Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


lchiu7

6475 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#230562 1-Mar-2018 17:59
Send private message

I am going to be careful here what I say since it might be a T&C issue.

 

A friend's son in in a university hostel and the only Internet is wired.  As an aside that's not very friendly since this current generation are into phones, tablets etc with WiFi only.

 

Luckily the son does have a desktop with ethernet so he can access the net. But he wants to use his phone and tablet also. So we tried connecting a router to the port and create a small WiFi access point. It worked for a bit then stopped.  We did see that when he connected his desktop it asked for a logon first and then from that time on, no further prompts occurred.

 

So I am guessing the university router is authenticating his logon and then his PC and the router cannot authenticate? So they turned on some authentication and it stopped working?

 

The router is a TP Link running Gargoyle so there is some flexibility in its configuration.

 

Theoretically, is there a way he can use the router and have WiFi or is he stuck having to use 4G?

 

Thanks





Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2 | 3
kyhwana2
2566 posts

Uber Geek


  #1966689 1-Mar-2018 18:03
Send private message

If it's a web portal logon, there probably isn't an easy way around that with the router.

 

 

You could buy a USB wifi dongle and use Windows connection sharing between the wired connection and the wifi dongle. (If it's OS X, i'm sure it probably has something similar, but i've never used it)

 




Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1966734 1-Mar-2018 19:00
Send private message

You won't be directly connected to the router, it will be connected to some sort of switch, and it's probable that the switch at the far end is limiting the number of devices that can connect, this is pretty standard for enterprise level networks.





I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.


michaelmurfy
meow
13243 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator
ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1966738 1-Mar-2018 19:07
Send private message

There shouldn't be any reason he couldn't just NAT it. Normally it is PPPoE (Christchurch halls) or DHCP with a page.

 

In the Christchurch halls you used to be able to sign up with Snap (now 2degrees) a normal internet plan and use that over it. I don't know if that policy has been changed.





Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.




bagheera
539 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #1966741 1-Mar-2018 19:09
Send private message

lchiu7:

 

 

 

A friend's son in in a university hostel and the only Internet is wired.  As an aside that's not very friendly since this current generation are into phones, tablets etc with WiFi only.

 

 

 

 

to set up a wifi that can do 100+ people that does not stop working with that many people on it and using it would not be cheap or easy to do, with the budget hostel has, I can easily see why it wired only. As soon as you get over 10 devices thing get alot harder to do for wifi.


yitz
2075 posts

Uber Geek


  #1966761 1-Mar-2018 19:42
Send private message

Have you tried the 'clone MAC' function on the router? Not sure if it is all that common anymore but no doubt your custom firmware router is likely to provide that option.

 

 

I'm surprised the main campus Wi-Fi coverage does not extend to the halls of residence.

lchiu7

6475 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1966798 1-Mar-2018 22:12
Send private message

Lias:

 

You won't be directly connected to the router, it will be connected to some sort of switch, and it's probable that the switch at the far end is limiting the number of devices that can connect, this is pretty standard for enterprise level networks.

 

 

So it's detecting that from one port, there should only be one device? The room has two ethernet ports and it appears both are live. So I wonder if he could direct connect his PC to one of the ports and the router to the other. The router would only have one connection even though it has 4 LAN ports, since it would only be acting as an AP?

 

We did the USB WiFi setup and that works fine but it means he has to leave his PC on all the time when he wants his WiFi devices to work. These include an Amazon Dot so it's a bit messy





Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


Lias
5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #1966818 1-Mar-2018 23:22
Send private message

lchiu7:

 

Lias:

 

You won't be directly connected to the router, it will be connected to some sort of switch, and it's probable that the switch at the far end is limiting the number of devices that can connect, this is pretty standard for enterprise level networks.

 

 

So it's detecting that from one port, there should only be one device? The room has two ethernet ports and it appears both are live. So I wonder if he could direct connect his PC to one of the ports and the router to the other. The router would only have one connection even though it has 4 LAN ports, since it would only be acting as an AP?

 

We did the USB WiFi setup and that works fine but it means he has to leave his PC on all the time when he wants his WiFi devices to work. These include an Amazon Dot so it's a bit messy

 

 

Maybe.. If they also have some form of captive portal that will make it harder. Out of curiosity has your son tried talking to the hostel/university IT services?





