DCS Wireless: quick guide

The DCS wireless provides a/b/g/n/ac/ax connectivity.

The SSID is: compsci

The WPA2 network key is available here.

After you have configured your device on the DCS wireless, please register it at wifireg.cs.toronto.edu (while on the wireless network). You will be prompted for your CSLab credentials.

If you need to access internal resources such as sandboxed machines, you will need to use the DCS VPN servers.

Who can use the DCS Wireless?

In order to use the DCS wireless network, you must be a member or a sponsored guest of the Department of Computer Science.

If you are a guest, we recommend consulting with your Point of Contact (PoC) for additional help.

How do I register my device?

After you have configured your device on the DCS wireless, please register it at wifireg.cs.toronto.edu (while on the wireless network). You will be prompted for your CSLab credentials.

In order to successfully contact the correct version of wifireg.cs.toronto.edu, your device needs to be using only the "compsci" wireless for connectivity (ie, not connected to any other wired or wireless network and not falling back to cellular data for Internet access), you cannot be using "DNS over HTTPS" in your browser, and on Apple devices you need to make sure that you're not using "Private Relay". If you are having problems connecting to wifireg.cs.toronto.edu, check your device to make sure that it is getting an IP(v4) address that is in 172.31.*.*. If your device reports that its IP address is 169.254.*.*, something has gone wrong and you need to disconnect from the compsci wireless and reconnect. If you're trying to register a laptop and it has a wired network connection (perhaps through a docking station), make sure you disconnect from the wired network.

Your device must be set to use a fixed wireless Ethernet address (its wireless MAC) for the DCS wireless network. If its wireless MAC changes regularly, your registration won't work. This wireless MAC can be what some devices call a "private address", as long as it's fixed. Depending on your device, this setting may talk about the "Wifi Address" (on iOS) or the "MAC Address Type" (on some Android devices), or another name, and it may be hidden in the advanced network settings for the wireless network.

If you have more than one device, you will need to register each one separately.

VPN

In order to access internal CSLab machines you must use the DCS VPN. If you don't use the VPN, your access is limited to what anyone on the Internet can access.

Details on how to use the DCS VPN are available here.

Where is Wireless Available?

Wireless is available in every building commonly used by DCS. This includes the second and third floors of Pratt, the second, third and fourth floors of Sanford Fleming as well as the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and eighth floors of Bahen (this is an incomplete list). In short we have endeavoured to make sure that wireless is available wherever members of the department have a tendency to be located, including the Bahen classrooms.