Wireless Dorm Rooms

Iam currently staying at a dorm with 3 other friends and my dorm only has a single internet line connection which we must share together and that is not really nice. Iam planning to share the single internet line through wireless so we can access the internet together from our own laptops anywhere in our rooms. How do I make that happen? I also have to protect so only the 4 of us can use the internet acess and the other guys on other rooms dont. Do I have to buy a router? And what type of router should I buy (If any of you guys have reccomendation, it would be very great for me). Iam also a newbie at wireless networking. Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

Yes you need a wireless router, I would recommend the Linksys WRT54G or GS, both are very good.. D-Link routers are very inconsistent but I've had very good experience with Linksys Routers..

basically you just take 1 cable from the single internet line.. and connect it to the router.. this will broadcast the connection wirelessly so anyone can connect to it

if you don't want other to use it you go into the configuration of the router and set a network key so when you connect to the router you have to enter the key to be allowed access

 

Is it hard to configure the Linksys WRT54G to be used? Because I have no idea on networking so it might be hard for me. Or do I just simply plug an ethernet cable from the wall outlet to the router then it's all set? How many laptop can use this internet connection if Iam using this router? Thanks

 

Basically, you are gonna be attaching a ethernet cable from the cable modem or whatever modem you have and it will go directly into the internet port in the router. Then you can add other connections through wired or wireless. Since you want wireless, you have to go through the router's IP address (it will list it in the directions) and enable the security feature that you want. Easy.

 

If you want to not have others use the signal, one of the best ways is to HIDE the network name - called "disable SSID broadcast". If the network can't be seen no one will try to use it. Before you hide it though, change the default name. Linksys defaults to ..... you guessed it ... linksys.

 

In addition, you can enter the MAC address of each network adapter in the router setup, so that only you and your friends can connect to the router. Some people say that things like hiding the SSID or using access control through MAC addresses are easy to hack but I wouldn't worry about that too much. I doubt that your dorm is full of people who want to hack into your network and it's not as easy as some people say. If you are concerned about that, you can use WPA encryption, which is the best way to limit access to a wireless network.

 

Go to the trouble and setup the WPA security. It would take anyone with the built in wireless config to pick up the mac address. And a simple utility to change his mac address. Maybe 30 sec of time. That is what routers do when you clone your mac add to router, that some ISP require. Your biggest problem would be finding a channel that does not conflict with other in the dorm. And there will be many.

 

What if I want to set passwords for those notebooks that are going to use wireless internet access? How do I do that? I think that's the most sufficient thing to do to limit the access from other people in other rooms.. And linksys provides a software in it, in which computer do I have to install that software? Do I have to install the software in every single notebook that wants to be connected to the internet access or is it any notebook? Sorry for all of my stupid questions and all of your help was very helpful.

 

-EquinoX-, basically Fred from NYC told you how to ensure that your small netowrk will be secure. I don't think that you will be able to use a password to restrict access to that router (frankly, I haven't even heard of a home router offering such a feature). The software you are reffering to may be something that has to do with actually setting up the router. So it will be your choice if all the people in your network will have access to this software or only some of them. Also, you may find that some software might not work properly. Check out www.portforward.com to learn how to get such software to properly run on all machines behind the router. Good Luck!

 

nicolin that's incorrect.. I currently have a password to restrict access to that router running on my home network! Anyways here's a small tutorial on setting up a wireless network:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2003/03/21/home_wifi.html

However I don't think you'll need it, everything will said in the user manual for the Linksys WRT54G and yes it is very easy to configure! If you're on the router I think you can have a maximum of 10-ish laptops however htere are hacks (which you probably don't need) that can allow for more

 

All modern wireless routers have the feature to set a password.

 

And do I need to know the IP address of all sorts of thing? Because in my dorm there's no modem but there's only a wall outlet which is connected to a network cable and we just have to plug the other end of the network cable to our laptop.

 

Possibly. It's also quite likely that the school won't allow an access point like that, so be prepared to be shut down.
Did you get instructions for configuring a single computer on that connection? You'll want to configure the router to be similar to that. You may have to mirror the MAC address, or set a static IP.

 

The school allows me to do that but Iam still confused with all of that stuff that I have to set.

 

what school do you go to? Most colleges do not allow on campus personal wifi networks.

If your school does in fact allow this, they should have plenty of resources on setting it up every easily.

