Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Computers and Peripherals : Setting up a wireless network (at uni)

[rej1587]

Okay, in less than a couple days I'll be heading off to college. The dorm rooms in my hall all have a modem in there, but no wireless capabilities. Now, I'm under the assumption that I will just need to plug a router into the modem and I will be good to go. Routers come with installation cd's, but why should I need to install anything. My Macbook seems to pick up every signal around.

So, my question is, will it just work?

At home we have my old desktop as the host computer, but it seems silly that a host computer would be necessary if everyone on the network had laptops.

Now if I went to set a password up, I will need to install software?

[Vortex-Steve]

I think it's unlikely each room would have a modem in it. Surely it's just an ethernet port in the wall that you plug a network cable into? In which case any wifi access point would do the job... only problem would be what the college thinks about it. Probably wouldn't be too happy about you broadcasting an open connection to their network.

If you decided to encrypt the connection (good idea no matter what really) then you can just use built in software on your computer.

[rej1587]

No, there's a modem in each room. I've seen it myself.

Thanks for the info.

[ThatScriptGuy]

Some colleges don't mind broadcasting the signal, as long as you have it encrypted (mine, for example)

[dkitchen]

You should be able to use any standard broadband router really, whether it's an ethernet connection handing out IP's via DHCP (most universities use this), or an actual PPP modem connection.

Remember you will very likely have to register your MAC address, so be sure to use the one of the router and not your notebook. Also check with your Uni to make sure they allow usage of wireless equipment, many do not and will disconnect you if they find out.

You also need to remember IP addressing schemes. If they are dropping you a private IP on their side (most universites do) like 10.x.x.x for example, you cannot use 10.x.x.x locally, you need to use something different.

Dan

[rej1587]

Awesome, thanks and I'll try to remember all that .