I’m an unabashed early adopter, but my trailblazing can, at times, come at a cost. When I upgraded to Apple’s new Lion Operating System a few weeks ago, I quickly found myself unable to access Penn State’s extensive wireless infrastructure. I was able to tether through my trusty iPhone, but I realized that this was a problem hundreds, if not thousands, at the University would soon be facing.

Thankfully, the Internet is a wonderful place. As I was browsing the Penn State subreddit last night, I came across a thread with an explanation of how to set-up Wireless 2.0 in this brave new inverted-scrolling world us upgrade-hungry Mac users now inhabit. All you have to do is head over to the nifty Penn State Wireless tool run by the folks at ITS and select the option that reads, “Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch software version 2.0 and above.” I know, you’re not using an iOS device, but selecting that option will get you the configuration profile you can easily install to your computer for instant access to the network. Just enter in your Penn State Access credentials and you should be good to go wherever ‘psu’ is available!

Additionally, if Wireless 2.0 isn’t your thing for whatever reason, you can also set-up your computer to access the Wireless 1.0 network using Mac OS X’s built-in VPN (as the Cisco client also seems to have been broken with the most recent upgrade). Instructions are here!