They cant allow wireless because if one person has it everyone will and 1 out of at least 10 will know how to keep it secure. If you truly need wireless get a broadband card from Alltel unlimited Data and good speed.
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My school doesn't allow wireless in the dorms
- Thread starter fishniw
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They cant allow wireless because if one person has it everyone will and 1 out of at least 10 will know how to keep it secure. If you truly need wireless get a broadband card from Alltel unlimited Data and good speed.
Mac Mini hard wired to Ethernet, running Bluetooth Internet Sharing.
Bet they aren't scanning for Bluetooth networks. Slow, but it would do for surfing! I believe a few dedicated Bluetooth routers exist as well, but I cannot vouch for them.
Bet they aren't scanning for Bluetooth networks. Slow, but it would do for surfing! I believe a few dedicated Bluetooth routers exist as well, but I cannot vouch for them.
I go to the University of South Carolina and this is the case at my school as well.
Wirless is available EVERYWHERE on campus (literally), except for the individual residence halls. It sucks because I wish I could set up a router in my dorm. I hate having to use a wired, yet sometimes faster, connection in my dorm. For instance, I can't just lay in my bed or sit on my futon and use the internet. My ethernet cable doesn't reach far enough. It sucks!
Don't be bummed though... you get used to it. And, like at my school and many other universities, I'm sure wireless is available almost everywhere else on campus.
Wirless is available EVERYWHERE on campus (literally), except for the individual residence halls. It sucks because I wish I could set up a router in my dorm. I hate having to use a wired, yet sometimes faster, connection in my dorm. For instance, I can't just lay in my bed or sit on my futon and use the internet. My ethernet cable doesn't reach far enough. It sucks!
Don't be bummed though... you get used to it. And, like at my school and many other universities, I'm sure wireless is available almost everywhere else on campus.
Any Network ADMIN worth his/her money will see a new MAC address on the server right when you use that Router.
No need to "Sweep" the rooms.
No need to "Sweep" the rooms.
You can set up an AirPort Express (AX) to run in a kind of 'stealth' mode, so that only people who know the name of the network will be able to connect, as the network name will not show up in any 'available networks' lists. Also, you can set up the AX to broadcast at only 10% of it's full signal strength. These two tricks might be enough to hide it's signal. You won't be able to hide the AX itself, though.
EDIT: Sorry, hadn't read the whole thread yet. Didn't get to the part where you state you have it working already. Good for you! Always a good thing to fool the authorities!
EDIT: Sorry, hadn't read the whole thread yet. Didn't get to the part where you state you have it working already. Good for you! Always a good thing to fool the authorities!
You can set up an AirPort Express (AX) to run in a kind of 'stealth' mode, so that only people who know the name of the network will be able to connect, as the network name will not show up in any 'available networks' lists. Also, you can set up the AX to broadcast at only 10% of it's full signal strength. These two tricks might be enough to hide it's signal. You won't be able to hide the AX itself, though.
EDIT: Sorry, hadn't read the whole thread yet. Didn't get to the part where you state you have it working already. Good for you! Always a good thing to fool the authorities!
ha, yeah there is a sense of enjoyment in that. Everyone on my floor is envious, but I let them use my connection sometimes. yeah i know my setup isn't perfect and if they have detected it they must not care seeing as I have it encrypted and hidden.
By the way you can still download torrents even if theyre blocked on your network, and without signing up to any Uni white lists, just use Azureus (now Vuze) to do your downloading, and enable RC4 Transport Encryption in the settings, (its really simple to do), and they wont know a thing, although if you happen to have 30GB worth of data packets going to your ip adress in one day they may get a bit suspious also enabling the RC4 Transport Encryption is useful even if your a home bit torrent downloader because it means your ISP doesnt know your downloading torrents and wont throttle your connection which happens a lot in the US and the UK.
also enabling the RC4 Transport Encryption is useful even if your a home bit torrent downloader because it means your ISP doesnt know your downloading torrents and wont throttle your connection which happens a lot in the US and the UK.
don't listen to these folks who are encouraging you to get a wireless router and run it anyway.
they will run a sweep program and deactivate you. if you really want or need to run wireless in your room, you could try using a dedicated computer to run an adhoc/internet sharing subnetwork instead.
they will run a sweep program and deactivate you. if you really want or need to run wireless in your room, you could try using a dedicated computer to run an adhoc/internet sharing subnetwork instead.
That's just another router. Sorry, IP routing is IP routing, whether it is done by a purpose-built router or a PC.
There are more ways of running a wireless internet connection than 802.11x .. think bluetooth or even a local 3g sender/receiver would do it! they wont be able to find those!
Ps. its really easy to find hidden SSID's
Ps. its really easy to find hidden SSID's
Use Directional antennas, and reflectors to reflect the signal rndomly, so they won't figure out Where the router is...
Like everyone else said, whether or not you agree with the fact that there's no wireless in the dorms, you shouldn't have moved in if you had a choice to begin with if you had a problems with their stupid policies.
If you were forced there, *I'm a bit drunk, it's New Years and I didn't see that* sorry : \...... Hopefully they don't block bittorrent, because that'd be a living hell for me at least. Because they probably limit bandwidth on online games as well.
