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NYURoam Help

NYURoam Wireless Workshops

If you have followed the instructions on this website carefully and are unable to connect to NYURoam wireless, browse the troubleshooting tips below. If you continue to experience problems, you should register for a free NYURoam Wireless Workshop, at which an ITS staff member will walk you through the setup steps. If you are unable to come to the Washington Square campus for one of these workshops, contact the ITS Client Services Center at 1-212-998-3333 for assistance.

General Troubleshooting Tips

If you are experiencing wireless connection or reception problems, try one or all of these quick fixes before seeking help from ITS:

  1. Make sure you are in one of the supported NYURoam access locations. NYURoam access is not supported outside of these locations.
  2. Move yourself or your computer a few feet in any direction. Move away from large metal or masonry obstructions (shelves, walls, etc.).
  3. When in doubt, restart your computer. If you can not connect to NYURoam, but you think you have configured your computer correctly, simply restart your computer once to see if it solves the problem.

Validate New 'nyu' Security Certificate

If you are using the newer 'nyu' wireless network for accessing NYURoam, you will soon be presented with a dialog box asking you to validate a new server certificate. Simply accept the new certificate and log on as usual. No further action is necessary, and you will not need to validate the certificate again until 2009.

(The annual VeriSign security certificate used as part of the authentication process when accessing NYURoam via 'nyu' is set to expire on January 23 and is being replaced by a new certificate, to provide continuing security for the 'nyu' access path. For more about 'nyu' and NYURoam, see http://www.nyu.edu/its/wireless/configure/.)

Trouble Connecting to NYU-ROAM3

There are two components to accessing NYURoam using a generic 802.11b NIC and VPN Client:

  • the initial radio association and subsequent IP address acquisition
  • the VPN launch and subsequent sign-on

If you experience problems connecting to NYU-ROAM3, here's a list of steps you can take to help locate and correct the problem.

First and foremost, be sure that your machine is running the latest, updated operating system (i.e., with latest service packs and patches applied to the OS). Also, make sure that the wireless NIC you are using is running the latest firmware available. If not, go to the manufacturer's website, download and load the latest firmware image to the NIC. Also make sure that the latest driver for your NIC is installed.

Assuming your operating system and wireless NIC are running the latest revisions available proceed with the following diagnostic procedures:

The first step is to confirm that the radio association portion of the connection process is working.

  • The wireless client should have its SSID set to NYU-ROAM3 and WEP encryption should be disabled. The SSID name is case sensitive, so be sure that all characters are entered in uppercase.
  • Windows users should show "Network Connections". Make sure the interface is in an "enabled" state.
  • Utilize whatever diagnostic tool or display is available with your wireless client to determine the signal strength level being detected from the wireless network by the client. Some non-zero level of signal should be detected.

For Windows XP users, show "All network connections" (in the "Connect To" selection of the "Start" menu), double-click on the "Wireless Network Connection" icon. The "Wireless Network Connection Status" window appears and you should see in the "Connection" panel critical information such as "Status" and "Signal Strength". Status should read "Connected" and Signal Strength, as displayed by a series of five vertical bars. At least one bar should be illuminated in green.

If at this point there is no signal being detected, then there may be an issue with the card's functionality. Fully uninstall the NIC and then reinstall it. Make sure that the latest drivers are being used should an uninstall/reinstall be performed.

  • In the "Wireless Network Connection Status" window, click on the "Support" tab. You should see that the IP address acquired by your client is in the 172.27.x.x network (ex. 172.27.4.23). If such an address is present then you are properly communicating to the network.

If you don't acquire an appropriate IP address, confirm that your NIC is set to acquire its IP address via DHCP. In the "Wireless Network Connection Status" window click on "Properties". A properties window appears. In the "This connection uses the following items:" double click on "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)". Both options to obtain an IP address and DNS server address should be set to happen automatically. Also, connecting to NYU-ROAM3 with WEP being enabled will produce a "good radio signal connection, no IP address acquisition" situation. As stated above, be sure WEP encryption is disabled.

Trouble with a VPN Client

Assuming all VPN client parameters are properly configured, problems connecting to our VPN concentrators may produce the message:

"Secure VPN Connection terminated locally by the Client. Reason: Unable to contact the security gateway."

The most common cause for this error message is that the wireless connection is not in place and operational. Confirm that the connection is operational (section above).

You may encounter the following message:

"The necessary VPN sub-system is not available. You can not connect to the VPN server."

You can ignore the message and try connecting. If the connection attempt fails, quit the VPN client. If you are familiar with using the command line, you can pen a command window and enter net stop policy agent. The message should say:

The IPSEC Services service is stopping.
The IPSEC Services service was stopped successfully.

Then enter the command: net start cvpnd. The message should then say:

The Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service service is starting. The Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service service was started successfully.

For XP users, the native MS IPSec service security subsystem must be disabled for the Cisco client to work properly. The subsystem should be disabled by the VPN Client install process—agree to the disabling if queried. If manually disabling the IPSec services does not resolve the problem, try uninstalling and reinstalling the VPN client.

Page last reviewed: January 4, 2008