Maricopa Emergency Management System Alert

Effective August 12, 2021: All Phoenix College employees, students, and visitors are required to wear masks while inside on campus. If you are not feeling well, please do not come to campus. Student services are available remotely, online, and in person. Maricopa Coronavirus Website  |  Need Help?  | Remote Services & Support  | Library

  1. Current Students
  2. Technology Services
  3. Wireless Network

Wireless Network

Phoenix College currently offers free wireless Internet to all students, faculty, staff, and guests.  There are three wireless networks at Phoenix College:

  • maricopa: Open network; no encryption; web browsing only
  • BearNet-Student: MEID authentication required; no encryption; full access
  • Eduroam: Credentials from a supported educational entity needed to connect and access
  • GrizzlyNet-Staff; WPA2 encryption; full access

Accessing a wireless network at PC is straightforward and resembles the interface of other wireless ‘hotspot’ providers:

  1. Use your computer’s wireless utility to connect to the appropriate wireless network (also known as the SSID).  
  2. Open a web browser.  You should be directed to an acceptable terms of use page for maricopa.  For BearNet You should be redirected to the Phoenix College BearNet-Student login screen.  If not, enter the word “login” in your browsers address bar.
  3. Read and accept the Phoenix College Policy for Use of Information Technologies
  4. Enter your MEID and password and click on the Submit button.  

Faculty and Staff should contact the help desk at 5-7200 to receive the WPA2 code for GrizzlyNet

To sign in to BearNet-Student use your Maricopa District MEID and corresponding password; these are the same credentials used to access my.maricopa.edu and your college GMail account. PC employees who require assistance may contact the help desk at 5-7200. 

Eduroam at Phoenix College is accessed using your account from a supported educational entity, including the Maricopa Community Colleges.  If you are a Maricopa student, staff, or faculty member, you can use the following documents to access based on your device.

Phoenix College does not provide technical support for personally-owned computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones or other Internet-capable devices.

The Phoenix College Policy for Use of Information Technologies lists acceptable uses for the wireless Internet access as well as other technology resources on campus. Violation of these standards will be dealt with appropriately.

In order to provide the optimal network experience for all our users, certain activities or network traffic may be abridged.  This includes known security hazards, peer-to-peer file sharing, and other activities which monopolize network resources.

maricopa and BearNet-Student do not encrypt traffic and operate much like the wireless access offered in coffee shops, airports, and many other public places.  The Internet access provided on these networks is not secure, unless you are using a web page with SSL encryption (look for the lock symbol). GrizzlyNet-Staff does encrypt traffic. Please exercise the proper precautions to ensure your safety.

Your session will time out automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity.  If you have pop-ups enabled, you will be presented with a window that you can use to log out sooner.     

What are the time restrictions on wireless access at PC? There is no limit on how many hours per day you may spend using the wireless Internet. However, certain types of traffic are bandwidth-limited to provide maximum availability for educational and classroom usage. In addition, idle sessions are closed after 30 minutes. The system may be down for maintenance during non-service hours.

Access to web-based email services (such as Google mail) is available. To prevent the use of these networks for sending spam, however, outgoing email to the Internet via the SMTP protocol is blocked.

No, at this time, wireless printing is not supported.

The Phoenix College wireless network is comprised of more than 200 802.11b/g/n access points.