Wireless router at college: please help

So here's the background info:
I'm in college, we have decent wifi on campus, but in my dorm room it seems to be a dead zone. So I got a wireless router (we have ethernet ports in our rooms, but my dorm is suite style and I'm always in the common room where there's no plug) and hooked it up so I can get fast access in my room.

Here's the problem: we aren't supposed to have them and someone else complained that my router is hampering their ability to connect to the campus wifi. I share my router with my 3 roommates but no one else because I don't want to get in trouble if other people do something stupid on it.

An email got sent out saying that wireless routers aren't allowed and the ports they are connected to will be isolated if they are found. (This was due to the complaint)

In response to this, I changed the SSID, disabled broadcast, set the router to only allow the four mac addresses of the computers in my room.
The router is a Linksys btw. One of the standard ones in stores and its wireless-N.

QUESTIONS:
Is there anything else I can do to hide the router or prevent it from being seen/sniffed? Is there a way to prevent our tech department from seeing it? (can they even see it now or is it a scare tactic?) Anything else I'm forgetting that you think may be helpful to me.
I'm friendly with everyone on the floor and I know the kid but I'm not taking the router down because of him.

We need it to play on Xbox Live and to do school work so the router is pretty necessary for me so taking it down isn't an option.


Thanks for any help and I'm sorry to post was so long but I'm trying to provide all possible information.

Remember to take it home with you over Christmas break. I do the same thing against the same rules actually. Here, no routers or networking equipment is allowed of any kind, and yet they sell wireless routers in the campus store..

The rule does not make sense to me, so I don't mind breaking it. In fact, there are 8 other illegal networks within range of me right now.

Same at my dorm. It is to make sure no "unwanted" user gets onto the campus internet and messes with things. Most likely the way to access your campus internet is either to sign on to it, or by registering your Mac. Having an exposed WiFi that is not maintained by the College could compromise a lot of things.

How to get around. (the way I did it).
You did everything right. Hide broadcast, mac filtering, the works. Now lower your range or power of the antennas. Try and make it so that it only can be seen inside your Suit and that is it. Best thing to use is NetStumbler. If you want to be risky, you can name your router to match the College routers. This could cause disturbance, but if you made sure that the wireless is only contained inside your suit, you should not hear anything about it.

If all else fails, file a complaint to the tech department stating that in order for you [and suit] to access internet, you [and they] must setup own wireless, or connect via LAN.

Hm. I'll definitely check that tool out.
I do it because it's not a big deal. The punishment is just them telling you to remove it.

Anyway, I just have it hidden and named something very close to the school's wifi so someone wouldn't notice it right away. I was just curious if there was something else I could possible do, but it looks like there isn't much else.

Thanks a lot =)

Issius said:

QUESTIONS:
Is there anything else I can do to hide the router or prevent it from being seen/sniffed? Is there a way to prevent our tech department from seeing it? (can they even see it now or is it a scare tactic?) Anything else I'm forgetting that you think may be helpful to me.
I'm friendly with everyone on the floor and I know the kid but I'm not taking the router down because of him.

yes, if i were you, i would change the mac address of the wireless routers ethernet port of that of your pc, so that if they ever did query that port, then it wouldnt come up as netgear or whatever. the only problem you might have (depending on what router you have) if you match your pc it might stop you accessing the campus network. so you could just change the last digit +1..
some people might disagree with my mac cloning though

We need it to play on Xbox Live and to do school work so the router is pretty necessary for me so taking it down isn't an option.

if your going to do this, then would your school be worried about how many mac addresses they see on a link in your dorm? a way to get round the mack addressing is to use a cable modem wireless router, with one of these you can clone the mac as i stated above.


Thanks for any help and I'm sorry to post was so long but I'm trying to provide all possible information.

Click to expand...

the only problems you might have with playing xbox, is that ports might be blocked by the campus.
remember also, that the more machines you have plugged into the wireless router, the more ports you will be using up on the campus.
do you get your own ip address? or does everyone in the campus appear as one or a set range of addresses?
basically, xbox live might have issues. but lan play will be fine if your all plugged into the switch side of the router

Dolk said:

Same at my dorm. It is to make sure no "unwanted" user gets onto the campus internet and messes with things. Most likely the way to access your campus internet is either to sign on to it, or by registering your Mac. Having an exposed WiFi that is not maintained by the College could compromise a lot of things.

How to get around. (the way I did it).
You did everything right. Hide broadcast, mac filtering, the works. Now lower your range or power of the antennas. Try and make it so that it only can be seen inside your Suit and that is it. Best thing to use is NetStumbler. If you want to be risky, you can name your router to match the College routers. This could cause disturbance, but if you made sure that the wireless is only contained inside your suit, you should not hear anything about it.

If all else fails, file a complaint to the tech department stating that in order for you [and suit] to access internet, you [and they] must setup own wireless, or connect via LAN.

Click to expand...

inside your suit? like in your suit pockets?

ppe1700 said:

the only problems you might have with playing xbox, is that ports might be blocked by the campus.
remember also, that the more machines you have plugged into the wireless router, the more ports you will be using up on the campus.
do you get your own ip address? or does everyone in the campus appear as one or a set range of addresses?
basically, xbox live might have issues. but lan play will be fine if your all plugged into the switch side of the router

Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks for the advice. My router apparently supports MAC Cloning so I set that up and everything looks good to go. Of course I now I'm playing a few games on XboxLive...you know, to make sure everything is working correctly. I'm not putting off studying for finals or anything.

In all seriousness though, thanks for the help. I figured I couldn't have thought of everything.

ppe1700 said:

inside your suit? like in your suit pockets?

Click to expand...

Oh Gosh darn it (since I can't swear)
One of those words that just makes you

Anyway, I like the mac cloning idea, but then you still have to make sure that the signal strength is not high at all.
Always assume the worst. These IT guys may have a couple of Cantennas laying around

First of all what you are doing is against your school rules, you should remove the router and comply with their terms of service!

Issius said:

An email got sent out saying that wireless routers aren't allowed and the ports they are connected to will be isolated if they are found. (This was due to the complaint)

In response to this, I changed the SSID, disabled broadcast, set the router to only allow the four mac addresses of the computers in my room.
The router is a Linksys btw. One of the standard ones in stores and its wireless-N.

Click to expand...

On our campus network there is little to anything that students can do to hide the fact that they are running a wireless access point. If they are found to be running one, they are warned and have their ports disabled for a week. Found again and they go before our student conduct board. From past cases one student was even expelled for what he did on our campus network.

VinnyTAMU said:

First of all what you are doing is against your school rules, you should remove the router and comply with their terms of service!



On our campus network there is little to anything that students can do to hide the fact that they are running a wireless access point. If they are found to be running one, they are warned and have their ports disabled for a week. Found again and they go before our student conduct board. From past cases one student was even expelled for what he did on our campus network.

Click to expand...

Amen to that Vinny