Residence Halls

Complete the following steps to establish a wired Ethernet connection from your residence hall room.

Step 1: Get and Connect the Hardware You Need

In order to establish a wired Ethernet connection, you'll need an Ethernet card and Ethernet cable. You'll connect the Ethernet card in your computer to the data outlet (or Ethernet outlet) in your room via the Ethernet cable. All on-campus residence hall data outlets are pre-activated.

Some residence halls may require an adapter called a Pass-through (previously referred to as a balun). A Pass-through is an adapter that allows you to connect the cable to the network data outlet. Check the Residence hall list to determine if you need a Pass-through. For more information, refer to the Adapter section of the Connecting to the Network document.

Step 2: Register and Configure Your Computer

You must register your computer in the Carnegie Mellon Network Registration System (Netreg). “Netreg” allows anyone with a valid Andrew ID who is using a wired Ethernet card to easily register their computer's MAC address on the campus wired network. To access Netreg, launch a web browser and visit the FirstConnect site.  FirstConnect will walk you through the steps necessary to register and configure your computer. Once you've finished the registration process, allow 30 minutes for the registration to take effect.