Services

Network & Connectivity

Whether you are a student, a faculty or staff member, or a visitor, wireless connections are widely available on Rice's campus. Wired connections are available in faculty and staff offices and in the residential colleges (one network port per resident). Members of the Rice community can also connect to the internal network via VPN when off campus.

On Campus

Wireless and wired connections are available on campus. See also Optimal Use of Rice Networks.

Connect to one of three local wireless networks

  • Rice OWLs – an encrypted network available to all faculty, students and staff (login with NetID credentials)

  • Eduroam – an encrypted network available to all faculty, students, staff, and visitors from institutions that participate in the Eduroam project (login with NetID credentials)

  • Rice Visitor – an open, unencrypted network (no login required)

Connect to the wired network

Plug in your Ethernet cable or console for the fastest and most consistent connection on campus.

Client machines connected to an active wired port will be presented with an 802.1X challenge for a Rice NetID login or a redirection of web browser connections to a self-registration and client setup site.

Network Specifications

Rice Owls is exclusively 5GHz while Eduroam and Rice Visitor are delivered over 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. All of Rice’s network ports are capable of 10/100/1000 Mb/s connections using category 6, twisted pair patch cords.

Off Campus

The Rice Virtual Private Networking (VPN) system allows secure transportation of data between the university network and a remote computer connected to the Internet outside of Rice. Using the VPN, you can access all of Rice's network resources while off campus.

Connect to the VPN

To obtain VPN (virtual private network) access, login to your account on mynetid.rice.edu to download the necessary software.

Read more about connecting your type of device to the VPN