Hornet: Established 1998

The University of Manchester provides Internet connectivity to many of the student study bedrooms in the Manchester halls of residence through the Hornet service. Connected rooms are fitted with a RJ45 socket that provides a 100Mbps connection.

There is no cap to the amount of data that users can send or receive over the network. The University of Manchester does however actively police the network for users whose computers are displaying erratic behaviour and making excessive use of the network resources.

This provides full access to The University of Manchester data network for members of the institution, including access to services such as the John Rylands University Library databases and to departmental file-servers, as well as a connection to the Internet.

Hornet Pricing – The Cost

The Hornet service is provided free of charge in University of Manchester halls of residence. It forms part of the range of services that the University accommodation offers.

In privately managed halls the cost varies, dependent on the length of contract that residents sign up for. The available pricing options vary depending on the time of year. If you live in a private hall the currently available contract lengths and pricing are shown as options in the Hornet Portal during the registration to join Hornet.

The Data Connection Provides:

A full internet connection for the standard activities: Web Browsing, File Transfer, Email, Remote Login, etc.

The ability to access multimedia resources over the internet (e.g. music, internet radio, video, etc.). Limitations exist in relation to accessing some online file sharing services for copyright reasons.

The ability to communicate over the internet: instant messaging and chat applications, internet telephony (voice over IP), etc.

Full access to electronic resources

Further Information

The service includes rental of the line for the specified period and full support. The connection period is until you leave the Hall, or until the start of the new academic year, whichever is the earlier – so if you stay in Hall over the vacation periods, including the summer, you will still have the connection if you have paid for it.

Connection transfers between The University of Manchester managed halls are possible and involve no extra cost. Users should note that it is not possible to transfer connections between private and university managed halls or vice versa. The Hornet service is provided via a contract with individual residents and is non transferable – reselling the Hornet service to other residents is prohibited.

Where applicable, the connection charge does not include the cost of any additional hardware such as a network adapter that you may have to purchase to connect your computer to the network. It does not include the cost of a data cable.