5.1: Connecting to UALR IOT WiFi

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In order to access the UALR IOT WiFi you need to register your device's MAC address with computer services. Once this is done your device can access the internet and will be assigned an IP address. Once that is obtained you can remotely access your Pi over the internet though a service like VNC, which is installed on your Pi. In order to do this assignment you will need to hook up a monitor, keyboard and mouse to your pi and run it in desktop mode.

Reset Pi Password

All Pis come with the same username (pi) and password (raspberry) and so the very first thing you should do is reset your password.

Click "Raspberry Pi Configuration" under Preferences of the Raspberry icon on the PIXEL (Pi Improved Xwindows Envrionment, Lightweight) desktop environment, that is part of the standard Pi download image.

Figure\(\PageIndex{1}\): Screenshots of the Raspberry Pi Configuration option for changing password on your Pi.

Note, there is a second option for changing your password, which is through the command line. First bring up the terminal (ctrl-alt-t) or the terminal icon in PIXEL. Then type:

passwd <enter>
type current password
type new password
type new password

\(\PageIndex{2}\): Screenshot for changing password in the command line

Note, the text is not displayed when you type in passwords

Obtain Pi MAC Address

The MAC (Media Access Control) address is the ID that identifies your Pi and is required when you register your device on the UALR IOT WiFi network. Press ctrl-alt-t to bring up the command line terminal and type the following code, which is a shortcut for ifconfig

ip a

The above command gives all ip address associated with all network interfaces, and you should see two, the ethernet (eth0) and the WiFi (wlan0), and you need the MAC address associated with wlan0

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): MAC address for wlan0 (the pi's default wifi

(be sure to get the MAC address for the wlan0 and not eth0

Register MAC address

Either Google "UALR IOT WiFi" or go directly to the UALR Information Technology Services Wireless network page

https://ualr.edu/itservices/applications/v/wireless/

Scroll down the page until you see the image on the left of figure \(\PageIndex{4}\) and choose UALR-IoT (you would use UALR-WiFi to register your laptop or smartphone)

Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Screen shots of UALR-IoT sign in process.

Go to the bottom of the page and click "Add new device"

Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Screen shots showing prior registered IOT devices and form for registering a new device.

Obtain IP address

Now that your PI is registered and on the network you can obtain it's IP address by clicking on the device (left part of figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)).

Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): The IP address for a registered device from UALR's IOT Network access page.

NOTE, UALR has dynamic and not static IP addresses. This means if you shut off your Pi and reboot it, the IP may change. If that happens, you have three basic options to obtain your IP address:

Run your Pi in desktop mode (with monitor,keyboard and mouse) and type <ip a> in the command line.
Login to your UALR IOT network panel and look up the IP address for any device on the IOT network.
Run a script when your Pi boots to email its IP address to your email account whenever the Pi boots.

Contributors

This page was developed by Bob Belford and Phil Williams.