PC-Secure is our encrypted, more secure, wireless network. It utilizes 802.1x authentication and WPA encryption. It is only accessible by current Providence College students, faculty, and staff who have an active Providence College email account.

If you are a guest of the College, you should contact the Helpdesk at 401-865-4357 for instructions on connecting to our guest wireless.

If you are a member of the student body, faculty, or staff, you should follow the proper instructions below.

Note: Wireless networks are inherently less secure than wired networks. Sensitive and confidential information should not be accessed over wireless networks.

Also, try troubleshooting!

Connect using Windows XP

  1. Choose the Control Panel from the Start Menu.

  2. Double-click on Network Connections.

  3. Right click on Wireless Network Connection and choose Properties.

  4. Click on the Wireless Networks tab at the top and you should see the following:

    xp-wirelessnetworks.png

    If you do not see the Wireless Networks tab you should go to the Control Panel and choose Administrative Tools. From there double-click on Services. Look for Wireless Zero Config and double-click on that. When the new window opens, Click on Start and then click OK. You should now be able to see the Wireless Networks tab if you start from Step 1.

    NOTE: If you notice that the Wireless Networks tab, that was manually added disappears after logging off or restarting then you will need to go into Services  and make sure the Wireless Zero Config service is set to Automatic Start up type.  You may also have to disable any other wireless services that run at startup and interfere with the Windows Wireless Zero Config.

     

  5. Click Add and you should see the following:

    xp-newnetwork.png

  6. Enter PC-Secure in the Network Name (SSID) box.

  7. Change Network Authentication to WPA or WPA2, if available. Change Data encryption to AES (TKIP will also work, though AES is recommended).

  8. Click on the Authentication tab at the top and you should see the following:

    xp-authentication.png

  9. Change EAP type to Protected EAP (PEAP).

  10. Uncheck "Authenticate as computer when computer information is available".

  11. Click Properties and you should see the following:

    xp-authprops.png

  12. Uncheck "Validate server certificate".

  13. Click Configure and you should see the following:

    xp-configure.png

  14. Uncheck "Automatically use my Windows logon name and password (and domain if any)".

  15. Click OK on each window that was open.

You should now see a message that says "Click here to select a certificate or other credentials for connection to the network PC-Secure". Click that message and a window will open asking for credentials. Enter your Providence College network ID and password in the respective boxes and leave the Logon domain box blank. Click OK and you should be connected to the Internet.

xp-creds.png

 

 

Connect using Windows Vista

  1. Choose the Control Panel from the Start Menu.

  2. Choose Network and Sharing Center.

  3. Click on Manage wireless networks.

  4. Click Add.

  5. Click Manually create a network profile and you should see the following window:

    vista-manually.png

  6. Enter PC-Secure in the Network name box.

  7. Change Security type to WPA-Enterprise or WPA2-Enterprise, if available.

  8. Change Encryption type to AES (TKIP will also work, though AES is recommended).

  9. Click Next.

  10. On the next window, click Change connection settings.

  11. Click on Security at the top of the new window and you should see the following:

    vista-networkprops (1).png

  12. Uncheck the box that says "Cache user information for subsequent connections to this network".
  13. Be sure that Protected EAP (PEAP) is selected under "Choose a network authentication method" and click Settings. You should now see the following:

    vista-peapprops.png

  14. Uncheck "Validate server certificate" and click the Configure button near the bottom.

  15. Uncheck "Automatically use my Windows logon name and password (and domain if any)".

    vista-configure.png

  16. Click OK on all open windows.

You should now see a message that says "Additional information is required to connec to PC-Secure". Click that message and a window will open asking for credentials. Enter your Providence College network ID and password in the respective boxes and leave the Logon domain box blank. Click OK and you should be connected to the Internet.

vista-creds.png

 

 

Connect using Apple MacOS X

  1. Click on the Airport icon in the menu bar.

  2. Click on PC-Secure.

  3. Enter your Providence College network ID and password in the respective boxes.

  4. Click OK.

  5. On the warning about the Certificate, click Continue.

You should now be connected to the Internet.

 

 

Connect using Linux with NetworkManager

These instructions work with any Linux distribution that uses NetworkManager. They have been tested and verified to work with Ubuntu 7.10 (NetworkManager 6.x) and Fedora 8 (NetworkManager 7.x), but should work fine with other distributions.

  1. Click on the NetworkManager applet in your system tray to bring up a list of available wired and wireless networks. Click on PC-Secure.

    linux1.png

  2. A prompt for authentication to the PC-Secure network will appear. The following fields should be set (some may be set automatically):
    Wireless Security: WPA & WPA2 Enterprise
    Authentication: Protected EAP (PEAP)
    Anonymous Identification: (leave blank)
    CA Certificate: (None)
    PEAP: Version 1
    Inner Authentication: MSCHAPv2

    linux2.png

  3. Enter your PC network ID and password, then click Connect.

  4. A prompt telling you that no Certificate Authority has been chosen may pop up. This is not important, so you may check Don't warn me again and click Ignore.

    linux3.png

  5. You should be connected within a few seconds.

    linux4.png

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