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Student dorm does not allow wifi routers

I just moved into a student dorm for a semester abroad, and beforehand I emailed them asking whether they had ethernet ports to plug my router into (I use it to connect all my devices, and for WiVRn VR streaming). They confirmed that I could, but now that I’m here the wifi login portal is asking me to accept these terms from the ISP, which forbid plugging in a router. There’s another clause that forbids “Disruptive Devices” entirely, defined as:

“Disruptive Device” means any device that prevents or interferes with our provision of the 4Wireless to other customers (such as a wireless access point such as wireless routers) or any other device used by you in breach of the Acceptable Use Policy;

So what are my options? I don’t think I can use this service without accepting the terms, but also I was told by the student dorm support that I could bring a router, which contradicts this.

EDIT: some additional context:

  • dorm provider is a company separate from my uni (they have an agreement but that’s it)
  • ISP (ask4) is totally separate from dorm provider, and have installed a mesh network that requires an account. On account creation, there are many upsells including one for connecting more than one device. The “free” plan only allows me to sign in on a single device, and I can upgrade to two devices for 15 pounds.
  • ethernet requires login too
  • VR streaming requires a high performance wifi 6 network, which is why I bought this router (Archer C6 from tp-link)
Tarquinn2049 , (edited )

If you are really worried about getting caught not following the exact rules as written, you could always pay for multi device connections… then they won’t care.

But it’s definitely possible to set up your VR router in a way that is not gonna bother anything. Most people in this thread don’t know that your VR router doesn’t need internet access. If the VR stream is all it is doing, it can be isolated from the internet, and the isp won’t know or care it exists.

The other thing about rules, that they don’t tell us autistic people, is that following rules is actually kind of optional. Certainly more optional than it feels like to us. Think about it in terms of what the people were thinking when they wrote the rules, and who will be enforcing the rules and what they will care about. And what the enforcement of the rules would look like. (In this case, the most likely initial outcome of them enforcing these rules would be either an e-mail or paper letter telling you they noticed you are breaking a rule, possibly with details to help you stop breaking it, but likely not). Try to sus out the “spirit” of the rules rather than the letter of the rules. That is how all the other humans use rules and why to us it always feels like everyone is breaking all the rules and getting away with it.

If you follow every rule to the letter… you really can’t do anything. At all. Like, literally, even we are breaking rules we don’t yet know about every single day.

qjkxbmwvz ,

My university was pretty zen about this — essentially, “don’t use your own access point/router please. But if you do, please talk to your resident (University employed) student IT rep and they can probably help you set it up correctly.”

_thebrain_ ,

I would set up your router, turn off ssid broadcast and forget about it. It’s doubtful they have the equipment to find an access point that doesn’t actively announce itself to the world .

Edit: it means you will have to manually add your wifi network to your devices by typing in the ssid on them but other than that there shouldn’t be any issues

henfredemars , (edited )

One option could be to get one of those 5G modems. It would require you to pay for your own Internet service, but many will then provide an Ethernet connection as an option, meaning you would never have to accept the legal terms presented to you. You could even use Wi-Fi because technically you never agreed to the terms, and practically speaking so many devices generate Wi-Fi networks I think it would be hard to enforce that you don’t produce any networks. Printers, smart watches, IP cameras… Are they really going to wardrive and triangulate the position of wireless devices on a regular basis? A sneaky network named after a printer or hidden SSID combined with ignorance for a TOS you never agreed to would probably slip through the cracks.

They don’t own the spectrum. I’m not sure it’s even legal to mandate that you can’t use Wi-Fi devices as long as you’re not using their network. When I was in university, there were still tons of such devices emitting signals that weren’t connected to the university network despite policy.

2xsaiko ,
@2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I’m in a similar situation. Before I had to move all was fine, I had a single ethernet port I plugged my router into. It even had a static IPv4 (even though no IPv6 but I could just use tunnelbroker). Literally perfect.

