Friday, August 27, 2021

DUO Authentication Issue - Weak Cell Signal

OIT is aware of faculty, students, and staff experiencing authentication issues due to weak cell phone signals in some rooms and areas across campus. Insufficient cellular service impedes the user from receiving the authentication push from the DUO app on their phone. To avoid this problem, we recommend making sure that, when on campus, you connect your cell phone to UHCL's WiFi system (UHCLPrivate), as described below:

  1. Find a location on campus where your phone has adequate signal strength.
  2. Connect to the UHCLPrivate (as opposed to UHCLPublic) WiFi on your cell phone. OIT’s Mobile Devices and WiFi page has more detail (including a list of device-specific instructions at the bottom of the page).
  3. When setting up your access to UHCLPrivate, use your domain\UserID (e.g., UHCL\smithj, PCLAB\smithj1234) and password combination to log into the UHCLPrivate wireless network.

The third step often confuses users because only a handful of systems require the use of the domain prefix (UHCL\ or PCLAB\).

When your phone is connected to the UHCLPrivate WiFi, and you experience poor cell service, the DUO authentication prompt should be sent to your phone via WiFi instead of by cell signal.