Previously Published JANET Roaming News

On this page:

• Northumbria University joins JRS (April 2010)
• Full JRS/eduroam service available at University of East London (March 2010)
• Usage of eduroam in the UK reaches a new peak (March 2010)
• NAGIOS 'Looking Glass' feature available for JRS Administrators on JRS Support March 2010)
• Operational JRS3/eduroam service available at Liverpool John Moores University (March 2010)
• New zoomable JANET Roaming eduroam sites locations map launched (March 2010)
• Follow JANET Roaming on twitter (March 2010)
• Operational JRS2/eduroam service now available at Kingston University (March 2010)
• March joiners: Canterbury College and the Scottish Crop Research Institute (March 2010)
• New joiners: Richard Huish College, the University of London and the Robert Gordon University (Feb 2010)
• FreeRADIUS 2.1.8 released (30/12/2009)
• Xsupplicant 2.2.0 stable release for XP and Linux announced (29/01/2010)
• Full eduroam service available at Leeds Metropolitan University (February 2010)
• Full eduroam service available at University of Abertay (January 2010)
• Filtering RADIUS Attributes with Microsoft IAS/NPS published (December 2009)
• Full eduroam service available at Brunel, Cambridge and Warwick (November 2009)
• Usage at an all time high (November 2009)
• JANET Roaming Fundamentals course took place on 1st December
• Advisory FreeRADIUS 2.1.7 (Oct 2009)
• New Features on JRS Support Server (Oct 2009)
• Publication of 'JRS Benefits - a toolkit for making the business case' (Oct 2009)
• Use of JANET Roaming picked up after summer break (Oct 2009)
• New release of Xsupplicant 2.1.9 XP/Linux (Oct 2009)
• JANET Roaming Fundamentals course took place on 2nd Oct
• JANET Roaming / RADIUS / 802.1X UCISA-NG Survey Underway (Sept 2009)
• Use of JANET Roaming remained strong over the summer vacation period (Sept 2009)
• Security Vulnerability in FreeRADIUS 1.1.3 - 1.1.7 (Sept 2009)
• First JANET Roaming course held (August 2009)
• New release of Xsupplicant 2.1.8 XP/Linux (August 2009)
• JANET Roaming course trial (July 2009)
• Eduroam connects Serbia and Macedonia (June 2009)
• JRS Support database now supporting multiple sites per organisation (June 2009)
• OpenSEA supplicant accepted into WiFi Alliance testbed (June 2009)
• Online supplicant configuration training (June 2009)
• Smooth withdrawal of JRS1 service tier (June 2009)
• Technology/FAQ section revamped (May 2009)
• New release of Xsupplicant 2.1.7 announced (May 2009)
• Announcement of withdrawal of JRS1 web redirect service tier (May 2009)
• Publication of update to the JRS Technical Specification (May 2009)
• Dramatic growth in usage of JANET Roaming (March 2009)
• JRS location maps have been upgraded (Feb 2009)
• IPv6 on the NRPS and JRS Support servers (Feb 2009)
• New index and entries in the Technology/FAQs section (Jan 2009)
• New simultated visitor test on JRS Support Server (Nov 2008)

 

Northumbria University joins JRS (April 2010) - Northumbria University joined JRS. The total number of registered organisations became 116.

Full JRS/eduroam service available at University of East London (March 2010) - UEL, located in Docklands and Stratford, became the 72nd UK organisation to assert a full JRS/eduroam service. We welcome the addition of UEL to the family of eduroam sites in the capital.

Usage of eduroam in the UK reaches a new peak (March 2010) - The inter-site authentications count of unique devices roaming between organisations, using the national JRS infrastructure, reached a new high of 21,072 during March. We are pleased to be of service to the community!

NAGIOS 'Looking Glass' feature available for JRS Administrators (March 2010) - JRS Administrators can now have sight of the NAGIOS monitor process that constantly checks connectivity and authentication service availability on organisational RADIUS proxy servers. Details have been e-mailed to organisation contacts.

It's hard to keep up with the development in JRS this month (March 2010) - Full JRS/eduroam service is now available at Liverpool John Moores University - JRS3 service, ie IPv6 available and no-NAT. University of York, Dept of Computer Science also now has an operational service - including wired connections. Total number of operational participants is now 71.

New JANET Roaming eduroam sites locations map now launched (March 2010) - Just in case you haven't noticed, we have a new Google maps based JRS map of UK eduroam sites. Jolly handy if you are in Regent's Park and wonder where you're picking up 'eduroam' from and want to check whether to use WPA/TKIP or WPA2/AES. Press release.

