What is Berkeley-Visitor?
Berkeley-Visitor is a Wi-Fi service intended for visitors to campus. It provides basic internet access to websites and allows users to use VPN services to connect to their home institutions or enterprises. Berkeley-Visitor is not intended for use by members of the campus community who have access to eduroam and Berkeley-IoT and will not allow access to the bSecure Remote Access System (GlobalProtect). No password or special configuration is required to access the Berkeley-Visitor network.
What does Berkeley-Visitor Provide?
Berkeley-Visitor provides users with access to all websites via http and https (ports 80 and 443) and ssh (port 22). VPN services that are commonly used to connect to a home institution or enterprise are also permitted, with the exception of the UCB VPN. Other applications that use http or https (ports 80 or 443) for data traffic will typically also work on Berkeley-Visitor.
Berkeley-Visitor is unauthenticated and unencrypted. Any data sent via the Berkeley-Visitor WiFi service could be visible to others.
How does a guest access Berkeley-Visitor?
Connecting to Berkeley-Visitor is simple. Just select the Berkeley-Visitor SSID from the list of available networks, accept the terms of service, and you are connected. No username or password are required.
Devices can stay connected to Berkeley-Visitor for up to 12 hours. After 12 hours users only need to accept the term again, and can continue to use the network. There is no limit to how many times the terms can be accepted for a device.
Support and Security for Berkeley-Visitor
UC Berkeley provides Berkeley-Visitor as a convenience to visitors. No support is offered for devices or users with difficulty accessing the service. Any malicious activities on the network will result in the offending device being permanently banned from the network. Compromised devices (infected with viruses or other malware) will also be permanently banned. Bans are automatically implemented and can not be revoked.
Because Berkeley-Visitor is a public network it should not be used for any type of sensitive data. SSL, VPNs and other encryption technologies may be used by client devices to improve confidentiality of data sent via this network.
Known Issues
Some devices do not correctly recognize that the Berkeley-Visitor network requires users to accept a terms of service page before they can connect. In these cases the next time a web browser attempts to access the Internet it will be redirected to the terms page. If that browser window is connected to a secure site (such as Gmail) you may see an error that the site is untrusted, instead of getting the terms page. If this happens, open a new window and attempt to go to a new site, that should trigger the terms page and allow you to connect.