Eduroam is the central Wi-Fi network on the TU Braunschweig campus. In large parts of the campus, lecture halls and seminar rooms, a total of around 1000 WLAN access points ensure that WLAN and thus Internet is almost omnipresent for students and staff. Its availability on the university campus also underlines its importance for campus life.
As a portmanteau of the term "Educational Roaming (Network)", eduroam also stands for what is probably the world's most successful WLAN network. Just as scientists and students from other research institutions and universities on the TU Braunschweig campus can access the internet free of charge, you as a member or affiliate of the TU Braunschweig can do the same at other institutions in the worldwide eduroam network. Whether you are online when visiting the universities in Amsterdam or going online on the other side of the world at universities in Australia: Everywhere you go, eduroam gives you free Internet access based on the fact that you have a valid user ID at TU Braunschweig and have configured eduroam WLAN on your device according to the specifications.
It should be emphasized: The technology behind eduroam, which is used worldwide, is secure, provided you have configured your device correctly.
Unfortunately, however, we have found that devices are not always configured according to the specifications. The resulting problems are not immediately apparent to you as a user of the eduroam WLAN, as the operating systems not only conceal the technical complexity but also any means of checking whether you have set up your access securely.
If you have not configured eduroam WLAN according to the specifications, you open the door to WLAN hackers to your user ID and password as well as your communication. The technology behind eduroam is not the problem, because similar to visiting an https-encrypted website, the WLAN login is also encrypted with eduroam. An analogy makes the problem clearer: when you visit an encrypted website with your browser, the lock in the address bar tells you that the connection is secure. Unfortunately, none of the operating systems offer comparable visual feedback regarding WLAN.