No routers in a college dorm room?

[phoenix9744]

it is true

A friend who's about to ship her third daughter to college told me today that most U.S. colleges won't allow personal routers or switches in the dorm room. Has anyone else heard this? I find it hard to believe, given that CNET recommends the AiirPort Express in The Ultimate Mac Dorm Room.

My daughter will be attending U. of Maryland. I guess I'll see what I can learn about their computer policies.

If true, that means my daughter can't use an Airport Express, as a print server or as an iTunes server.

I have attended two different schools (Dartmouth and Northwestern) and neither allowed routers. in fact they made a point in the packet they give you when you are starting out, to tell you explicitly that using a router was illegal and could result in fines.

 

[PaulinMaryland]

Not entirely true..

Typically (now) University wireless is offered in many locations, including "lounges". Some may have printers in the area too, particularly if they're for studying. Especially for frosh. Usually, there's printing instructions on the printer. And hence.. print to the local printer via wireless..

OK, not so bad. I think maybe I'll hold off and let her find out what public printing resources she has, what rights she has, and what capabilities she desires. I'll bet the dorm's public printers are monochrome only.

But your scenario wouldn't be made any easier if there was BT on the printer.

I agree, especially since it comes on the MacBook. I just want to make sure that THAT's allowed. I'm almost afraid to ask, because permission gatekeepers have a tendency to say "No" when they're not sure.

And anyway.. she should be using the spell checker in Word to catch typos and don't all the kids proofread on-screen now anyways? Seriously, a USB printer is an easy solution and really limits the types of troubleshooting over the phone that you will have to do if (nay, WHEN) something goes wrong.

Fine, smarty-pants, , I'll change "each time she finds a typo" to "each time she changes her mind about what to write, how to write it, or how to format it."

 

[trpt192]

This is the norm in most universities, since the routers in effect give out IP addresses which aren't controlled by the university IT dept. There are workarounds to this, as I believe has been discussed in other threads. It is possible to fool the network into thinking there aren't multiple IP addresses, but I don't know the details.

A work around that worked for me was adding another network card to one of the computers and enable internet sharing on that computer. So... my thinkpad is connected to my mac which is connected to the wall. The network thinks it's one computer(assigns one ip) but you could essentially have as much as you want behind that computer just by adding multiple network cards.

 

[PaulinMaryland]

I have attended two different schools (Dartmouth and Northwestern) and neither allowed routers. in fact they made a point in the packet they give you when you are starting out, to tell you explicitly that using a router was illegal and could result in fines.

Shame on CNET for failing to note this trend when they recommend the AirPort Express for dorm rooms.

 

[matticus008]

Let's say she's working on schoolwork while slumped into an easy chair in the dorm lounge. To print, she would have to go to her room, connect the USB cable, disconnect the cable, return to the lounge as she worked on the hardcopy. She'd have to repeat this with each typo she caught. Printing a small correction would cease to be a casual, spontaneous step.

She'd still have to go to her room to turn the printer on and off and to get the papers from the printer...the one USB cable plugging in and out of the computer is no more tedious than plugging in the charging cable. If she waits until the end of the day to print everything while she's sitting right there, the problem is solved. The added expense and potential rule-breaking of a router wouldn't be worthwhile.

Depending on the school, consequences can be sort of ridiculous, from bandwidth throttling to confiscation of the offending device or even loss of computing priveleges. My school didn't mess around with security threats--your connection was shut down if you didn't have anti-virus software installed or if they detected a possible infection (unless you were running Linux or a Mac; IET might have fixed those loopholes since, though) and you had to fill out a form to get it reactivated.

Bluetooth, though, is allowed everywhere--except places where cell phones and AM/FM radios are banned--if you wanted to go that route.

 

[Stridder44]

lol Imagine if you were trying to connect to your own network. Picture scrolling down through 50 other networks, half of which are named "linksys", a few "wang master" and "skin missle", and of course the emo kids' "mylifeisablackabyss".

 

[JackSYi]

When I was a freshmen at UCSB, they said absolutely no routers because visiters would use it (every registered student had to log in). However, I knew tons of people who set up wireless networks.

 

[gauchogolfer]

When I was a freshmen at UCSB, they said absolutely no routers because visiters would use it (every registered student had to log in). However, I knew tons of people who set up wireless networks.

This is totally off-topic: Go Gauchos! More specifically, go IV/State Street

OK, back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[PaulinMaryland]

Bluetooth OK

Bluetooth, though, is allowed everywhere--except places where cell phones and AM/FM radios are banned--if you wanted to go that route.

Thanks! That's what I wanted to hear. I might wait till she's settled in for a couple weeks to see if she even would welcome Bluetoothing to the printer.

 

[davisjw]

At VCU here there are no servers allowed in dorms and in the first weeks of freshmen year they did sweeps to locate them and told the students off with a warning and threatened punishments.. Their reasoning was it was too easy to hack into some "innocent" person's computer... Lame- Though never thought about bluetooth...

