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. THANKS!

Your desktop doesn't really need an internet connection to do a video project. I say the xbox is out. I think they have a right to manage the useage of the internet connection, their network, their rules. No kazaa, no limewire, no 24hr downloads, no rogue servers.

Fred's right. You just got the "warning" shot across the bows. Next time, they'll sink your ship (ie: you'll have no more internet period) so give some serious thought to what you're doing. They could do worse I'm sure. I'd be willing to bet it's totally within their power (and rights) to kick you out of school if you get caught breaking too many rules. They have policies in place for a reason and circumventing policies like this is never a good idea. Chances are, when you signed up with the college you also signed an agreement to abide by their rules and policies. You don't need to be online with your xbox or PC as Fred pointed out so grow up, behave like an adult and live within the limitations placed on you by the school. After all, you agreed to abide by their rules......

Excuse me, but I am acting as an adult. These "video projects" that I am talking about are for paying customers. I need to be online to make sure my software is up to date and to receive and files online that they would want to give me. And as for the Xbox, I don't want to be online, I want to be on the LAN where as there is a community of 100 of us on campus who play the Xbox on there. These might be rules, and ridiculous ones at that. They already have it set up to block all p2p applications and they regulate your amount of downloads, so I wouldn't be able to have a "server" or any "24hr downloads". I am trying to tell the school that these rules should be bent for different cases. They are worried about what you said, but as they have already blocked it with other methods, and my virus protection software is a hell of a lot better than theirs. I think it’s safe.

If the video projects are for 'paying' customers and not part of required school work then pay for your own separate account. Go off campus to do your updates and get your customer files. As for the xbox is it fair for you and your friends to load the network down and slow the network for the rest of the students. They could put game players on bandwidth limiting which would make your games unplayable.

And the school could be held liable for the things you do from you site on their network. There are LEGAL implications to what you suggest. They have more of right to protect themselves than you do to do what ever you want. If you thingk you're being "adult" about this situation then you have an awful lot of growing up to do. You seem to very selfish. You are not entitled to things just because you want them. "Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'" Charlie Brown.

I am not selfish seawatch, during the time of my absence from your ridiculous accusations, I have gone to the student senate, and ran around one day gathering signatures from 450 people who either wanted to play xbox on the lan or had a desktop computer that they used for professional purposes, we went to the president of our school with this, and after some debating with the president, the vp of tech, and some other students and I, they have finally allowed it after seeing that we aren't trying to "do something bad" or "hack", but they realize we are intelligent students who just happen to be running a side busines with yes, wizard fred, PAYING CUSTOMERS. And also, that would be a ridiculous idea to go to an offsite location and pay for another internet connection! So I leave this message board with the thoughts, that the rest of you need to grow up and instead of accusing me of doing wrong, you could have tried to steer me in the right direction, instead you flammed me and tried to make yourself look good.