router/switch/hub for dorm?

Anyone have any experience with running somw kind of switch in their dorm that limits you to one ethernet connection?

I had a friend try to use a switch last year and it was a no go (not sure the technical reason for it not working though).

I have to register the MAC address of each item I want to use on their network. Currently I have a 360, bluray and my pc that i have to get under my desk and swap out cables for every time.

I've got my laptop sharing it's LAN connection over wifi so I can do wireless printing, but that's about all that seems to support. Tried using my iphone off it and it doesn't want to download apps with it so I know I can't play XBL off it.

Ideally I'd like to be able to use a wireless router so I can run my iphone off it (I keep going over my data since there's no wifi except in the classrooms).

any ideas?

 

You should buy a (wireless) router- connect it to one of the computers that is already MAC-registered, clone the MAC so that the router would seem to be this computer (there's a "clone MAC" button so in the router's menu so it's not by any means complicated).

Then all your devices on LAN would acquire private IPs of your LAN and all would work at the same time.

 

I have the same type of scenario at my college, and that is precisely what I did

 

could I use multiple devices at once and/or wifi with this setup? just hide my ssid i suppose..

any router recommendations? I was thinking of picking up an Airport Extreme since theyre supposed to be pretty painless, but they are $160...

 

If you run one, run the wifi power at min, otherwise, it's easily traceable (physical location).

 

Somethin I should know to do, but would have otherwise forgotten

Thanks

 

For the router recommendation, it depends on what features you want. Do you for example have 5GHz compatible equipment, if yes do you plan on running both a network on 5GHz and one on 2.4GHz. What kind of throughput do you need and what devices will you be connecting?

The airport extreme is a very high end router along with the Linksys E4200, the netgear equivalent (WRN 3700?) of that linksys and the Asus RT-N56U to name a few. Any of those routers will more than suit your needs and oyu may not need all of their features in which case you could buy a less expensive router.

 

You can use as many devices as you want.

Who cares?

 

Many colleges in the States ban students from having their own networking equipment in university-owned dorms and apartments. A lot of these universities also have contentment IT that follow and enforce the rules strictly, so it's sometimes necessary to hide a router from them.

 

What will be connected:
- My laptop (has a basic Intel Centrino 1000 2.4Ghz wireless N card). Will mostly be used for surfing, youtube, NBR, and the occasional round of StarCraft..
- Xbox 360 slim (wireless N capable, but will probably be wired until I move to my apartment) for XBL
- Using my iPhone 4S on the wifi
- Sony BluRay will be wired, used for streaming Hulu+ also

So while I don't currently have any 5Ghz gear, I'm long overdue for a new laptop which I'll get a 5Ghz card for. So futureproofing=good

I want something that's going to be painless and relatively maintenance free. I've spent way to many hours working with the setup at my mom's house, so I'm determined to have mine effortless (note the difference between effortless and dummy-proof )

this.. we're not supposed to have them, but there are plenty of them around. I assume as long as I dont interfere with the school's network stuff, I'll be ok..

 

Haha, well we're not suppose to have any hot plates either, but I have a mini-grill in my dorm room to make awesome sandwiches. Thankfully, the RAs at my college are very chill and usually don't care about minor rule violations.

 

I live in the on-campus apartments so we techinically have RA's, but i've never seen nor heard from mine lol.. We have kitchenettes but no oven, and only two tiny electric burners. So I bought a George Foreman Grill and my gf bought a smallish toaster/convection oven.

What they dont know wont hurt them

Luckily I've got my budget worked out to be able to live in an apartment across the street from campus next school year. Parking garage, all staineless appliances (including oven, fridge, washer/dryer, microwave, dishwasher).. It's going to be heaven lol. I'm so tired of having roommates! Mostly because I haven't met anyone who can keep up with my cleanliness standards..

 

Unfortunate to hear about the roommate situation. I thought, "screw it" and asked for a random roommate with the only restriction that he doesn't smoke and won't touch my stuff (without asking; I'm more than happy to share the bigger stuff, just ask me ). I was lucky to not only get a clean and nice person, but was also surprised that he lives in the town right next to mine.

Cool thing about the situation at my college is that during fire inspection, our RA told us that we could hide our stuff under towels or blankets and the RA/fire inspector cannot lift them up.

 

yeah, same here. they inspect the rooms during long breaks, so we can put our stuff in a box or drawer and they're not allowed to open up the stuff.

 

I don't think my college does that over breaks, as we're usually warned ahead of time for fire inspection. I currently have my grill sitting in it's box somewhere in the dorm, so I'm not sure if it's covered up with something or not. Not sure if they're legally allowed to open boxed either...

 

Yeah, idk.. I'm sure they could come to you and "ask" that you open then box if they were really that concerned..

Hmmmmm.. I have the idea of spending money on a router burning a whole in my pocket. I need to pick one I really dont want to go to bestbuy to buy one either. I hate that place. So hopefully i can order with my amazon prime account and get it cheaper and in a day or two.

once I pick one could check online to see if my local walmart or target has one I guess..

We used to have a "Tech"nology Store on campus that was pretty competitively priced, but they closed up shop and only operate through their crappy website..

the more I look at the $160 price tag of some of these routers, the more I'm thinking I shouldn't spend that much on one lol.. we got any ideas in the sub $80 range?