 

[bobznc]

I had a wireless connection in my dorm room during my second semester at the University of Iowa, no one gave me any guff. I never read the internet policies too closely, I'd imagine they would say that they weren't allowed for the obvious reasons, but how would they check, walk around with net/macstumbler? Oh, yeah, they could prob check the logs.

But then again we had unlimited downloads and a rolling 11 gig upload limit per week, so I had it made.

 

[bobznc]

lol Imagine if you were trying to connect to your own network. Picture scrolling down through 50 other networks, half of which are named "linksys", a few "wang master" and "skin missle", and of course the emo kids' "mylifeisablackabyss".

Haha, my rooms network was "-My Roommate's Name- Has a Huge Penis." It was his router that he was letting me use, so I suggested the name as a joke, and we went with it. Looked hilarious.

 

[Macmaniac]

You need to teach your daughter to be less lazy Its not that hard to plug in a printer, I do it all the time when I am at college, and I have to plug in 5 cables everyday. Sorry no hurt feelings just giving you a hard time.


On another note similar with this thread. I have a PC with two LAN ports (built onto the mobo), now is there anyway I can use the first LAN port to plug into the school network, while using the second LAN port to share my internet with my powerbook?

Any ideas?

 

[xparaparafreakx]

UC Davis does not allow routers beacuse it encourage P2P.

I have ask them about setting my base station as a bridge and they said okay. But they warn me that any illegal traffic on the wireless would be on my head.

I decided to use a airport express, and limit it to only certain computers with a MAC address on the list. And take it off line when not in use.

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Good question. What's the answer, anyone?

Yes you can, dont connect the ethernet cord

You need to teach your daughter to be less lazy Its not that hard to plug in a printer, I do it all the time when I am at college, and I have to plug in 5 cables everyday. Sorry no hurt feelings just giving you a hard time.


On another note similar with this thread. I have a PC with two LAN ports (built onto the mobo), now is there anyway I can use the first LAN port to plug into the school network, while using the second LAN port to share my internet with my powerbook?

Any ideas?

I know how to do that on mac but not on PC. There should be some kind of internet sharing on the PC side but ill have to look into it later.

I work for one of the networking departments at my college (the one that actually deals with students) and we always have to stress that students can not set up routers in their rooms. From what I've been told, a router can mess with how the switches work and in previous years have been known to knock the internet out on floors and even entire dorms. Also there is a liability risk. The school has a closed network that should only be accessed by people with the proper access (students, faculty, staff). If personal routers are set up, then that closed network is compromised and anyone can access it. Obviously the school does not want that to happen so to make the IT's work easier, all forms of routers are banned.

Sorry to sound like the bad guy, but you actually stop and think of all the problems that can arise from routers you can see why they are now allowed.

Schools use DHCP and want to keep tabs on you, so like my school before you can use the DHCP, you must reg the mac address to your name. So when the *hit goes down, they look up the mac address and bam your name will be the undergrad office.

The wireless in the schools makes you log in and does not require MAC address reg. However when you log in, they got your name and everything else to keep you in check.

Lets make the IT's work even easier. Make everyone connect to a OPEN DIRECTORY MASTER SERVER and slap security on them. For the windows users, make them connect to a Active Directory Server. No connect to directory server, no internet.

 

[benthewraith]

OK, not so bad. I think maybe I'll hold off and let her find out what public printing resources she has, what rights she has, and what capabilities she desires. I'll bet the dorm's public printers are monochrome only.

I agree, especially since it comes on the MacBook. I just want to make sure that THAT's allowed. I'm almost afraid to ask, because permission gatekeepers have a tendency to say "No" when they're not sure.

Fine, smarty-pants, , I'll change "each time she finds a typo" to "each time she changes her mind about what to write, how to write it, or how to format it."

This may be of some help.

List of places that have wireless coverage

 

[Chasealicious]

I'll be a junior at USC (The University of South Carolina - we were a University over fifty years before California was even a state) in the fall. I've had my own airport network set up in the dorm since day one, and I've never run into any problems. The university only sees one IP address (the one assigned to the router, 169.XXX.X.XX) and the router assigns a sub-address to my iMac and PowerBook (10.0.0.X). You can avoid causing a lot of problems simply by requiring a password to get on the network so that other people can't clog it, and turning the transmitter power down so that the network physically doesn't extend beyond the confines of your own room.

Go 'Cocks.

 

[WildCowboy]

The University of South Carolina - we were a University over fifty years before California was even a state)

Actually, you were a college. South Carolina College didn't become USC until 1906, 26 years after the other USC was founded.

 

[benthewraith]

I'll be a junior at USC (The University of South Carolina - we were a University over fifty years before California was even a state) in the fall. I've had my own airport network set up in the dorm since day one, and I've never run into any problems. The university only sees one IP address (the one assigned to the router, 169.XXX.X.XX) and the router assigns a sub-address to my iMac and PowerBook (10.0.0.X). You can avoid causing a lot of problems simply by requiring a password to get on the network so that other people can't clog it, and turning the transmitter power down so that the network physically doesn't extend beyond the confines of your own room.

