University of Washington Department of Computer Science
& Engineering

Notice: As of April 18, 2003, individuals with valid CSE accounts are no longer required to register a MAC address to access wireless networking. If you have a valid account and choose not to register, you will be redirected to an authentication form the first time you browse to any web page after running DHCP to obtain a network address. This step is very much like the process you go through in the public wireless areas on campus in order to obtain access to off-campus networks. However, on the CSE wireless net you will be unable to access any network resources without first authenticating.

Access obtained in manner requires periodic re-authentication. This process will be performed automatically for you if you have enabled JavaScript in your browser (which is the usual default configuration). Simply follow the directions given in the pop-up window that informs you authentication has succeeded.

Subtle differences between registered and unregistered access:

Although account holders are no longer required to pre-register for wireless access, there are several reasons why you might wish to do so:

You want your laptop to have an externally accessible hostname (or the same hostname) whenever it is on the network.
For research purposes only, you need your laptop to run a service accessible from the greater internet while connected.
Your network device is incapable of performing the authentication step, e.g., it's a wireless robot of some sort.
You simply cannot be hassled to go through authentication every time you connect to the wireless net. (Note, however, that as part of the authentication process you will acquire CSENetID credentials and thus will not have to re-authenticate to view locally protected web pages.)