ResNet - Overview

As one of the major services provided by the ITSC, Residential Network (ResNet) serves to make useful resources and tools available across the campus network and the global Internet.

ResNet involves 2 kinds of services:


What You Can Do With ResNet

You can easily check your e-mails, submit assignments, view on-line course notes, search library catalogs, reserve reference books, surf the Internet for academic research, or even view a live video broadcast of campus events like congregation or distinguished lectures.

On the other hand, you can write your own blogs or tweets, log in your Google+ or Facebook to interact with your friends, listen to online radio, watch your favourite Youtube videos or TV broadcasts upon your leisure times. There is simply an endless list of services through which you can enjoy.

We believe our hall students would take advantage and make best use of this marvellous facility in their whole course of learning here in HKUST.  It is solely up to your imagination on how and what you can get from it.  We believe ResNet will serve as a crucial means to enrich campus life, and well prepare our students for the more international and multicultural world.  No doubt we hope our students will remember ResNet even after their graduation.


ResNet Coverage

ResNet is part of the HKUST campus network. It employs the latest network technologies to guarantee a good and reliable service. 

At present, ResNet connects the following ten halls to the campus:

Wireless ResNet service is avaiable in all hostel rooms and public areas like common rooms and canteen. This provides hall residenets a convenient way to connect to HKUST network and Internet.

Wired ResNet service provides over 4300 in-room connections, providing each hall resident a dedicated 100 Mbps switched Ethernet network connection point.


Things To Do To Connect To ResNet

Depending on the type of ResNet service (wired or wireless), different prerequisite is needed.

Wired ResNet service:

  1. The user must have an ITSC account for registration.
  2. Locate your Wall Outlet Port No.
  3. Determine the Ethernet Address of your computer device.
  4. Submit an electronic registration via the Wired ResNet Application System.
In general, nothing else needs to be configured on the computing device.

Wireless ResNet service:

  1. The user must have an ITSC account.
  2. The computing device must support WPA or WPA2.
In general, newer operating systems (e.g. Windows 7, MacOS and IOS) can search for Wireless ResNet service and configure itself automatically. However, for older operating systems (e.g. Windows XP), the user needs to pre-configure the device. The user is encouraged to refer to the configuration guides for details.

Milestones of ResNet

ResNet keeps on evolving and being enhanced by the ITSC.  There are several major milestones:

Sep 1991 Provision of 656 Network Points for UG-1 and PG-1 Student Halls
(1st to provide student hall network connection amongst HK tertiary institutions)
Feb 1993 Provision of 1,440 Network Points for UG-2, UG-3, UG-4 and PG-2 Student Halls
Sep 1996 Roll-out of Web-based Hall Network Connection Application (shorten registration time from 1 week to a few minutes)
Jan 1997 Provision of 756 Network Points for UA-A and UA-B Student Residences
Summer 1997 Cat 5 UTP Wiring Project for UG-1/2/3/4 and PG-1/2
- Over 2,300 UTP Points
Sep 1997 All 3,100+ Network Points Now Using Dedicated 10 Mbps Switched Ethernet Connection
Sep 1998 Provision of 200 Network Points for 3-Person Room in UG-2, UG-3 and UG-4
Sep 1999 ResNet migrated from switched FDDI to switched Gigabit Ethernet backbone.
Sep 2000 Each applicant can apply up to two computers to be connected to ResNet.
Jan 2004 Completion of UG Hall VI.
Oct 2008 Wireless ResNet service is available in all Student Hostels.
Aug 2009 Completion of UG Hall VII.