JANET Roaming News can now be followed on twitter (March 2010) - Just search for 'eduroamUK'.

Full JRS/eduroam service now available at Kingston University (March 2010) - Kingston University, located in Kingston upon Thames London, has become the 69th UK organisation to assert a full JRS/eduroam service. We welcome the addition of Kingston to the list of eduroam sites in the capital.

New organisations joining JRS (March 2010) - we are pleased to welcome Canterbury College and the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Invergowrie to JRS. This brings the total of registered organisations to 115.

New organisations joining JRS (Feb 2010) - we were pleased to welcome Richard Huish College, the University of London and the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen to JRS. This brought the total of registered organisations to 113.

FreeRADIUS 2.1.8 released (30/12/2009). The focus of the latest release is stability and 2.1.8 fixes a number of issues with 2.1.7 - notably problems associated with load balancing of RADIUS traffic across the three JRS NRPS when the ORPS was running 2.1.7 (and previous 2.1.x versions) and authenticating with a site also using FreeRADIUS 2.1.x. Following extensive testing we can report that client-balance and client-port-balance now work happily. FreeRADIUS is available from: http://freeradius.org/download.html

Xsupplicant 2.2.0 stable release for XP and Linux announced (29/01/2010). OpenSea's Xsupplicant can now be recommended for general use with XP. Following extensive testing and bug ironing this release is stable and is available for Windows XP, and Linux (both x86 and x64, with source available for building on other platforms). There is an aggressive project timeline in place for completing the port to Vista. It is planned for this to be released in April. Xsupplicant 2.2.0 for XP and Linux is available on the sourceforge web site: http://open1x.sourceforge.net/

Full JRS/eduroam service now available at Leeds Metropolitan University (February 2010): - the Leeds Metro has become the 68th UK organisation to assert a full JRS/eduroam service. We welcome the addition of Leeds Metropolitan to the growing list of eduroam hot-zones.

The next JANET Roaming Fundamentals course - 4th March Glasgow (January 2010): - will be held at the Teacher Building. For details follow link: http://www.ja.net/services/training/courses/roamingfundamentals.html
This will be followed by a course at The Studio, Birmingham on 17th March.

Full JRS/eduroam service now available at University of Abertay (January 2010): - the University of Abertay has become the 67th UK organisation to assert a full JRS/eduroam service. We welcome the addition of Abertay. Happy New Year roaming!

Just published (December 2009): - Filtering RADIUS Attributes with Microsoft IAS and NPS

This document gives a general introduction to RADIUS attribute usage in relation to VLAN assignment, the problems that can arise when users visit non-home sites when attribute filtering is not in place, the specific difficulties presented by Microsoft's approach to attribute handling in IAS and NPS and how to effectively implement attribute filtering with MS IAS/NPS.

Full JRS eduroam service available at new sites (November 2009): - the universities of Brunel, Cambridge and Warwick are the latest JRS-participant organisations to assert full compliance with the JRS Technical Specification and these institutions now offer full Home and Visited services. We welcome the addition of these new locations. Happy roaming!

Usage at an all time high (November 2009): - during October use of JRS in terms of both access-accept traffic handled and unique devices autheticating via the service reached the highest level ever. There were over 16,000 unique devices, broadly equivalent to users, which connected to an eduroam network using the national RADIUS system during the month. This excludes the users that authenticated using eduroam at their home sites.

JANET Roaming Fundamentals course held on 1st December in Bristol For details follow link: http://www.ja.net/services/training/courses/roamingfundamentals.html

Advisory FreeRADIUS 2.1.7 (October 2009): The current latest version of FreeRADIUS is 2.1.7. We are currently investigating an issue associated with FreeRADIUS load balancing of RADIUS traffic proxied to the three JRS NRPS. For organisations using 2.1.7 (and previous 2.1.x versions) a problem arises when an authentication exchange takes place with a site also using FreeRADIUS 2.1.x. Until a resolution is identified, the current advice is to not use client-balance load sharing and instead to use failover, ie within proxy.conf in the home server_pool clause, set type = failover. This issue should be addressed in the forthcoming release of 2.1.8.

New JRS joiners (October 2009): we were pleased to welcome Darlington College to JRS. This increased the total number of UK participating organisations to 110.