After I moved I’m now stuck in this horribly designed network that has a stupid internet cafe tier login portal even for wired devices, unencrypted wifi, seemingly every single device from every student on the same network (I am getting blasted with other people’s broadcast packets and I’m pretty sure the network congestion from that is where my weird intermittent packet loss comes from). And now I don’t have any public IP address at all.

Whoever they hired to set this up is an absolute moron who has no idea about network security or how to make an efficient network and considering the internet cafe login portal probably likes to cause as much suffering as possible. (Not saying I’m necessarily qualified but the fact alone that I can connect to other people’s AirPlay devices means they failed at both.)

And the reason all of this is a problem is that they also don’t allow putting a router/firewall in front so I can get a sane network. Had to tear down pretty much all the infrastructure I set up in the old place because a lot of it was relying on me having control over the network. Of course, I knew none of this before I moved in, I was explicitly looking for internet shenanigans in the contract.

I now have a janky Wireguard mesh network setup with one of the machines being the IPv6 gateway. Awful but at least I have public addresses and IPv6 (and with that a bit of my own network space) again.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

y e p, I feel your pain (but I know way less about networking than it seems like you do haha, still haven’t made the jump to ipv6 myself)

moo ,

I think a lot of the suggestions here pretty solid; you can essentially do them all. I ran a similar setup, but it was not double NAT just data capped so I had to toggle my MAC every now and then.

If you do introduce a switch from the wall, you can at least get your gaming devices directly on. You can then run Wifi network off the router for your phone, and WiVRn.

As others have mentioned though these terms are there for security, your WiFi is a risk to the network. If the school is on your side and you are prepared to mitigate that risk by keeping the router updated and choosing strong auth, you could even tune the transmit power and rssi drop off but I have a feeling if they understood you were going to run WiFi and not just a switch they also would have said no.

So this setup could put you at risk of losing internet I guess according to those terms

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

Yeah, I get why they do it security-wise (but am mad about the surprise extracting money part, which was not in the dorm contract!). The dorm isn’t from uni (it’s a third party) but they did seem on my side given they said I could indeed bring a router… the ISP is the problem here. I think I will feign ignorance and set the settings as low as they’ll go while still being able to maintain a good connexion to the headset. Maybe hide the SSID too (it has my name on it lol).

twinnie ,

There’s various contractual reasons they may say this but ultimately they probably can’t tell. Those terms and conditions don’t count for anything and can’t be enforced because no reasonable reads them. I’d just go ahead with using your router and wait for somebody to say something (feign ignorance).

peanuts4life ,
@peanuts4life@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I wonder if you could just use your PC to hotspot when you need to use VR.

bluGill ,

if you have what support soid in writing then ask student legal (most universities give you free lawyer access, use it) but in general specific advice like this will in court override what the eula says. The person who said you could should of course be fired but that isn't your problem.

in the us fcc rules say these are unlicensed bands and they cannot make those rules about any radio. However the eula seems to be about wifi use but connecting their network to wifi and that difference is in their favor. If you get your own network connection (how?) You can bring your own wifi but don't connect theirs.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

Woah, that’s really cool. I’ll contact my uni to ask about it and I guess for now use a phone data hotspot and skip on VR.

FlatFootFox ,
@FlatFootFox@lemmy.world avatar

This is pretty typical for universities. They don’t want the airwaves clogged, doubling up NAT can lead to networking wonkiness, and they don’t want you giving university network access to unauthorized folks with an open AP.

When you say VR streaming, you just mean wireless from your PC to the headset, right? There’s a chance you could do that with an offline wireless router if the VR experiences you’re looking to play are single player.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

Yep, that’s what I mean with VR streaming. The PC connects thru eth to the router, and the headset is connected to the router’s AP via wifi. I get the point about unauthorized access, but I set strong passwords and never share them. I think this clause is more about preventing me from connecting more than one device to the internet, which they want to charge me for if I do. Obviously having my own AP would allow me to easily circumvent that.

