Wireless tickets spike at the start of every term. The volume is high but the causes are few, and they separate cleanly once you ask the right two questions.
The two questions
- Is this device new to campus?
- If yes, this is almost always first-time enrollment onto the secure network, not a fault.
- Does it fail everywhere, or in one place?
- Everywhere points at the device or the account. One location points at coverage, and belongs with the network team.
First-contact checks
- 1
Confirm they are joining the correct network
Guest and secure networks behave very differently. People join the guest network by accident constantly.
- 2
Have them forget the network and rejoin
This clears a stale saved profile, which is the most common cause after a password change.
- 3
Check that wireless is actually on
Airplane mode and hardware switches are worth ruling out early, without making the user feel foolish.
- 4
Ask whether other devices work
A phone that connects fine while a laptop does not narrows this to the laptop immediately.
- 5
Check the date and time on the device
A badly wrong clock breaks certificate validation and produces baffling errors.