New students guide to IT at St John's

James Hargrave
James Hargrave
  • Updated

Before you come to Cambridge

Before you come to College make sure you get your University account which is sometimes known as your CRSid see the Getting Started guide for students at:

 
UIS provide a useful guide to what you can set up before you come to Cambridge:
https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/new-starters/get-started-with-it-for-new-students/set-up-your-it-before-you-start

If you want to connect devices such as smart speakers, games consoles, media streaming boxes or wireless printers to the network you are going to need to know the MAC address and it might be easier to find this before you come to Cambridge so you can connect them to the "UniofCam-IoT" Wi-Fi network (see below).
 
This comprises 12 letters and digits separated into pairs by colons or hyphens, for example, A1:B2:C3:D4:E5:F6. You'll either find this in a sticker on the device or its packaging, or in the device settings window. You can search online for advice on how to find the MAC address on your device.

When you are in Cambridge

Once you are in Cambridge you are going to want to set up your devices like phones, tablets and laptops to work with Wi-Fi. 

Eduroam Wi-Fi

To connect phones, tablets an computers you need to use your Cambridge login with the “Eduroam” Wi-Fi network that you will see at St John’s and across the University. For instructions how to set this up see:
 

UniofCam-IoT Wi-Fi

If you want to connect any other devices, such as smart speakers or wireless printers, these are unlikely to work on Eduroam and will instead need to be registered to connect to the "UniofCam-IoT" network. 

For instructions on how to set up these devices see:
 

Guide to IT services at Cambridge for new Students

More information about IT services for students at Cambridge can be found at:
 

Getting IT Help from the College

IT User Support Portal

If you get stuck then the St John's College IT user support portal is the first place to look for online help and information https://stjohnscambridge.zendesk.com/
 

College IT Help Desk

Contact Details
Telephone: 01223 338751
 
Opening Times
We have support staff available Monday to Friday 0830 to 1630 (except for College closure dates and Bank Holidays)
 
Drop-In Help Desk at Northampton Street (next to the Porter's Lodge)
Many IT issues can be resolved remotely but if need in-person support we offer a drop-in help desk service. This is particularly useful if you are having issues with a device as you can bring it along for us to look at and help you with - for example if you are having issues connecting it to WiFi
 
Open during Full Term Monday to Friday between 1300 and 1500 (except for Bank Holidays). 
The drop-in Helpdesk is also open 
  • 29th September to 3rd October between 1300 and 1500 - this is the week before term starts
  • 6th October to 10th October between 1130 and 1500 - we are open longer hours the first week of term
 

Getting Help from UIS

UIS is the central IT department for the University and can help you with your University account and other university provided IT - they offer a 24 hour live chat service.

Live chat 

Available 24 hours a day. 

Contact advisors via live chat for any IT-related queries. The advisors on our live text chat can help you immediately with common queries, such as: 

If your issue cannot be resolved via live chat, the advisor will automatically raise a support ticket. This is the quickest way to get help.  

IT self-service portal 

Use the UIS IT self-service portal to: 

  • search the Knowledge Base for answers to common queries
  • request software, equipment or services if you’re a member of staff
  • raise a support ticket if you have a problem 

Access the self-service portal at uis.cam.ac.uk/self-service 


 

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