 

A good wireless N router, it doesn't need to be dual band since you don't have gear that can take advantage of the relatively unused 5GHz band. I'd recommend going with as Linksys, Netgear or Asus. I heard TP-Link has a few good ones too. I don't have recommendations in that price range, i tend to get higher end stuff, but i'm certain downloads can provide a few good ones. I personally forked $160 for a linksys E3000 and i don't regret it, but i do make full use of it's dual band capabilities. It's nice for once to have excellent throughput on wireless for streaming from computer to computer and for file transfer.

This one looks good at first glance: Newegg.com - NETGEAR WNR3500L-100NAS Wireless-N Router RangeMax Opensource 802.11b/g/n up to 300Mbps/ DD-WRT Open Source support/ USB x1.

 

well, lets see if we can come up with an upper bracket and loer bracket (for price)

upper ($160)
- Apple Airport Extreme
- Netgear 750
- ASUS RT-N56U
- Linksys E4200

Lower ($80)
- Netgear WNR3500L-100NAS
- TP-Link TL-WR1043ND

 

I highly recommend TP-Link TL-WR1043ND which costs $55 on Amazon and is a very good mid-range router with no serious drawbacks and a good price-tag.

I've recommended it to other users which went well and I finally bought it myself instead of the Netgear WNR3500L or WNDR3700.

 

If you're really pressed for cash, why not pick up this Rosewill unit from Newegg? Basic wireless-N router for $30. If you need the extra features, I would imagine loading a FOSS firmware such as Tomato shouldn't be too hard.

 

Wow, that's pretty weird. It can't be that many colleges that have a policy like that. But wouldn't they be able to tell that a router is connected to their network anyway?

 

I wouldn't call it pressed for cash lol.. I could easily pick up every router on the list just to pass out to my neighbors to test each one. But idk that I realistically want to spend $160 on a router when I also am going to pick up a new 7.1 surround sound system for my room. And I ended up buying pearl earrings for my gf for our anniversary next month. Plus I have to pick up MW3, BF3, and Halo Anniversary in the coming weeks.

hmmmmm decisions, decisions, decisions...

p.s. not trying to brag or anything. I'm living off student loans and the money I had saved for a new laptop lol..



continuing the discussion........ currently I'm leaning towards the ASUS.

 

It is actually very hard to flash any 3rd party firmware on this unit. Apparently only DD-WRT works and that's only if you open the unit and wire in the serial port ans so on.

 

Ah, didn't know that.

 

What about running a different fw on a Linksys E1000? I've got a spare one now that's not being used. It'll hopefully be a decent placeholder to run until I get some 5Ghz compatible gear..

Never really read too much into 3rd party fw before. Is it just like updating to a Linksys fw through the routers web page?

Do I need different firmware? What's the benefit?

 

Linksys' own firmware is good enough- so while 3rd party firmware can be of use if you need specific features you shouldn't just flash it blindly because someone said it's better.
In reality there are lots of trade-offs with 3rd party firmwares and while these can be very useful it's worth doing only if stock firmware is rubbish or doesn't have certain settings that you need.

That said you can use 3rd party firmware on E1000 and the router itself is a decent one.

 

I'm running my E3000 on stock firmware and it's performance is actually very good. I get high throughput even for a 5GHz N network, i'd say to stick to the stock firmware. Do not use the easy configuration option, configure through the web based interface. It'll take you 15 minutes, but you'll be able to secure your network properly like disabling access to the router settings through wireless.

 

yeah, I popped in that easy config cd just for fun when I originally got the router at my mom's place. It was pretty straightforward, but it named my network something ridiculous and forced me to have a guest network.. I dont recall having any problems with it (just with AT&T's crappy 2wire router) so hopefully i'll get it going to suit my needs.

goals with this router:
- have xbox, and bulray hooked up to it for non-simultaneous use
- have laptop, printer and phone on wireless. gotta quit going over my 2gb data lol.

hoping that my speeds dont slow to crawl after this..

 

Speeds will largely depend on the amount of AP and routers near you and the channel your set to. you can download a program called inSSIDer to see what networks are in range of your computer and plan accordingly. I would set your netowrk on channel 1 6 or 11 whichever is less crowded.

 

already have inSSIDer 2.0 from a while back.

channel x # of ssid's on it
1x 1
2x 1
4x 1
6x 3
8x 1
11x 6

 

Then, i'd hop on channel one and you should be good to go. I pity the people on channel 11...

 

You should pity me. 10 people on channel 11 including myself.

 

Haha, well my 2.4GHz situation is only slightly better, i'm the only one on 5GHz though .

 

I was hanging out in the interior design building with my gf while she finished a project the other day. pulled up inSSIDer for funsies and there was an Apple router on the 5Ghz band. only one i've ever seen on campus. wonder who gets to use it...... classrooms always have the fastest internet

 

I second the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND. Its what I use and what I recommend to others. Its pretty cheap and it is an amazing router.

 

got the e1000 set up.. there wasn't a place to lower the broadcasting range/power.. set up to not show ssid though. cloned my laptops MAC address. all seems to be working well!

thanks for everything everyone

 

Also a suggestion - make it so it does not broadcast SSID but that you can connect it to regardless via the setting "connect even though not broadcasting."

 

I'd go for one of D-LINK.. got really mad first, but after carefully reading some instructions it went really easy IMO