Network Connection

The Department’s buildings are served by a wired ethernet network operated by Department IT staff. In addition there is are wireless networks (Eduroam/OWL) available in many (but not all) areas of the Department's buildings, as operated by Oxford University Computing Services.

In order to use the wired ethernet your equipment needs to be registered with Department IT staff as per the instructions below. In order to use the wireless ethernet you can follow the Eduroam/OWLconfiguration instructions.

The wired ethernet network comprises fibre optic links between all buildings (including Begbroke site) and 100Mbit UTP connections in most of the rooms. This is an important piece of the Department's infrastructure, which everyone uses. Like the University backbone that links us to the internet, it is provided for everyone's benefit for bona fide academic purposes. There are therefore a number of conditions for the use of the network:

  • You must agree to the Terms and Conditions of the University Computing Services (which you do when you sign-up for your SSO e-mail account)
  • You must not tamper with the network cabling or extend the network in anyway without the prior approval of the Department’s IT staff.
  • You must not connect any computer or other device to the network without first consulting the Department’s IT staff, who need to register/check your equipment before assigning you with an IP address (see registration below)
  • You must take all efforts to ensure any computer you connect to the network is secure, i.e. it only offers an absolute minimum of services (file sharing, FTP, etc.) which are protected either by password or by limiting host access.

If you use a portable that you wish to connect both in the Department and in College, you will either need to have two separate configurations as IP addresses for the Department are different from other departments and colleges, or you will need to use dynamic addressing (DHCP) in both locations.

Registering for the wired network

In order for IT staff to register your equipment for the department wired network we need to meet you and check you equipment configuration.

  • uptodate antivirus (e.g. sophos)
  • windows security updates
  • security updates for other software. e.g. reader,java,flash

We will also offer to help you with:

You need to allocate some time to come to central site Engineering&Technology Building room 10.14. Typically phone 73667 just before you want to arrive in order to check that someone will be available for you. IT support office opening hours are 9-1 & 2-5.

Depending how slow you equipement is and how much needs doing to make it secure, it takes at least 30 minutes but it can take more than 2 hours to complete the registration process for new equipment.

Deparment of Materials Network Settings

The department network uses the TCP/IP (version4) protocol. The settings for your computer can probably be found in the network control panel under TCP/IP. By default you should use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to automatically get the correct settings (after having registered your equipment with Department IT staff).

Example network settings:

IP address: 129.67.87.1 (example only - do not copy - unique to each computer)
Sub-net mask : 255.255.252.0 (same for all computers on the materials subnet)
Router or Gateway : 129.67.87.254 (same for all computers on the materials subnet)

Domain Name Server addresses : (same for all computers on the materials subnet)
129.67.1.1
129.67.1.180
163.1.2.1

WINS settings (Microsoft Windows Internet Naming Service)
(University-wide Server which resolves NetBIOS names to IP addresses)
129.67.1.52
163.1.2.52