Help a student get wireless :)

[peepboon]

Hi guys

I'm living in uni halls and the only connection available is through the Ethernet. Is there a way in which I can the Ethernet wireless? I would like to use the laptop from bed, in the kitchen etc.

If it helps in answering the question then:

The internet connection uses mac address filtering, so does that mean the device I would use have to replicate the mac address? Or would it be like the mac's Internet sharing where many other devices can connect to the wireless Ethernet too?

Thanks in advance!

Peter

 

[maclover001]

If you buy a wireless access point, then it would use your Mac's MAC address.

If you buy a wireless router, then it would have it's own MAC address.

 

[peepboon]

Thanks its really that simple?

Just a few more questions ^.^;;

- Do all access points have Ethernet in? (This is so I can just eBay some cheaper alternatives)

- So all I would need to buy is this access point and plug my existing Ethernet into it and off I go? Any setting up? or is it all automatic?

- What about security? is it secure?

Thanks in advance!

Peter

 

[peepboon]

Just saw Apple's Airport Express... is that basically an Access Point aswell? Will that work for what I want it for?

 

[waw74]

that was a bit over simplified, you will need to clone the MAC address of your computer to the router.
Even a wireless access point has a MAC and IP address on the network. And the MAC of your wireless and wired is different.

most routers (although not the airport express)(don't think the extreme will either) will let you do this, i reccommend the Linksys wrt54gL the L stands for linux, you can load a linux based firmware, such as dd-wrt or tomato.
Or if you don't want to mess with it, the default firmware should do it too.


with the cloned MAC address, your entire wireless network will appear on the main network as 1 device. so you could let your friends connect also, but anything they do will appear as if it came from your computer.

also, if the univerisity is filtering by MAC address, they probably don't want you adding wireless, and they probably will find you, might take a while, I've worked with people who added wireless to a corporate network, they got shut down pretty quick.

 

[peepboon]

Thanks for your help man - I think it would be best to just stick to ethernet 'just in case' lol.

BTW, how would they find out anyways? :S - also, im using internet sharing atm, will they know that my laptop is sharing the internet connection?

 

[waw74]

I think in the one case, they recognized a linksys (or whatever) MAC on the network, then the IT guys drove over with the wi-fi sniffer.
probably had it set up to flag certain MAC ranges.

 

[Flash SWT]

I'll second the recommendation for picking up a Linksys WRT54GL and installing Tomato on it. It has the option to clone the MAC address from your computer so it should appear the same to the school.

I'd recommend using wireless security to keep others off, disabled the SSID broadcast so it doesn't show up to other computers that don't know it is there and even turning down the power so it doesn't reach very far past your own dorm room. This will help if they do go hunting for access points.