Campus Network Trouble

[Namic56]

Hello, I am a student at a liberal arts college in Iowa. The college that I am attending has some strangely strict regulations for their network. We are not allowed to have the following connected to their ports: Desktop Computer, Xbox, or Router.



The way our college works is, you are issued a laptop for 2 years where you then turn that one in and get a newer model. The entire campus is wireless (even outside in the open grassy area) except for the dorms. Keep in mind that none of these wireless spots have any encryption what so ever on them.



In my room our ports are in one corner of the room with the desks on the other. They supply us with Ethernet cables, but they are not long enough to reach my room mates desk on the far side of the room. So I set up a router in the middle of the room on the side of the wall to eliminate the 15ft cord going through the middle of the room and this way it allowed me to have my Xbox and desktop plugged in at the same time.



I came back from class today and noticed that my internet was down, so I figured it must be a network thing, wrong, the room next door had access as well as the room next to that, as well as port B in my room (because I took the precaution of making sure one of the ports wasn’t used in case of something like this and then I would have a backup source of internet.) So then I called tech support and they said that they did a port scan and found that I had a router plugged in. They didn’t mention the desktop or the Xbox (which were both turned on and online) being on. I challenged their methods and said I would like to keep my router, who do I need to speak to? So now tomorrow at 8AM I have a phone meeting the VP of Tech on campus as how to settle this situation.



So finally, here is my question to all of you. What should I do in case she shoots me down and tells me no way?



So far I have thought of these solutions,



A) Get a hub, since that’s all my router is acting as I might as well try that. Because a hub doesn’t interact with the data, it just splits it up. So then I’m assuming that when they do another port scan that hub wouldn’t be detected right?

B) Then if I would get this hub working, I might then be detected with my desktop on the port scan correct? Would hooking my desktop up to my laptop with a PCMCIA lan card and do internet connect sharing make it seem as though it was just one computer, the laptop, accessing the internet? If not, would there be a way to clone my desktop computer to look like another campus laptop during their port scan?



If you could please answer my questions and think of a better way to deal with this, please let me know! I need my desktop to work on my video projects which this slow IBM thinkpad T42 could never handle! I also need my xbox to relieve stress from me working on the projects.



This is also a side problem with the Xboxes; there are about 100 of us who enjoy playing Xbox on the LAN. So if they start to shut down ports because of that, there will be a lot of angry people! Also with my video editing, I do need the internet for that machine to get new program upgrades or new program demos that I can test, and virus protection updates.



Another side note, my own personal virus scanner is a hell of a lot better than the campus wide one. So they have nothing to worry about!



THANKS!

[z1p]

Hello Namic56,

Helping someone bypass the rules of their ISP or in this case school is not something which we do on this site, but I will address some of your questions and maybe you can be better prepared to sway the VP.

A)Get a hub, since that’s all my router is acting as I might as well try that. Because a hub doesn’t interact with the data, it just splits it up. So then I’m assuming that when they do another port scan that hub wouldn’t be detected right? That is correct.
B)Then if I would get this hub working, I might then be detected with my desktop on the port scan correct? Would hooking my desktop up to my laptop with a PCMCIA lan card and do internet connect sharing make it seem as though it was just one computer, the laptop, accessing the internet? If not, would there be a way to clone my desktop computer to look like another campus laptop during their port scan? Yes, if you use a hub it would be the same as directly connecting to LAN and all devices would be visible.

If you could please answer my questions and think of a better way to deal with this, please let me know! I need my desktop to work on my video projects which this slow IBM thinkpad T42 could never handle! I also need my xbox to relieve stress from me working on the projects. If your video projects are part of your school work, it sounds like you could have a good case for allowing the desktop on the LAN. You may have to give a some control of your desktop to get this concession. Eventhough you think your AV is better that theirs, they will most likely want you to run theirs.

As far as the Xbox, they will most likely say play is single player.... They are paying for the internet access and bandwidth and I imagine they view it as being there for school tasks. This is most likely a battle you won't win, but you may want to think of options to present. If you go in being reasonable and show that you understand their concerns you may do better.

1) they could block the Xbox ports at the internet firewall, that way the traffic will only be on the LAN and not eat up bandwith to/from the internet.

2) depending on their infrastructure they may be able restrict xbox traffic to within a dorm or allow it outside the dorm only during specific hours. This way the impact on the school LAN will be minimal can be controlled.

If there are issues that they have that you don't have a solution to, you could always ask for a chance to look into a way to address their concern and have a follow up meeting.

The answer you get may turn out to be 'its our LAN and we decide waht can be on it, period', in that case you are out of luck.

BTW, if there are quite a few people playing xbox, pursuing the issue through the student council or something like that, may help.