hi there,
I just wanted to share my experience with the banned wifi situation (20th August show). I've had a similar position (living in dorm room for a number of years). I totally agree with Patrick about talking to the older kids and finding out what they do.

Situation
The Sys admins use software to check what the mac addresses are trying to access the internet from a single port. The software runs a check every minute, and will ban the port for 5 minutes as a result. The software is effective with cheap routers + switches. Switches are very popular with uni students.

Solution.
Get a router with NAT. NAT stands for network address translation. In simple terms it modifies the packets, so the server thinks its all coming from one computer (mac address). There is a bit of info about it here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network...ss_translation

Routers with NAT are cheap, i bought a linksys router for $30 AUD, about $1USD (ooo too soon?) and it comes with nat.

Just make sure, *IF* the college asks you to submit a mac address for your computer (highly unlikely), submit the mac address of the wireless router, and not your computer. If its too late, you'll need to find a way to "spoof" the mac address onto the router - only some models have this ability.

If you're scared of the feds, i mean Senior Residents busting in your door. But the router in a cardboard box on the floor, and run the blue lan cable through it. Just like patrick said, leave a pile of nappies on the top lol. Or just leave some books there.

Very unlikely that the Sys admins will try and packet sniff, and find signal strength to isolate wifi hotspots. In a cramped space its very hard to accurately trace, and you'll get more than enough notice.

Ignore the crap they say like "it will bring down the whole of college internets"... this is absolute crap! and they say it to stop people from using switches. When they request multiple ip addresses for one port, and the college is running on one ip subnet, your room sticks out like dogs balls when you've got 5 IPs running through your port. DONT WORRY - just turn on NAT and you'll be fine.

Its general university policy to stop "extension of the network" hence why this rule has been made. If they didnt want extension of the network, they would put in more than one data port into your room.

PRO TIP: dont have your SSID (network name) anything related to you.

Just to spite the university, i have 2 wireless networks running.

Any questions, please give me a buzz. I'll be happy to help you out.


Regards
Davo1111