Making My Dorm Room Ethernet Port Wireless

[popinjay]

hi,

In my dorm room there are 4 ethernet jacks. Can someone please, if possible, help me setup a wireless router so my roomies and I can have wireless connection in our room?

 

[Soybomb]

Just go to best buy, get a wireless router, plug one of your ethernet jacks into the wan port on the router. Now connect all your computers to the lan ports. Use the routers web based administration tool (read the book for its address) to configure the router's IP address if its static. If you guys get dynamically assigned IP's its probably already setup for that. Now is also the time to tweak your security such as enabling WEP, setting up MAC address filtering, and disabling your broadcast ID. (not all routers will do all these things, do as many as possible though). Be sure all your computers are set to dhcp/automatically assigned addresses. Reboot, surf in blass.

Have you got a router yet? It shouldn't be hard to setup. You might also double check your college's policy on wireless access points and routers to be sure you're not violating any rules too.

 

[popinjay]

Thank you! Soybomb! actually we wanted to make sure that a normal router would do the job. But then, will our connection speed all slow down because we will essentially be sharing 1 jack?

 

[toant103]

Originally posted by: popinjay
Thank you! Soybomb! actually we wanted to make sure that a normal router would do the job. But then, will our connection speed all slow down because we will essentially be sharing 1 jack?

Yes. PLus, if it's wireless, everyone will share the same bandwidth.

 

[Garion]

Yes, you're sharing the bandwidth, but you'll probably never notice. Several people can share a single 11 Mb/s connection without any problem. You might notice some slightly slower transfer times between PC's, but that's really a issue with the wireless in general, not that you're sharing a jack.

There is one thing that could be an issue. Some campuses have bandwidth meters and limits on each network port - IE, you might only get 1 GB of file transfer per month, or your upload speed might be limited to 56Kb/s. Four people will obviously fill that up a lot quicker than one person per jack.

I'd ask around, and talk to the campus helpdesk (there's always one out there somewhere). Don't tell them what you are thinking of doing, with the wireless, but ask them about the network connections to each jack - Is it limited, metered, or monitored in any way? Do they enforce the one-computer-per-jack rule? If the answer is no, then go for it with your wireless. If you get a yes to either, think carefully, as you might end up regretting spending the $300+ on the router and wireless cards.

One last note - If you DO get this, be sure to enable some of the security features, preferably the MAC address filtering. It would be pretty easy for someone to hook onto your wireless network and use your bandwidth or do a bit of hacking on the side - If it was traced back to your port, you could have some very serious explaining to do..

- G

 

[popinjay]

What if we buy a wireless LAN access point, not a router? will our connection be on air if we use just an access point?