UCI Housing Network and Cable TV Issues

A Palo Verde resident had for some time a webpage up that described in detail how to avoid being forced into installing this crappy piece of software called Cisco Clean Access.
Lots of people have problems with CCA, which results in their computers freezing up, continuous logons, or not being able to log on at all.

Apparently, somebody higher up in the university hierarchy wasn't too happy with the website and essentially forced him to relocate the webpage off-campus.

Obviously, this smacks of censorship.
I can't believe that a US public university would censor people and trample freedom of speech with their feet.

Resnet and the Housing Administration apparently don't want their complete screwup to be known. Well, the cat is out of the bag, and there is no way for Resnet to try and save face by pretending there are no problems.
CCA was completely broken from the start, and Resnet knew that before they installed it. They need to completely scrap this broken software!

The new location for the webpage is here

Maybe this futile attempt at censorship has to do with a flyer that showed up around on-campus housing in the last day or so. That flyer offers help in getting computers connected by bypassing CCA.
I have no connection to the people who put up the flyer, I don't even know them, but I certainly applaud them and support their efforts (which should not come as a surprise given my stance on CCA as expressed for months on this blog.)
The flyer has their email address: pvresistance at hotmail dot com.

In the middle of yet another Housing Administration screwup, I noticed that Resnet finally retracted their flawed router installation instructions. The webpage now states

Due to the conflicting and confusing issues related to personal wireless routers, this page has been removed. Due to the proliferation of wireless routers of all makes and manufacturers, Resnet can no longer provide any support, help, configuration or setup. The previous guides were causing more problems on the network that we had hoped for, and as such, have been removed.

Now, I could say "we told you so"... but I won't do that

Manufacturers put installation guides into their router retail packages (usually a quick install guide on paper and a more in-depth install guide on CD), and they are tailored to the specific router type they are packaged with. So just following these guides is all that is needed to set up a router.

My main concern in this whole mess has always been that Resnet showed a complete disregard for their customers, the on-campus residents, and I hope they finally change that attitude. I am sceptical, though, since this seems to be endemic in the housing administration, as they have shown again just this week...
Anyway, they can start to show that they care about their customers by scrapping the intrusive and flawed Cisco Clean Access software. There are other, non-intrusive tools available that achieve their objective, minimizing the impact of viruses and the like (an objective I fully support, btw.) without the need to invade their customers' privacy and force them to install some flawed tool on their computers.

And a final thought: the webpage mentioned above complains about Resnet's lack of funding and resources for network upgrades. My answer to that is that they could have used the substantial amount of money they spent on a deeply flawed product like CCA to upgrade their network instead. So, this complaint sounds very hollow.

With Resnet's requirement to log into the flawed CCA system regularly (currently weekly), I was looking for a way to automate that.
So, I looked at the login webpage, and wrote a Perl script to handle the login.
This allows users with Linux machines or other Unix-based computers (e.g., Mac OS X) to automate the login process with a cron job.

Update: the script also works when run from a remote location, as long as the IP address parameter is the IP address of your machine within Resnet.

Update 2: This file can be run directly from crond, e.g., every couple of minutes, to check if the network connection is still available. The file checks if it can ping the UCI webserver, and if not, uses the login script to log in to the CCA system. To use the file, update the IP address, UCINetID and password.

I just received an email from Resnet's manager Ted Roberge, routed through the Palo Verde Housing office.
Two highlights stands out:

3. I ask every residents help and assistance in solving this problem. Our policies have been written to keep our network up and running for the vast majority of residents and we have spent a great deal of time and resources to ensure the best performing network possible. As such, I ask that all residents STOP hooking up wireless routers incorrectly. I hear the arguments repeatedly that routers are a "good thing" as a resident can "hide" their computers behind it using NAT. This causes two problems. The first is that they are not getting hooked up correctly and is becoming the major cause of network outages. The second is that NAT'ed computers (192.168.x.x addresses) cannot be logged into Clean Access, so they will have difficulity with network access.

Read more »

On midnight, Resnet activated CCA in Palo Verde. Of course, nobody was available to deal with problems. They seem to think that graduate students follow their 9-5 routine...
The problems I have heard so far center around devices with no browsing ability, e.g., VoIP phones.
Also, spouses of residents, who obviously don't have a UCI network id, since they are not studying, are unable to access the Net.

A fellow Palo Verde resident has put up a page on how to avoid installing the CCA agent on Windows machines here.
I have also mentioned on my blog how to change the user agent string for browsers.