As of this month, guests on the University of Iowa campus can connect for free to a new Wi-Fi network, “UI-Guest,” which will phase out “attwifi,” the previous guest network.

Nicole Dahya, the communications manager for Information Technology Services, said in an email to The Daily Iowan that the UI’s previous guest wireless provider, AT&T, plans on discontinuing that service.

The new network was established by ITS, using the UI campus’s existing Wi-Fi equipment, she said.

Dahya said the cost to the university is similar for both guest networks. The new UI-Guest network may come out to be a bit less, she said, because the university will no longer pay $4,150 a year in service charges to AT&T.

“We used existing infrastructure to deploy the service so there was no capital cost, only staff time to make the change,” she said.

The AT&T network remains available until Aug. 1, giving the campus time to update information and make a smooth transition. Until then, visitors can use either guest network.

Like the AT&T network and most public servers, UI-Guest is not encrypted. Unencrypted network data are less secure than on encrypted networks, for instance, the “eduroam” network used by students, faculty, and staff. The guest networks cannot access certain UI resources, including printers or file sharing.

ITS suggests unencrypted network users take measures to protect personal data such as Social Security numbers or banking information. It recommends using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and looking for “HTTPS” in URLs, which signifies higher security than “HTTP.”