Connecting to wifi using a user login (5D Mark IV)

[jenniferoo]

Hello,

I'm trying to connect the 5D Mark IV to wifi at work. I work at a college where each of us has our own username and password to connect to the network.

Has anyone had luck connecting the camera to wifi in a situation like this?

Thanks in advance for the help! Please let me know if anything needs clarification.

[RobertTheFat]

Your question implies that you expect the camera to function as a WiFi client. That may be possible, but cameras usually prefer to be access points. Unless you really know what you're doing, I suggest you go along with that arrangement and forget about connecting the camera to your work network. Upload the pictures to your PC; then worry about putting them on the network.

[jenniferoo]

Bob, thank you for your response but I think you've misunderstood what I'm trying to do.

The Mark IV can in fact send directly to an ftp server. Let's take the ftp out of the equation because the problem is connecting to wifi, which I need to do before connecting to either ftp or the app.

When connecting to a home network, I'd choose my network out of a list. The next step would be to enter my password. When I connect at work I pick the network, but to log into that network I have a username along with the password. The camera doesn't have an option to enter both.

If anyone has experience with this, I look forward to your responses. Anyone who has successfully connected the camera to a wifi network where each user gets their own login.

[RobertTheFat]

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@jenniferoo wrote:

Bob, thank you for your response but I think you've misunderstood what I'm trying to do.

The Mark IV can in fact send directly to an ftp server. Let's take the ftp out of the equation because the problem is connecting to wifi, which I need to do before connecting to either ftp or the app.

When connecting to a home network, I'd choose my network out of a list. The next step would be to enter my password. When I connect at work I pick the network, but to log into that network I have a username along with the password. The camera doesn't have an option to enter both.

If anyone has experience with this, I look forward to your responses. Anyone who has successfully connected the camera to a wifi network where each user gets their own login.

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I think you're conflating the terms "username" and "password" with "SSID" and "encryption key". All four of those are individual items with different meanings and functionality. I suggest that you contact your IT Department at work and talk to someone who really understands how their WiFi system is set up and can explain to you what is and isn't possible. And in that discussion don't overlook my previous point: that a camera usually prefers to be an access point, while you apparently expect to set it up as a client.

[CaliforniaDream]

 Is it a wifi connect that you are logging into?  When you say that you "connect to the network" is it through some application such as a browser or does a dialog come up that requires the userid/password? If so I don't think there is anything you can do to get the camara to attach directly.  If you have a phone or tablet that can attach to the network you could set up a "hot spot" in that device and connect the canara via that hot spot.

[jenniferoo]

Hello CaliforniaDream, thank you for your reply! I'm connecting through the camera. This was my path to get there:

Communication Settings > Built-in wireless settings > Wi-Fi Function > Transfer images to FTP server

From there it asks me to either connect with WPS or select a network. My choices are the eduroam network (where I'd use my user ID and password), the unsecured college network (no thanks!), or the Devices network. We're working with IT on connecting through Devices, but it looks like that takes an extra step on their end and I thought someone must have come up against this issue before and not had the option of working with IT.

(Note that I get the same wifi login screen whether I try to connect to a smartphone, remote control or FTP.)

[wq9nsc]

jenniferoo,

It sounds like you are near success with this issue.  I suspect your university network has enough security stuff in place that the IT staff will have to get involved to make this work.  I retired from a university 3 years ago and anything concerning IT/network access became far more complex several years prior to that when IT begin to envision itself as an important feature rather than a supporting function 😞

My DSLRs are a pair of 1DX and 1DX II bodies that don't have wifi but I went through similar issues with a Canon XF-400 camcorder and while the wifi instructions are a little better written for it ( I glanced at the 5D IV WiFi supplement)  they still aren't great and it was a pain to set up the first time I used it to connect to another network where I couldn't use WPS.  Hopefully they will quickly resolve this for you and will perhaps set up a proper FTP site for you if there isn't one on the network already for your use.

Rodger

[jenniferoo]

Thank you, Rodger! I'm glad you were able to get your camcorder connected. The 5D Mk IV wifi instructions are lousy, aren't they? I'm glad it's not just me.

IT has set up an ftp server for us and we've put in a ticket to allow the camera on the Devices network. I'm still hoping to figure out a way to connect without involving IT since it would be useful for our students.

I'll keep you posted. Enjoy the rest of your day. 🙂

[wq9nsc]

You are welcome and I hope they get it sorted out quickly for you.  The Canon WiFi instructions are pretty bad and not up to the standards for the rest of their manual and were probably written by a different group than the "camera people".

But it isn't just Canon.  The WiFi setup to use the phone app to control my Hensel studio strobes is much less involved than a camera but the U.S. version of the WiFi supplemental manual leaves a lot to the imagination.  Once I realized what they were trying to say the WiFi setup was pretty simple but it looked like they used an alpha version of Google translate to go from German to the English language instructions.

Rodger