New Features on JRS Support Server (October 2009): JRS Administrators will be interested two new JRS Support Server features. ORPS can now be designated as having specific roles; Authentication and Accounting, Authentication only, Accounting only, RADIUS client only. ORPS can also be designated test/development units to which only RADIUS traffic with the home realm being prefixed with 'test' will be sent. For more details see: ORPS-role-designation-features-JRS-Supprt-Server

Just published (October 2009): JRS Benefits - a toolkit for making the business case

This document provides JANET-connected organisations with the information and tools to assess and develop their own business case for the implementation of JANET Roaming. Organisations will be able to use this material, with suitable adjustments to suit individual circumstances, to build and develop their own business cases for the implementation of JANET Roaming. We encourage interested organisations to cut and paste the relevant sections to suit their particular business case.

Also - Executive Summary - the JRS Service in a nutshell - a concise double-sided one page summary that can be used by IT staff to inform senior management about JANET Roaming eduroam. This document states what the service does, includes a detailed schematic and lists the key benefits are and how these map on to typical institutional high-level strategic objectives.

Use of JANET Roaming picked up after summer break (October 2009):

New release of Xsupplicant 2.1.9 XP/Linux (October 2009): There is a new release of Xsupplicant (released 11/09/09) available for evaluation on the sourceforge web site: http://open1x.sourceforge.net/

JANET Roaming Fundamentals course took place on 2nd October at Woburn House London. For details follow link: http://www.ja.net/services/training/courses/roamingfundamentals.html

JANET Roaming / RADIUS / 802.1X UCISA-NG Survey Underway (September 2009): A short online technical survey being run by UCISA-NG is currently underway, closing date 12th October. One senior technical contact per JANET connected organisation has been invited by e-mail to take part. The results should prove most interesting and provide a useful snapshot of the deployment of RADIUS and 802.1X together with technical opinions regarding JRS in the community at present. The survey is totally anonymous and no personal details are requested or retained. If you would like to raise or be contacted to discuss a particular issue, please open an enquiry with JANET Service Desk.

New JRS joiners (September 2009): we were pleased to welcome Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln and The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. This increased the total number of UK participating organisations to 109.

Use of JANET Roaming remained strong over the summer vacation period (Sept 2009):

Security Vulnerability in FreeRADIUS 1.1.3 - 1.1.7 (September 2009): Announced 9/09/09, versions 1.1.3 - 1.1.7 are vulnerable to being crashed by an attacker sending a specially crafted Access-Request packet. This issue has been corrected in release 1.1.8, however we recommend upgrading to version 2.x.x.

JANET Roaming Fundamentals course trial held on 25th August. This new course was fully subscribed and was held in London

New JRS joiners (August 2009): we were pleased to welcome the University of Bolton, Durham University, University of Sunderland, The Macaulay Institute and Edge Hill University. This increased the total number of UK participating organisations to 107.

New release of Xsupplicant 2.1.8 XP/Linux (August 2009): OpenSEA announced the release of 2.1.8 development version (10/07/09). This version has all of the features that will be in the 2.2.0 stable release. Since no new features will be added, all future code for this release will be bug fixes. With this release comes an installer for x86 based Linux.  At the moment, the installer has only been tested on Ubuntu, however it should work on other Linux distros as well. To use the installer, you will need to assign executable rights to the installer file you downloaded, and run it as root. The next release, due shortly, will support building on x64.

Trial of JANET Roaming Fundamentals course trial held on 15th July. This trial run of the new course was fully subscribed and was held at Peter House in Manchester http://www.ja.net/services/training/venues/manchester.html.

The course provided delegates with an understanding of how JANET Roaming operates at both basic technical and support level. It included an overview of how to configure user equipment and solve some of the issues those users might face. The course also covered the configuration of wireless and wired clients for use on the JANET Roaming Service (eduroam), logfile examination and methods of fault finding and reporting.

New JRS joiner this month (June 2009): we were pleased to welcome Leeds Metropolitan University. This increased the total number of UK participating organisations to 102.

In last few weeks eduroam has connected two new European NRENs - AMRES (Serbia) and MARNET (Macedonia) (June 2009). The European confederation now has 36 connected countries. So if you are planning a visit to either of these countries, check out the eduroam web site for links to the institutions within those countries that are eduroam-enabled!

JRS Support database now supports multiple individual sites for each participating organisation (June 2009). JRS administrators are now able to advertise far more granula information about their service offering including wireless cipher information for each site.

