From Robin Walker (rdhw):

The existing Lapwing wi-fi access points in communal areas in Queens’ now also offer the “eduroam” wi-fi service. Most of the university has similar eduroam coverage.

The eduroam wi-fi service is an international exchange agreement between universities to permit each other’s members wi-fi access to the internet.

See http://www.eduroam.org/ and http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/wireless-lapwing/eduroam/

If you are satisfied with the current Lapwing wi-fi service, then you need not bother to find out more about eduroam: stop reading now.

The advantages that eduroam offers over Lapwing are:

1. eduroam works with many models of mobile phone etc that Lapwing does not work with (iPhone, iPod Touch, Nokia N-series, Blackberry, etc);

2. No need to log on via a web-browser: the laptop/phone automatically goes online as soon as it comes within range of an eduroam access point;

3. The eduroam wi-fi session is encrypted whereas the Lapwing wi-fi session is unencrypted and anybody can eavesdrop;

4. There is much less port-blocking in eduroam than in Lapwing, so that, for example, instant messengers will work in eduroam.

5. eduroam is available at many universities world-wide, available to you by virtue of your Cambridge membership, whereas Lapwing is a Cambridge-only solution.

The downside of eduroam is that the pre-configuration of your PC/phone necessary to enable it to recognise an eduroam connection is technologically challenging and not for the faint-hearted. The instructions are at http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/wireless-lapwing/eduroam/localusers.html

From Theresa Dahm (tad34):

Dear all,

I have a couple pieces of food related news plus a reminder about paying for stuff on Cashless. Please DO NOT buy tickets for events marked as KBT QGN unless you have been told by me that you can – these events are College Guest Nights and it causes a huge hassle if you buy tickets when you’re not supposed to.

News: 1. I’ve asked if the buttery could be kept open one or two nights per week (Mondays and/or Tuesdays). They’re willing to trial this if enough people express interest, because it’s quite expensive for them to stay open after 7pm. 2. We have the possibility of a Christmas Vacation Formal on Dec 22nd. Again, this will only go ahead if people are actually around and want to attend.

I’ve made a little poll for both of these questions which I’d be very happy if you could fill out http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dGhmbHVTX3hTTVpPRHlacUpCcmV3d2c6MA

As always if the link doesn’t work, please copy & paste.

Best, Theresa

From the College Library, Karen Beg (keb36):

Weds. Oct 28th

Dear Colleagues, Our electrician has identified the required part but even with a courier service the replacement will not arrive until tomorrow, Thursday 29th October. It will be fitted on arrival (expected mid morning). A spare has also been ordered to obviate a repeat of the same problem. Unfortunately, I will have to close the WML again overnight as from 6pm we will be unstaffed. I regret this action, but have no choice and assure you all that normal service will resume asap.

From the College Librarian, Karen Begg (keb36):

Tues. Oct 27th

Disaster has just struck. The electronic strike on the WML door has broken and University cards will not enable access. We can keep the door open during staffed hours, but will have to close at 6pm tonight, when I leave, and won’t open until 9am tomorrow. Emergency repairs will be made asap, but please warn students about the problem. We are really sorry to have to close early at such short notice, and do not know how soon the problem can be fixed. It has utmost priority.