ResNet - Help and FAQs

You only need to register devices for ResNet which cannot connect to the University general eduroam WiFi network, or for which you want to use the ResNet ethernet port in your room in your Halls of Residence.

Such devices might be:

• Computers (Apple Mac, MS Windows) with an ethernet port
• Games consoles (e.g. Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo)
• Streaming media devices (e.g. Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Alexa)

The 'MAC address', or Media Access Code address, of a device is its unique ID on a network.

How to find your device's MAC address

When connecting your device to ResNet, either via ethernet cable or WiFi, if you receive an error such as "Incorrect password", "Could not join network" or "Network connection timed out", it is likely the device has not been correctly registered.

Please log back into the ResNet Device Portal and confirm the details.

NOTE: Some devices have separate MAC addresses for wired and wireless connections. Visit https://portal.is.ed.ac.uk/guest/mac_help.php to check how to find them.

Apple device-specific troubleshooting

For any Apple device network issues, please try all of the following steps:

Check for and apply OS updates first

iOS:

1. Plug your device into a power source and connect to the internet with Wi-Fi.
2. Go to Settings > General, then tap Software Update
3. If you see more than one software update option available, please install all available updates.

macOS:

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings
2. Click General in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down)
3. Click Software Update
4. Restart the Mac after installing any available updates

Private Addressing

Due to the way that Apple devices work (iPads, IPhones and sometimes MacBooks), these devices tend to randomly change their hardware MAC addresses. Apple call this process “Private Addressing”.

The purpose of this system is to try and obfuscate people’s device addresses so they cannot be tracked around the internet. 

However, for ResNet (and eduroam) devices, all connections need to be accountable and all users have to have a MAC address that can be traced back to their device in case of any issues.

If you have any Apple device and have regular disconnections, please follow this set of settings to switch off private addressing:

1. Open the Settings app, then tap Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the More Info button next to a network.
3. Tap to turn Private Wi-Fi Address off. If your device joined the network without using a private address, a privacy warning will explain why.

If, when you log into the ResNet Device Portal and go to 'Manage Devices', you are unable to see devices you had previously registered, please make sure that you are logged into the Portal with your username in the exact same format that you used when first logging in to register them.  

You should ideally be logged in with your student username in the format s1234567, but if you had originally logged in as, for example, s1234567@ed.ac.uk or s1234567@sms.ed.ac.uk, then you would need to log in again as that exact same username.