Go 'Cocks.

Being a Gater fan, you have no idea how angry I was when yall got Spurrier. Anyways, he's a good coach, and yall have a great school.

 

[crazydreaming]

My university also don't allow routers to be set up. But I ignored them and set a wireless router up for myself. The rooms were designed by monkeys on crock and who knows what else, so the placements of the electric sockets and routers are difficult to say the least. So a wireless router makes it so much easier, I don't have to worry about a ethernet cable going all around the room to my computer on the other side.

I just slap WPA2 and MAC filtering on the son of a gun and made the SSID hidden. Most people will be deferred by the hidden SSID, then came the MAC filtering, which they'll have to spoof their MAC address to get around, then came WPA2, which a majority of their crappy Dell laptops can't even handle anyway. Oh, and I made the router 802.11g only, which filters even more of them out. Seems excessive, but it was easy to set up, and with OS X it's easy to connect to. It's difficult to connect to using a Windows computer, but that's not my problem

So the university doesn't know squat, and won't notice a flux of users off one socket at once either. And a casual scan won't reveal my network.

I've been to two colleges so far, both of which I wasn't suppose to have a router... Forget that, just set up my airport express so that the SSID is hidden and good to go

What are they gonna do, walk around looking for routers? Please, I hope they have better things to do. And the worse that could happen is they'll tell you to unplug it... I say, Airport Express away! You can't beat the convenience.

 

[x67892]

closed network

At my school they didn't allow routers, but I wanted wireless access for my laptop so I bought an Airport Express, put a password on it and made it a closed network so others couldn't see it. Then I could plug my printer into it and have wireless access without anyone knowing. Since it was closed, no one I didn't want to access it was able to access it.

 

[Marlon_JBT]

Eastern Michigan University doesn't allow routers to be used in the dorms. This is why

No routers will be allowed on ResNet.
Routers are a great way to make a home network for use on broadband. However in the Residence Halls they become a liability for the owner. All computer traffic behind a router appears to come from the router itself. This means if there is a problem with a computer behind that router ICT is not able to determine which computer is having the problem. This can be a very big problem if the computer is compromised and performs a network attack.

Students should use an Ethernet Hub or Switch instead of a router. These devices do not ?hide? traffic. They are also usually cheaper, smaller, and easier to use than a router.

However, I know for a fact that people use them anyway. I find wireless networks everywhere.

 

[Demoman]

The thing is, my daughter won't want to have to insert the USB printer cable each time she turns on her Mac "just in case" she needs to print. Nor will she want to have to disconnect it each time she packs her Mac in her backpack.

I really want her to be spared the need to physically connect her printer to the MacBook each time she "might" need it--or even, each time she knows she needs it.

Does she have a physical limitation that makes removing a USB cable challenging? The reason I ask is because I think there are docking stations that would allow the printer to be constantly plugged in and the laptop just connects to it. But, if she cannot manage the USB cable, she may not be able to insert the laptop into the docking station.

 

[PaulinMaryland]

How many daughters does it take to plug in a USB cable?

Does she have a physical limitation that makes removing a USB cable challenging? The reason I ask is because I think there are docking stations that would allow the printer to be constantly plugged in and the laptop just connects to it. But, if she cannot manage the USB cable, she may not be able to insert the laptop into the docking station.

There's no docking station for the MacBook.
My daughter hasn't been asking for wireless printing; I don't think she's thought that far ahead. But if you stop and think about the workflow, you'll appreciate that in the real world, when you've just printed and think you're good to go, there's one more word you want to change.

Back in the 1980s, I was out of work and needed to create resumes. My well-meaning mother advised, "So-and-so will be glad to type it up for you."

She didn't understand that getting a resume "just right" can involve more than a dozen printouts. I'm not talking about spell checking; I'm talking about getting the right words in the right places.

So if my daughter will be using her MacBook anywhere but in her dorm room, tethered to the printer by a cable, she'll find herself inserting and removing the USB cable annoyingly often. I suppose she could work at her desk, but that's not her style and defeats the freedom that the MacBook promised.

 

[xparaparafreakx]

This can be a very big problem if the computer is compromised and performs a network attack.

Students should use an Ethernet Hub or Switch instead of a router. These devices do not ?hide? traffic. They are also usually cheaper, smaller, and easier to use than a router.

Network attack? Attack on what? They just want a nice log for RIAA and MPAA.

They should meet students half way here. Tell students to set their base stations as ethernet bridges damn it. That way you can get on wireless and they can get the MAC address for RIAA and MPAA.

Im an IT at a school but some ITs take it too far. Remember, technology is to help the kids, doing *hit like this will encourage more DHCP routers and more problems.