Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Okay, so I was debating on whether or not to write this one, but I have decided that I should. Now, I'm not saying that I have a wireless router or anything. It's just that a lot of people have been asking me why they can't have one and that they wish they could have wireless internet in their dorms but the Universities "wireless" doesn't reach into their apartment, forcing them to use the dreadful Ethernet cable :( This makes us "on the go" college students very limited in how mobile we can be with our lovely computers.

This guide is also for those who can set up a wireless router with little to no effort. You need to be able to password protect it and know how to name it.

So, I'll try to keep it as simple as I can and explain how you can setup and maintain a wireless router in your apartment. I must warn you though, if you get caught and your internet gets shut down, don't complain to me. This is just for informational purposes and I am in no way suggesting that you do it.

Now that that is out of the way, lets get to how to actually do this.

First, you'll need a wireless router that is capable of changing the MAC (Media Access Control) address. Most routers these days are capable of this, so you don't really need to worry.

They usually come with a "setup" disc. Don't worry about this...it only really complicates things. Look at the user manual and find out what the IP address of your specific router is.

We'll use a Netgear router for our example:

First open up your favorite web browser and type in the IP address of the router, this most likely being a 192.168.1.1 address, into the address bar of the web browser. You will then be prompted to insert the host name and password of the router to connect to it. Once this is done your screen should look as follows:



Take a look a the bottom where it says "Router MAC Address"

This is what defines the router as a router and this is how the university knows that you have a router running. Which, in turn, disables your internet :)

You're going to want to change this to the MAC address of your computer. To do this, go to "Start" (for Windows users) and search for "cmd prompt"

Then, type in "ipconfig /all" and hit Enter.
You should see something like this:



Look at the one labeled "Ethernet Adapter" and then go to the line that says "Physical Address". This is your computers MAC address. In this case, it is "00-A0-C9-5D-1A-C7"

Take your computers MAC address go back to your routers page. Go to "Use this MAC address" and type in the digits you just found.

Doing this will make your router appear as a computer on the schools network, therefore not identifying itself as a router. :)

Another thing you will want to do is go to the "Wireless Settings" page:



Go to where it says "Allow broadcast of name (SSID)" and UNCHECK this. This will make your network not appear to those around you and in order to find it you will have to know the exact name of it and it's password.

Like I said, you shouldn't do this if you don't know exactly what you are doing as you could find yourself with no internet and having to go to the Technology center to get it fixed!

I'm glad I could inform you though...enjoy.

2 comments:

Matthew said...

I can still access it.

Anonymous said...

Bobby, you're a flat out genius! I had to hook up my own internet and everything, and I'm just glad I barely managed to that! Haha.

KUDOS BOBERT! ;)

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