SSH: “Visitors to student housing online securely and quickly thanks to Publicroam”

How can we give visitors to our buildings easier access to the internet? For student housing provider SSH, the technical management of the Wi-Fi network was cumbersome and inconvenient for students. Publicroam proved to be the ideal answer. ‘Now everyone can get online within a minute and SSH doesn’t have to worry about it anymore,’ says Ronald de Lange, Manager I&A and IT Housing Innovation at SSH. ‘It has pleasantly surprised us.’

A semi-public network with its own challenges

SSH offers one Wi-Fi network per student complex. This is semi-public: not every student room has its own connection. ‘After all, you want to arrange things properly. Besides, as a student, you really don’t want your neighbor to be able to peek at your laptop via the Wi-Fi when you’re online in your room at home.’

From help desk burden to self-service

Students could already log in with their eduroam account, but for visitors without eduroam, SSH previously worked with unique login details that had to be requested separately from the help desk. ‘When you consider that we have 19,000 rooms in six cities, you can understand that our help desk wasn’t bored. Students found it cumbersome and it was time-consuming for our staff.’

Just over a year ago, SSH switched to Publicroam. ‘Visitors can now be on our Wi-Fi within a minute. Just download the app, register, and you’re online. The great thing for SSH is that this is entirely self-sufficient. Our IT staff now have their hands free for other work.’

Securer network, less downtime

Security also improved. ‘In the past, we sometimes had to shut down the entire Wi-Fi network because of a virus. If we discover a virus now, we solve it quickly, while other residents can stay online.’

More benefits than expected

An unexpected benefit: users of the SSH network are also connected at other locations via Publicroam. ‘Libraries, museums, and town halls also use it. So this offered more benefits than we initially thought.’