Brkdncr ,

Add a wireless AP to your pc and create an adhoc wifi network for your vr to connect to your pc directly.

lowleveldata ,

It just says you can’t use things that allow you to connect more devices than agreed. Which means nothing without knowing how many devices were allowed to begin with.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

Yeah that’s the thing… the max devices is one, unless I pay a fee (per device I think). This third party that manages the internet offers a bunch of upsells in the account creation for stuff like more devices.

7U5K3N ,

I would go wired… get a switch, run an Ethernet cable from the dorm wall to the switch then out from your switch to your PC.

That said the university is probably handling DHCP and dns… You could use a USB WiFi plug to generate a hotspot off your PC. if you wanted to run your own wifi…

But honestly the dorms WiFi with you using a VPN to a major service is probably easier everyday use wise.

Let me just say this… my college lost WiFi connectivity for about 2 months once when I was there.
The only people who had WiFi were the folks connected to the pirate wireless. Because folks were doing the wired device --> hotspot deal with their desktops.

So might not hurt to be prepared.

Also… The dns settings for your device… you should set those. If you use DNS from your university… It lets them control what you can and cannot see on the net.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

Yeah, that’s what I did at my previous dorm (which didn’t have a third party ISP trying to sell stuff to students). I brought that same router to this one because they told me it was fine, but now I’m faced with these T&C I didn’t know about from a third party.

Confused_Emus ,

Not all that surprising. I don’t know of any network manager who’d happily allow rogue routers on their network, particularly if you still have it configured as a DHCP device and not a pass through device, which most college students do not consider and will very much disrupt campus network performance.

Lojcs , (edited )

Why does the dhcp on the router affect the main network? I’d think if it has its own network the main network would only need to deal with the router, as opposed to all the devices connected to the router if it was passthrough?

Confused_Emus , (edited )

Because that router will be broadcasting DHCP signals and offering IPs, conflicting with the authorized DHCP servers on the network. This wiki article will probably explain it better. I’m not so good with the words an such.

Lojcs ,

I don’t know much about networking but that page seems to be about someone else setting up a dhcp server without the knowledge of the administrators or the users. In op’s case the concerns about mitm attacks don’t apply and the other concerns sound like problems that could arise in cases of misconfiguration or if the users aren’t aware they’re connected to a different network. I also couldn’t see anything about it affecting the main network’s performance

Confused_Emus ,

I mean, it’s all right there in the first two paragraphs. Keep in mind that by DHCP server we aren’t talking about something specifically set up by people with malicious intent. A home router is a DHCP server when not configured for pass through. Students who don’t know how routers actually work (we can’t all be IT nerds, lol) plug them into their dorm Ethernet jack, and now you’ve got an unauthorized device offering IP addresses that conflict with the authorized DHCP servers, which can quickly start causing issues with any new devices trying to connect to the network, and existing devices as their DHCP leases expire. Also keep in mind that we’re talking about a college network that will likely have local network resources for students like shared drives that would not be accessible to anyone connecting through the rogue device. Your IT department will quickly start getting complaints about the network that are caused by an access point you have no control over.

Lojcs ,

I see, I thought routers knew not to do dhcp on the Wan port

AbidanYre , (edited )

They do know enough to not send DHCP leases upstream…

flappy ,

If you plug the dorm ethernet jack into the LAN side of a consumer router, there’s a chance they don’t.

Sure, you can catch this if you watch the dhcp leases your router is handing out, but…

AbidanYre ,

I’m assuming OP is at least smart enough to know that the port that’s on its own/a different color/somehow different from the others is the one that goes into the wall. It sounds like they have at least that level of competence.

Confused_Emus ,

I’m sure OP is given the more technical nature of Lemmy users. But this thread about the average college student with no networking knowledge.

Confused_Emus ,

Which is all well and good until you get someone who plugs both connections into the LAN ports.

Confused_Emus ,

Typically they do. Which is great until you get a student who doesn’t understand WAN vs LAN and plugs both connections into the LAN port. Never underestimate the power of a Stupid User.

