The UCCS Wireless Network

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs wireless network is composed of over 360 access points, allowing for easy Internet access from any building on campus.  Full access is permitted to all students, faculty, and staff members of the university.  Limited access is also provided for guests, allowing for basic web usage.  In order to access the wireless network, you must have an account.  If you are a student, staff, or faculty member, your normal username and password are what you will use to access the wireless network.  If you are a guest, you can request a visitor account at the help desk.

Access Policies

Anyone connecting to the UCCS Wireless network is required to comply with the UCCS and CU Information Technology Policies.  These can be found at the following links:

700-002 Responsible Computing

700-003 Information Technology

700-004 Wireless Network

700-005 UCCS Computer Security Policy

SSIDs

When you browse through available wireless networks on a device, wether it is a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, you are generally presented with a list of network names.  These names are know as SSIDs.  Two different SSIDs are present everywhere on the UCCS campus, each providing a different level of service.  These SSIDs are UCCS-Wireless and UCCS-Visitor.

UCCS-Wireless

UCCS-Wireless is the general-purpose, full-access, secure network intended to be used by all students, faculty, and staff.  This network uses WPA2 Enterprise encryption to ensure security.  This network provides full access to the Internet, and should always be the first choice.  

At the time that you connect to the network, you should be prompted for a username and password.  These will be the same username and password that you use for everything else on campus, such as accessing email or lab computers.

If this is the first time you are accessing the UCCS-Wireless network, your first attempt to access a web page may be rerouted to our Network Access Control (NAC) page, depending on which type of device you are using to connect.  We require users of this network to install a small, extremely lightweight client known as SafeConnect in order to be allowed full access.  SafeConnect itself does not enforce any policies on your device, but rather checks to make sure that your operating system is up to date, and that you have some form of anti-virus and anti-spyware program installed.  The process of downloading and installing the SafeConnect program typically takes under a minute.  Once SafeConnect is installed, you will either be granted full access, or you will be directed to instructions explaining how to update your computer to be in full compliance.

From this point, you should have full access to the Internet.  After SafeConnect have been installed for the first time, you should immediately have access to the network as soon as you connect to UCCS-Wireless from this point forward.

UCCS-Visitor

UCCS-Visitor is a limited access, insecure network.  This network is intended to provide basic web access for guest accounts, or for older devices which do not support WPA2 Enterprise encryption.  Only HTTP traffic is allowed when using this network.  Since this network is both limited and insecure, we strongly recommend that anyone who is able to use UCCS-Wireless do so.

After connecting to this network, your first attempt to visit a web site will be redirected to a portal web site requesting your login credentials.  These will be the guest account your were issued, or your campus username and password.  Once you have entered your username and password, and accepted the terms and conditions, you will have access to the Internet.