 

Amazing...a school that allows wifi in dorms..I only get wifi in the common room. Anyways, you need to have the wire from the ethernet port to go to the routers main connection(seperate from the 4 connections). Since you dont have a desktop connected(or do you?). It will go ethernet cable, then router.

 

Really? My University could care less if you had your own personal wifi network. It even has its own wifi network that covers almost the entire campus and any student can use it. As well as a seperate wireless network for the dorms. Almost every dorm room has a wireless router, so the dorms have a lot of wireless congestion.


-EquinoX- if you haven't already bought a router i would consider going for a higher end router. I have not tried the linksys that was suggested, but i have heard it recommended several times so i can safely assume it is a good choice. My personal recommendation would be for the D-link DGL-4300, especially if any of your roommates do any gaming and/or downloading(bittorrent, filesharing, etc.). As was stated earlier, some of the D-link routers are inconsistant, specifically the cheaper models but the DGL-4300 is NOT! I have had it for about 5 months now and it has never crashed, or lost connection, and i have never had a single problem with it. It uses an Atheros wireless chipset, which is basically the best you can buy. It has an excellent range and will not drop a wireless connection. In addition to the basic router features it also features WPA2 encryption, MAC Address filtering, and more importantly if any of your roomies game or fileshare: GameFuel. In a nutshell it gives game traffic priority over other traffic; so if one roomie is running a filesharing app, it won't raise the ping(latency, lag, etc.) of another roommate trying to play a game online. In reality it works quite well.

No matter what router you do get the stronger the wireless on it, the easier it will be for the laptops to keep a connection to your router and not get drowned out by nearby access points.
Things you will want to do:
- Change (and/or hide) the SSID of the router
- Scan the nearby Access Points and change your router to a channel that is not being used or is only being used by a very weak access point.
- Enable WPA2 encryption, if one of the laptops is a Mac, use WPA, Mac's don't seem to co-operate with WPA2
- Enable MAC address filtering

To find the MAC Address of a laptop (on a WinXP computer)
Start>Run>Type "cmd">ok
Type "ipconfig /all"
Look at the Physical Address under Ethernet adapter Wireless Networking Connection​

- And lastly change the password for your router

If you don't know how to do any of these things you can tell us the model of your router and someone here should be able to walk you through it.

 

And that is why so many colleges dont allow it, and let certain parts of the campus to have the wifi access. The congestion causes conflicts, and then viruses and worms can cross over easily. Besides that, many colleges offer T3 connections, and thats plenty enough for me .

 

@skierjs
thanks a lot for your help, Iam acutally living with friends who doesn't play games with their laptop so I think linksys is a good choice because the price itself is not too high and it has good quality. My dorm room is not very big, I maybe using the wireless 7-10 meter away from the router so I think it would be fine. After I buy the linksys router will the step by step guide on the installation CD be fine to guide me all through??

 

Yes, you normally should NOT have any problems.

 

We have both, but i haven't heard of any large problems with worms and viruses though. The Campus WiFi network covers literally the entire campus(it isn't a small campus either), you would have a hard time finding a hallway or classroom that doesn't have wifi coverage. Its very handing especially when you need to do some studying on campus. As for the speed, i'm not sure how fast a T3 is exactly but i know some people in the dorms get download speeds in the 10-15Mb/s range when most people arn't on the internet.

It should guide you through most of it for sure, if you have any other questions someone here should be able to help you.

 

Actually, if you're having difficult setting it up and need IMMEDIATE assistance, just call the linksys tech support, wait time is usually around 1 to 2 minutes and they're pretty helpful. First time I wanted to set up password, hide SSID...etc, I had no clue where to go or what to do, so I just called the 800 number and they stayed on the phone w/ me til the end.

 

That would be great, where is the cheapest place to buy the linksys? Best buy is selling one for $50.00, is that like the cheapest where I can buy? Any reccomendation from you guys?

 

Office Depot sometimes have sales on Linksys routers, such nearing 30.00USD. BTW, the D-Link line has gotten better and are a fine line of cheap routers aswell. (I envy that you can have wifi in the dorms hehe)

 

Office depot sells for the same price also, which is $50.00. Yes I've checked to other rooms and they're also putting some wi-fi in their rooms. Iam still scared of setting up my router, afraid that it will screw up the whole thing.