OpenSEA 802.1X Supplicant accepted into Wi-Fi Alliance testbed (June 2009): we were pleased to announce that the OpenSEA 802.1x supplicant had been accepted into the Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) testbed. This was an important milestone in the development of open security standards for wireless networking and continues the momentum towards OpenSEA’s goal of promoting the development and distribution of an open source 802.1x supplicant. To read the full article, please go to:
www.ja.net/company/news-2009/wifialliance.html

Online supplicant configuration training (June 2009): GEANT2 has produced online training in how to configure the following supplicants; built-in Windows XP, Intel, SecureW2. Supplicant configuration made easy - see: http://cbt.geant2.net/repository/eduroam_supplicants/setting_up_eduroam_supplicants.html

Smooth introduction of withdrawal of the JRS1 service tier (June 2009): the withdrawal of JRS1 (supporting web redirect based authentication) came into effect on 1st May without any reported issues from the community. This has allowed the JRS service to become fully eduroam-compliant.

Technology/FAQ section revamped (May 2009): the Technology/FAQs section of this web site has been given a makeover with the questions and answers grouped into three categories based on the main interest groups; end-users, JRS site technical administrators and general information/business management.

New release of Xsupplicant 2.1.7 XP (May 2009): the Open1X group has announced the release of Xsupplicant 2.1.7 development version (8/05/2009) for Windows XP. This update includes a lot of bug fixes a number of new features; internationalisation of the user interface (using QT's linquist program), and the capability to compile and run on Linux (with a reduced feature-set). More.

Announcement of Withdrawal of JRS1 Service Tier and Publication of Updated Technical Specification (May 2009): Following the advisory issued in December 2008, JANET(UK) announces that from 1st May 2009 the JANET Roaming eduroam service will no longer support web redirect authentication (captive portal) systems and that the JRS1 tier will be removed from the JRS Technical Specification. After this change comes into effect the 'eduroam' SSID must not be used for any WRD wireless service.

The withdrawal of the JRS1 tier follows an extended period of consultation with the community and comes into effect after having allowed a reasonable period of time for organisations still providing WRD based services to adopt the more secure 802.1x based system. 

The inherent security weakness of WRD systems is widely accepted and the risk of theft of credentials via rogue access points has meant that JANET(UK) has for some time now deprecated the use of web redirect. The eduroam federation does not permit its usage across the European top-level RADIUS servers.Further to this, eduroam hasalsoinsisted that all participating NRENs disallow web redirect over their national top level RADIUS servers. JANET(UK) supports this move and the withdrawal of JRS1 enables continued use of the eduroam SSID and support of international academic remote authentication.

The JRS Technical Specification has been updated in accordance with the above change and also includes a number of improvements in response to issues encountered since the launch of the service. Version 1.1 of the Technical Specification is published on the JANET Roaming web site at: JANET Roaming Technical Specification (doc) (pdf). Summarised details of the major changes can be found here: Summary of most significant changes to the JRS Technical Specification.

We appreciate the efforts that have been made by those organisations that had initially adopted WRD systems in their move to 802.1x and we look forward to the continuing successful provision and development of this service.

Two new joiners (April 2009): we were pleased to welcome Edinburgh Telford College and London Metropolitan University. This increased the total number of UK participating organisations to 102.

JRS celebrates the registration of its 100th participating organisation (March 2009): With the registration of Brunel University there are now 100 organisations participating in the UK. Usage of the service continues to grow - statistics gathered from the NRPS show a dramatic growth over the last six months and we constantly hear reports from administrators of increased uptake.

Dramatic growth in usage of JANET Roaming (March 2009):

The JRS location maps have been upgraded (Feb 2009): now with place names! See the link at the top of this page. We have also introduced new maps for Edinburgh, Greater London and Cental London as a result of the high density of JRS sites in these areas.

IPv6 on the NRPS and JRS Support servers (Feb 2009): whilst the essential JRS infrastructure continues to operate on IPv4, connection to JRS is now possible using IPv6. If you are interested in this please contact JSD to make an enquiry.

New index and entries in the Technology/FAQs section (Jan 2009): an index was introduced into the Technology/FAQs page to help guide readers to the required content. Recent additions to the page include JRS usage figures, ORPS RADIUS platform stats and guidelines on upgrading FreeRADIUS to v 2.0.x. Follow the link at the top of this page.

New Simulated Visitor Test on JRS Support Server (Nov 2008): this new test was added to the JRS Support site in November. By using a test user with the format [your realm]@eduroam.ac.uk and the password of your JRS test account you can check that authentication requests are properly proxied to remote visitors' organisations via the JRS infrastructure.

 

 

 

 

Any problems, comments or suggestions regarding this page, please e-mail the e-mail the JRS service manager.