If you were forced there, *I'm a bit drunk, it's New Years and I didn't see that* sorry : \...... Hopefully they don't block bittorrent, because that'd be a living hell for me at least. Because they probably limit bandwidth on online games as well.
lol american universities.
in canada they could give a rats ass what we do with our connection.
each student gets 50gb of bandwidth per month.
they practicly promote pirating.
have u tried tethering your iphone to the laptop.
ive got 6gb of data per month on my iphone so i tether is once in a while.
in canada they could give a rats ass what we do with our connection.
each student gets 50gb of bandwidth per month.
they practicly promote pirating.
have u tried tethering your iphone to the laptop.
ive got 6gb of data per month on my iphone so i tether is once in a while.
Exactly, that's what I was thinking. Don't broadcast the SSID and no one would know you had wireless unless they used a wireless stumbler, which is highly unlikely.
Get a Time Capsule and when they challenge you about it being a wireless hub just say "don't be stupid. It's a backup machine. It can't even broadcast a wireless signal". Then act all innocent when they explain to you it is and say you will find a way to disable the wireless capabilities. Perhaps leave an ethernet cable in the back of it to make a point too (then they will think you really are an idiot )
)In some cases the schools network can work against you on its own. Do a search for Meru Networks and read up on their over the air and over the wire rogue mitigation. I have been installing these systems for about the last year and unless your AP's MAC is in the controller whitelist you wont be able to connect to it (over the air mitigation) or you will connect and the switchport the AP is plugged into will be disabled (Over the wire mitigation). Just finished an install of about 100 AP's at a local University and it works like a charm. The days of plugging up your own AP are limited.
This is a classic cat and mouse game. I'm not sure why the school doesn't just provide wireless using some sort of setup like a Cisco Clean Access router, as opposed to hunting down wireless APs.
There are four main options:
1: Accept what they have.
2: Connect a wired NAT box so you can use multiple machines and only have one IP facing their network.
3: Try your luck with a wireless AP.
4: Use another Internet connection (Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, even Cricket offer USB based receivers that are completely independant. Be warned, most have bandwidth caps and will either charge by the bit, or throttle if one goes past a certain limit a month.)
I personally would do #1 or #4 first until you get to know the admins.
Some IT people are just having to stick to laws like CALEA, rules, and policies set from above. As long as they don't get burnt by someone else's mistake (like having the RIAA come with court ordered motions of discovery), they don't really care what a student does. You can use a proxy server or VPN, do what you feel like.
Other IT people will drop the ban hammer down on the first sign of trouble, then ask questions later. They will search the list of MAC addresses in use, try to find the ones that belong to companies that sell routers, then bag those preemptively. Then, they will bring out the DF equipment and hunt down the access points hiding in dorm rooms.
Use your judgement. In any case, don't antagonize the IT staff, especially if just starting out and new to a college. Maybe after they get to know you and see your face, they won't mind an AP that is WPA2 secured and has no visible SSID, but starting out at a new semester, they will be all policy.
There are four main options:
1: Accept what they have.
2: Connect a wired NAT box so you can use multiple machines and only have one IP facing their network.
3: Try your luck with a wireless AP.
4: Use another Internet connection (Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, even Cricket offer USB based receivers that are completely independant. Be warned, most have bandwidth caps and will either charge by the bit, or throttle if one goes past a certain limit a month.)
I personally would do #1 or #4 first until you get to know the admins.
Some IT people are just having to stick to laws like CALEA, rules, and policies set from above. As long as they don't get burnt by someone else's mistake (like having the RIAA come with court ordered motions of discovery), they don't really care what a student does. You can use a proxy server or VPN, do what you feel like.
Other IT people will drop the ban hammer down on the first sign of trouble, then ask questions later. They will search the list of MAC addresses in use, try to find the ones that belong to companies that sell routers, then bag those preemptively. Then, they will bring out the DF equipment and hunt down the access points hiding in dorm rooms.
Use your judgement. In any case, don't antagonize the IT staff, especially if just starting out and new to a college. Maybe after they get to know you and see your face, they won't mind an AP that is WPA2 secured and has no visible SSID, but starting out at a new semester, they will be all policy.
One of the big reasons as to why we were not allowed to have routers in our dorms (in my university) was due to internet connection sharing.
The bandwidth was fixed for each ethernet port, and using a router would allow several other people to hop into one connection, hogging all the bandwidth. Also people who were not paying for the internet, would get to use it- which seemed to annoy the IT people there.
They also said that tons of people had no idea how to put in a router, and most of them plugged it in backwards (the cord from ethernet port to LAN of router, instead of WAN) causing the router to act as a "rouge" DHCP server and assigning IP addresses to several other ports on the network.
The bandwidth was fixed for each ethernet port, and using a router would allow several other people to hop into one connection, hogging all the bandwidth. Also people who were not paying for the internet, would get to use it- which seemed to annoy the IT people there.
They also said that tons of people had no idea how to put in a router, and most of them plugged it in backwards (the cord from ethernet port to LAN of router, instead of WAN) causing the router to act as a "rouge" DHCP server and assigning IP addresses to several other ports on the network.
That makes sense about their policies now. My cynical side says that because they charge some and not others for Internet access, they want to keep the dollars flowing in. This explains the reason they pursue wireless APs with such a passion, rather than fear of a rogue DHCP server. What they should have been done is make the Internet access part of the dorm rent. This would bring them more revenue overall. Especially if they put in a wireless network segment themselves that has strong dorm-wide coverage where one gets max signal virtually anywhere in the building except for the homemade Faraday cage put together with Coors Light cans that someone always has in their dorm room.