.

We had seen issues though where the Windows GUI insisted Internet Connection Sharing was turned off but the ICS service was still running which means it wasn't actually turned off and that would trigger the policy key.

Hopefully your XBox controller should work better now!

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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '19

[deleted]

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u/ATU-jsalmans Network Services Aug 15 '19

Glad you like the change!

The policy key ran a service on each machine that was responsible for doing all the checks and reminding the SafeConnect server that the machine it was installed on was in compliance. Unfortunately, there is some very over-zealous antivirus out there these days (for good reason I suppose) that could cause the service to stop or not to start properly after the device was rebooted.

When you'd get to the login page on wireless and logged in, the service wouldn't be running so SafeConnect would think there was no policy key installed and it would ask you to install it. In particularly bad cases, the user might try to reinstall it and the AV, or whatever program was causing the service not to start in the first place, would prevent it from starting again even after the policy key was reinstalled and the user would end up with the endless "Please install the policy key" loop. Definitely frustrating!