Confused_Emus ,

Ah! I just saw you specified if it’s configured for pass through. If it is configured for pass through, then yeah it likely won’t cause issues on the network. The DHCP server is the critical bit.

From a network management perspective, though, they still won’t want these because you have to trust all these college students are going to properly configure their devices - most of them won’t know how and won’t bother figuring it out. And then you still have the issue of a bunch of unmanaged access points to your network, which is just poor security.

nomous ,

Yeah a simple little unmanaged switch would solve all these issues for about $20 and probably wouldn’t break the ToS.

Confused_Emus ,

Yeah. I think OP’s issue is they may have a few devices that are wireless only. Not sure of the best way to handle those.

nomous ,

Ah yeah just saw they specifically want to connect a VR headset wirelessly. I’m not real sure how to approach that either, if there’s any kind of port on the headset at all they could potentially adapt it to RJ45 but that defeats the whole point.

If a wireless connection is a must OP is just going to have to disable SSID broadcast, restrict it to certain MACs, and try to lock it down as much as possible and hope for the best. If they do it right it’ll won’t interfere with other devices and no one will ever know.

Lojcs ,

I just saw you specified if it’s configured for pass through.

I didn’t, that’s just bad grammar. Edited the comment

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

I’d be happy to set my device to passthrough mode, but I think the ISP prevents peer-to-peer connections (which my laptop would make to the VR headset) unless you buy one of their plans for Chromecast/smart TVs. Would that prevent it from working? And would I still be able to connect multiplw devices despite their one-device limit?

Confused_Emus ,

It’s hard to say without knowing all the details of how the college configures their network. Back when I was in college, I had a student job with the campus’ IT department, and students running into issues getting all their devices connected was a regular issue at the start of every year.

The main problem with most college networks is that you’ve typically got an enterprise setup that’s also having to double as home internet service for those living on campus. Depending on when the network was built it was likely only planning for students to have a laptop, maybe a desktop too, as opposed to modern times when just about every electronic device has an internet connection.

Some things just may not work like they did at home.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

That’s fair yeah. In my case the dorms are a separate unrelated company from the uni (they just have a partnership) and the ISP is yet another third party that did the install and sells extras to each student. I think it’s pretty scummy since I read my whole dorm contract and it never said this would be a condition to the “free fast wifi” access.

Confused_Emus ,

Eww, yeah, that sounds like a crappy setup to milk more money from students with no other option - especially if you’ve got student aid requiring you to live in school housing.

You may want to see about getting your own wireless carrier internet service. Not the best solution, but at least it would be yours and unrestricted.

mat OP ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

I’m only staying for a semester (via Erasmus, or what remains of it post-Brexit) so while I did consider this I don’t think it’s very viable.

Confused_Emus ,

Fair enough. My recommendation would be set the router to pass through and see if it works. Just secure the wireless network created by your AP - be a responsible network policy violator!

I don’t really have any other ideas that wouldn’t involve additional hardware, which doesn’t make much since give the short time you’ll be there.

Lojcs ,

Is there a limit to the number of devices allowed to connect that this rule is trying to enforce?

Either way, if the vr headset doesn’t need internet connection you could connect your computer to the internet wirelessly and to your own router via cable for vr.

noride ,

It’s a security\legal risk to allow adhoc wireless networks within your environment, pretty much any organization above a certain size has the same restrictions.

You could theoretically allow anyone to access your router directly, which would let them bypass agreeing to the Acceptable Use Policy, for example, shifting liability back to the organization for that users behavior.

CaptainBasculin ,

You can disable your router’s wireless networking (or hide its SSID if you want to use wireless networking). It won’t be an issue if you use either way. Since your dorm told you that you could use a router; these terms wont matter.

SzethFriendOfNimi ,
@SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world avatar

Note that hiding its SSID won’t turn off the wireless broadcast which would be adding to the “noise” in whatever channel it’s using.

In this case you would want to turn off the wireless itself

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