I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.


 
 
 

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).
wellygary
8321 posts

Uber Geek


  #1966876 2-Mar-2018 08:43
Send private message

lchiu7:

 

We did the USB WiFi setup and that works fine but it means he has to leave his PC on all the time when he wants his WiFi devices to work. These include an Amazon Dot so it's a bit messy

 

 

If there are two ports, then what about getting a raspberry pi or other cheap compute stick and set that up to run 24/7 as an wireless AP


lchiu7

6475 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1966900 2-Mar-2018 09:37
Send private message

wellygary:

lchiu7:


We did the USB WiFi setup and that works fine but it means he has to leave his PC on all the time when he wants his WiFi devices to work. These include an Amazon Dot so it's a bit messy



If there are two ports, then what about getting a raspberry pi or other cheap compute stick and set that up to run 24/7 as an wireless AP



That's a good idea. I'll confirm that both ports are active and if so then get the Pi. But even if not he could leave the Pi on all the time and use WiFi on his desktop unless he wanted really fast access when he could then plug in the desktop directly.




Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


lchiu7

6475 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1966901 2-Mar-2018 09:38
Send private message

Lias:

lchiu7:


Lias:


You won't be directly connected to the router, it will be connected to some sort of switch, and it's probable that the switch at the far end is limiting the number of devices that can connect, this is pretty standard for enterprise level networks.



So it's detecting that from one port, there should only be one device? The room has two ethernet ports and it appears both are live. So I wonder if he could direct connect his PC to one of the ports and the router to the other. The router would only have one connection even though it has 4 LAN ports, since it would only be acting as an AP?


We did the USB WiFi setup and that works fine but it means he has to leave his PC on all the time when he wants his WiFi devices to work. These include an Amazon Dot so it's a bit messy



Maybe.. If they also have some form of captive portal that will make it harder. Out of curiosity has your son tried talking to the hostel/university IT services?



Might be against policy so not at the moment 😉




Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


trig42
5810 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

  #1966910 2-Mar-2018 09:52
Send private message

Surely if you get it going, they will notice a WiFi network pop up?

 

Are you going to Hide the SSID (though, they'd still see it)?


noroad
949 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

  #1966985 2-Mar-2018 11:39
Send private message

I would guess they are limiting mac addresses on the port to one. Just put a standard wifi router on it and then use bog standard nat on the router, that way you only present one MAC upstream. Any "UFB" router (with tagging disabled) should do the trick.


lchiu7

6475 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1967010 2-Mar-2018 12:27
Send private message

noroad:

I would guess they are limiting mac addresses on the port to one. Just put a standard wifi router on it and then use bog standard nat on the router, that way you only present one MAC upstream. Any "UFB" router (with tagging disabled) should do the trick.



The problem is you have to login to the router which might then store the client MAC address.

So the router is going to present a different MAC address and it won't authenticate.




Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


yitz
2075 posts

Uber Geek


  #1967030 2-Mar-2018 13:25
Send private message

lchiu7: So the router is going to present a different MAC address and it won't authenticate.

 

 

In which case use the clone MAC address function on your router, this duplicates the MAC address of the desktop onto the WAN interface of your router. As alluded to above though, there may be a captive portal authentication mechanism on top of this based on HTTP cookies which may or may not work depending on the setup. Still, worth a try.

 

 

In any case I would ask around, there has to be some sort of common Wi-Fi connection available, with so much course work hosted on a learning management system (LMS) these days it is something I would expect for a university endorsed hostel.

 

 


lchiu7

6475 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1967035 2-Mar-2018 13:34
Send private message

yitz:
lchiu7: So the router is going to present a different MAC address and it won't authenticate.


In which case use the clone MAC address function on your router, this duplicates the MAC address of the desktop onto the WAN interface of your router. As alluded to above though, there may be a captive portal authentication mechanism on top of this based on HTTP cookies which may or may not work depending on the setup. Still, worth a try.

In any case I would ask around, there has to be some sort of common Wi-Fi connection available, with so much course work hosted on a learning management system (LMS) these days it is something I would expect for a university endorsed hostel.



No WiFi in the living areas, only in the common area.

Might try the cloning but if that falls through maybe a Pi if it can login to the portal or else use Windows connection sharing which works for the moment




Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


 1 | 2 | 3
View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.