Connecting your Hatch to eduroam (college Wi-Fi)

Heading off to college and the only Wi-Fi in your dorm is eduroam? Good news — your Hatch can connect to it!

Most Wi-Fi networks use one password that everyone shares. Campus networks like eduroam work differently: instead of a shared password, each person signs in with their own school username and password — the same ones you use for your email or your laptop. Your Hatch can now sign in to eduroam the same way you do.

Start with your school’s Wi-Fi guide

Before anything else, look up your school’s Wi-Fi or eduroam help page (searching your school’s name plus “eduroam” usually finds it). If eduroam isn’t your school’s primary network, you may need to request access to it first. Your school’s page is the fastest way to answer the three things that matter most:

• The exact username format your school expects. Some schools want your full address like you@school.edu, others use a student ID. This is the single most common reason a sign-in gets rejected.
• Whether your school allows smart devices on eduroam. Some do, some ask you to register the device first, and some point you somewhere else entirely.
• Whether your school has a separate network just for devices. Many campuses run a second network for smart devices — TVs, game consoles, speakers — often called something like “IoT,” “Devices,” or your school’s name plus “Devices.” If your school has one, it’s usually the easiest option for your Hatch, and you may not need eduroam at all. It works just like your Wi-Fi at home: pick the network, enter the password, done.

Your school’s IT help desk can answer all of this too, and they’re used to the question — students ask about smart devices every August.

Before you get to campus: your Hatch needs one update first

This is the step to plan ahead for. eduroam support arrives in a software update for your Hatch, and your Hatch can only download updates while it’s already connected to the internet. That means it can’t use eduroam to get the update that adds eduroam — it needs to get online one time on a regular network first.

Any of these will do it:

• Set it up at home before you move in. This is the easiest option by far. Set your Hatch up on your home Wi-Fi, leave it plugged in and connected for ten minutes, then pack it up and add eduroam when you get to campus.
• Use your school’s device or IoT network, if it has one. See above — this gets your Hatch online and updated, and it may be all you need.
• Use your phone’s hotspot, or any regular password-protected 2.4GHz network, just long enough for the update to finish.

Once your Hatch has updated, the eduroam option shows up in the Hatch Sleep app and you’re ready for the steps below.

What you’ll need

• Your eduroam username and password — the ones that already work on your laptop or phone. If you’re not sure they’re right, connect your laptop to eduroam first to confirm.
• The username format your school expects (from your school’s Wi-Fi guide).
• A 2.4GHz signal. Your Hatch connects to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only. Campus eduroam almost always broadcasts both 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz, so this usually takes care of itself. More on this in What kind of Wi-Fi do I have?
• The latest version of the Hatch Sleep app, and a Hatch that’s already updated (see above).

How to connect your Hatch to eduroam

1. Open the Hatch Sleep app.
2. Tap the settings icon. Hint: it looks like the hexagonal nut part of nuts & bolts.
3. Tap the name of the Hatch you want to connect.
4. Under Network, tap Update Wi-Fi.
5. Choose eduroam from the list of networks.
6. Enter your school username and password, then follow the rest of the steps in the app.

Signing in to eduroam takes a little longer than joining your Wi-Fi at home, so give it a moment before assuming something went wrong.

If your Hatch won’t connect to eduroam

Work through these in order — the first two solve most cases.

• Double-check your username format. Try your full address, like you@school.edu, rather than just the first part. Your school’s Wi-Fi guide will tell you which format it expects.
• Confirm your username and password work somewhere else. Connect your laptop or phone to eduroam with the same credentials. If they don’t work there, they won’t work on your Hatch, and your school’s IT help desk is the place to sort that out.
• Your school may need to register your Hatch first. Some campuses only allow devices they know about. You can find your Hatch’s MAC address — a unique ID for your specific Hatch — in the Hatch Sleep app under the device’s settings. Send it to your school’s IT help desk and ask them to allow your Hatch on the network.
• Is eduroam showing up in the list of networks? If not, move your Hatch closer to a wall access point and try again. A weak signal is a common culprit in dorm rooms with thick walls.
• Does your school require an extra approval step? If signing in to eduroam normally sends you a two-factor code, or opens a web page where you have to accept terms or register the device, your Hatch won’t be able to get through it — it can only send a username and password. Ask your school’s IT help desk whether they can register your Hatch directly, or whether there’s a device network you can use instead.
• Does your Hatch join eduroam but setup never finishes? That usually means the campus network is blocking your Hatch from reaching us. Your school’s IT help desk can fix this — see the section below for exactly what to ask them.
• Still stuck? A small number of campuses set up eduroam in a way your Hatch isn’t able to verify yet. Send us a message and tell us your school’s name — we track which campuses customers are having trouble with and use that to decide what to add support for next. Your report genuinely moves us along.

Information for your school’s IT team

If your school’s IT help desk asks for details, here’s everything they’ll need. Feel free to forward this section:

• Your Hatch connects on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only (802.11b/g/n). It does not support 5.0GHz.
• On eduroam it signs in with a username and password (PEAP or EAP-TTLS). It cannot use a client certificate (EAP-TLS), and it cannot complete two-factor authentication or web-based device registration.
• Your Hatch’s MAC address is available in the Hatch Sleep app if it needs to be registered.

Good to know

• Your Hatch remembers up to 3 networks. They can be any mix of eduroam and regular home networks, so your Hatch can hold on to your home Wi-Fi and your campus sign-in at the same time and pick up whichever one it’s near. Adding a fourth replaces the one you’ve used least recently.
• It reconnects on its own. After a power outage or a move across the room, your Hatch signs back in to eduroam by itself — you don’t have to enter your password again.
• When you change your school password, you’ll need to update your Hatch too. Follow the same steps above with your new password.
• Length limits: usernames can be up to 127 characters and passwords up to 63.
• What isn’t supported: campus networks that require a certificate instead of a password, networks that require two-factor or a device-registration web page, 5.0GHz-only networks, and enterprise networks other than eduroam.

Is your campus Wi-Fi not eduroam?

Some schools and apartment complexes use a captive portal network instead*. Your Hatch doesn’t have a web browser, so it can’t get through a sign-in page. Have a look at the Connection Trouble Check List for your options there, including a travel router.

*Captive portal networks make every device sign in through a web page before it can get online — the same setup you’ve probably run into at a hotel or an airport.

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