VT WLAN

VT_WLAN service is available in approximately 90% of academic and administrative spaces across the Blacksburg campus. This wireless network is composed of unencrypted IEEE 802.11g access nodes. To limit access to faculty and staff, VT Communications Network Services uses a Cisco captive portal. They switched from Bluesocket during the summer of 2009. You have to register for Customer OnLine Access (COLA) or in person at the Student Telecommunications Office to enable your account.

Authentication

The captive portal system will hijack the URL you first try to visit. Due to the nature of SSL, https connections cannot be directed to the login page and will time out. Type in your PID and password to be granted access.

Logging in from the Command Line

You can use CURL to log in from the command line or automate this (or any) web-based process. VTLUUG members previously provided scripts for the Bluesocket authentication, but due to the improvements that VT-Wireless brings, noone has bothered to write a new script for the Cisco captive portal.

Some Technical Details

• The access points force SSL and are all signed by the Thawte Premium Server CA.
• The routers are named:
  • bur-agw-2.cns.vt.edu
  • bur-agw-3.cns.vt.edu
  • cas-agw-?.cns.vt.edu
  • hil-agw-?.cns.vt.edu
  • isb-agw-?.cns.vt.edu
  • owe-agw-1.cns.vt.edu
  • sha-agw-1.cns.vt.edu
• DHCP is independent of the captive portal authentication and occurs first.
• You can ping without logging in.
• All wireless networks (including the .1x networks) on campus now use RFC-1918 addresses from the 172.31.0.0/16 network. These are

translated 1 to 1 with NAT into 198.82.x.x addresses for access outside the wireless network.

• All of the .1x wireless networks support IPv6. Some of the VT_WLAN networks support IPv6. [Is IPv6 now deployed everywhere?]
• You can access certain VT sites like CNS and Google without having to authenticate. (Access to Google may be an artifact of the imminent email outsourcing.