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ETH Zurich operates an extensive Wi-Fi infrastructure that covers teaching, research, office and public areas. Full coverage is almost complete (as of 2024).

Wireless technology

For regulatory reasons, Wi-Fi can be operated in three frequency bands. One band is in the 2.4 GHz range, the second in the 5 GHz range and the third in the 6 GHz range. The different frequency ranges have different characteristics, which can briefly be described as follows:

  • 2,4 GHz-Band: better propagation, but lower throughput (slower)
  • 5 GHz-Band:  lower propagation, but higher throughput (faster)
  • 6 GHz-Band: comparable with the 5 GHz band

Expansion in the 6 GHz band began in summer 2024, focusing on large lecture halls


ETH provides the following SSIDs (SSID = Service Set Identifier).

eduroam

eduroam is an international Wi-Fi internet access roaming service for users in research, higher education and further education. Users access eduroam using their home institution credentials. Visit the eduroam website to find out which countries are taking part  eduroam-Website.

For ETH members the username looks like this: <ETH user name>@<realm>.ethz.ch whereby “realm” is either staff-net, student-net or a realm defined by your ISG. In general, this is the preferred SSID, as it is also available outside ETH Zurich at many other institutions.

  • Supported standards: IEEE802.11g/n and a/n/ac/ax, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 respectively
  • Encryption via WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise
  • Automatic band selection

Installation programs for the most common operating systems are available via the eduroam CAT website to simplify the creation of the profile. eduroam CAT-Website
For technical reason host certificates cannot be used with the SSID eduroam.

eth und eth-5

Authentication only for ETH members or clients managed by ETH. Similar to eduroam the username is <ETH user name>@<realm>.ethz.ch whereby <realm> is either staff-net, student-net or a <realm> defined by your ISG. Authentication using a host certificate is also possible.

  • Supported standards: IEEE802.11g/n and a/n/ac/ ax, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 respectively
  • Encryption via WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise

The SSIDs eth und eth-5  are the only one to distinguish the frequency band. This allows the client to explicitly use a specific frequency band. For all other SSIDs, the client picks the band independently, based on signal quality.

eth-visitors

Authentication only for ETH visitors. To access the internet you need to register on the landing page ETH Zurich. With an IPSec-based VPN client, you can also connect to another institution without logging on.

  • Supported standards: IEEE802.11g/n and a/n/ac/ax, Wi-Fi6 respectively
  • No encryption of the WLAN connection
  • Automatic band selection

eth-iot

This SSID is for special cases only, e.g. clients that only support pre-shared key encryption. For further details, please contact your ISG.

  • Supported standards: IEEE802.11g/n and a/n/ac/ ax, Wi-Fi 6 respectively
  • Encryption via WPA2-Personal