Dealing With College's Network Security

[catch22713]

I go to a small engineering college in Manhattan and they are very serious about network security. I dorm there and there is only one ethernet port per room and they register a single MAC address for each port, so that only your one, specific computer can get online through it. It looks like I might be getting a Wii or some sort of video game system in the next month and I would obviously like to play online. I would love to just get a wireless AP in the form of a USB dongle and go from there, but they have a rule against using any sort of wireless router or such. I was wondering how easy it would be for them to detect the solution I was thinking about above, or if it would work to install an additional NIC and connect to the internet through the computer already there. It seems like there has to be a way of letting additional devices to connect through this one port, but I'm not sure how and I'm concerned about it not being easily detectable. Any advice/suggestions?

[silentscream]

usb ethernet adaptor

its wat i use for networking in strange situations

google it

.

[catch22713]

I thought about that. Since it is a piece of networking hardware, shouldn't it have a MAC address? And if it does, will that be problematic, considering only the single MAC address, belonging to my computer's NIC, is allowed to connect to the network?

[silentscream]

not sure if the vpn will let the mac show through

havent researched the subject

there are ppl on here that will know though

but it works great for internet sharing and the like

(stops me needing another cat5 running from my router when i want my laptop and pc online in the same room )

.

[Toco]

on most routers have mac address clone. it has tricked my college's network. we are not that strict but each mac address gets assigned an ip address and i was able to get my computers ip address with my router.

also have you tried contacting tech support or asking upperclassman because they tend to know all the tricks to networking at school

[catch22713]

The tricky thing about this is that not that many people dorm, ever, so, yeah, I'm going to try to ask an upperclassman, but it will be hard to find one that has dormed. They're really security freaks at the school, so I'm a little concerned about asking any sort of admin people because I think they'll be able to figure out what I'm doing really easily which may in turn lead to me getting in trouble.

[Toco]

unhook your computer and hook it up to the router and mirror your mac address and then hook it into the wall. i doubt you could get in to much trouble. also at my school they can detect bridging i guess

you could email tech support and ask how you to hook up a game console. don't mention anything about hooking up a router.

[sempaii]

I'd try cloning your PC's MAC address to the router, you should be fine doing that.

[GrAfFiT]

Assuming your computer is not already NATed on your school network, use your computer as a NAT gateway (add a network card).

[SavantEdge]

If you put up a wireless network, then they can easily find it, even if you turn off SSID Broadcast (though they might be too lazy...but do you want to bet on their laziness?). Your best bet is to get a cheap router (you can get a wireless router and turn off the wireless AP feature) and either tell it to use your computer's MAC, or just try and get your NetOps people to change the MAC attached to your room.

But honestly? I'm _sure_ your college has dealt with video game consoles before, and so I'm sure they have a solution for you if you'd just ask. Why try to hide from them before you've even found out if they'll help/cooperate? First step would be to ask, I would think.