Limited Entropy Dot Com Not so random thoughts on security featured by Eloi Sanfèlix

HOWTO Connect your Mac OS X to the TU Eindhoven Wireless Network

NOTA: Este post está en inglés porque probablemente a quien le pueda interesar no hable español, así que he decidido escribirlo así.

I arrived to Eindhoven last week and, while I was looking for a house, I needed to surf the net in order to get the way to the housing agencies and houses we were going to see. I went to the TU/e and tried to connect to the Internet via their Wireless connection, and I realized I needed a user account, as usual. After a few steps, I've found all the instructions concerning this topic were Windows-only, so I had to find by myself the way to connect using OS X based on this instructions.

After a few tries, today I've found the correct way to authenticat on the network, so I'm documenting it here just in case anyone is in the same situation.

First of all, you need to register your notebook's MAC addresses in the notebook service center, located at de hal building, ground floor. Once your addresses have been registered there ( providing your s-number and your id ), you need to set your hostname to your s-number. This can be done in OS X via Preferences > Share ( or sharing, I'm running the spanish version of OS X ). Then, you can connect to the wired ( Ethernet ) network configuring your interface to use DHCP.

If you don't know where/how to get your MAC addresses, you have two ways: via preferences > Network and selecting there your interfaces, or using the ifconfig command at the bash shell.

For the topic we are covering here, things are a bit different. Once you have done the previous steps, you need to authenticate into the wireless network, which is using the 802.1X security framework and the PEAP protocol. So you need to say OS X how to do this.

First, go to Applications ( cmd+shift+U ) , Network Connection, and select Fila > New 802.1X connection. There you have to select from the Configuration select list something like 'Edit configurations', and within the new dialog window create a new configuration by means of clicking the + button.

Now you have to set correctly the authentication parameters. Your username is tue\<s-number>, your password is your NT-account password, and the network ssid ( I guess it should be something like 'wireless network' in the English version of OS X) is tue. Then you have to select the proper authentication protocol in the checklist below these parameters. As I've already said, this network works with the PEAP protocol, so you have to select ONLY this one.

Once you have all these parameters filled in, save the new configuration and go back to the Network Connection utility. The only step left is clicking the 'Connect Button'.

Probably you will be prompted to accept the server certificate, because it's not signed by a trusted CA. I've chosen to allow always this certificate so I won't be prompted for it again.

Now you can enjoy your new wireless connection within the TU/e campus 😉