Network troubles

[SquintRingo]

Hey, I need some help with some networking things I'm doing

First of all let me say that I'm in a college dorm, and I have 1 internet port (for the purposes of this question a port is a jack in the wall, an ethernet hook up) allotted to my room. Also, I have one IP address given to me. However, I would like to be able to have multiple devices (an xbox 360) set up to the internet at once. I know this is easily done with a router, but I don't have a router and also a router defeats my plans to not use up my own bandwith (yes I'm an asshole).

I do have a switch though, which effectively just increases the number of ports I have access to. So I hooked up my xbox to this but, unfortunately, the building gateway or router or whatever refuses to lease me an IP address for the xbox. So I manually set the xbox's IP address, by extrapolating from my own IP address. This worked fine for a while until my internet was shut down for IP hopping.

I believe they caught me through my MAC address. My internet is now back, and I would like to resume my consequence free downloading and gaming. My question is how do I do this so I am not caught. What can a network administrator see about my connection? Are the logs they keep of IP Hostname and MAC address tied to a physical ethernet port? If I were to change my MAC address (on the xbox) to that of another computers MAC address on the network, would an administrator be able to tell that the machine apparently moved from one room to another, or only that this machine is signing on? How can I obtain information about other people who are on the network (specifically hostname and MAC and matching IP) so I can pretend to be them?

I thought this might be useful: I changed the MAC address and Hostname of my computer, and then tried to renew my IP. The building router refused to lease me an IP. However, I was able to manually put in the old IP I had and everything works fine.

[Blunderboy]

Get a router. It will use your static IP address from your school and make it the default gateway and issue out its own IP addresses, giving you all the IP addresses you could need in a dorm. You just need a router and another cat5 or 6 cable. Most new routers come with a cat5 cable in it.

[VaKo]

You could use ICS under windows and hook your xbox into the network that way. Much harder to detect that a router unless you clone your desktop machines MAC address.

[Timmo]

grab an old pc from the local Tip (say 500Mhz) make it work. install a linux gatway router (say clark connect) have NAT working on it. make a lot of security setting on it. and there you are instant router just hide it under ur bed or something.

[PLuNK]

Masquerade your IP address to all your devices.

Or get a router, You can get some really good ones for under $50 AUD

[tp2000ng]

You could use ICS under windows and hook your xbox into the network that way. Much harder to detect that a router unless you clone your desktop machines MAC address.

How would you use ICS? Assuming you had a LAN connection from school, and you want to share that connection to wireless devices, like another computer or phone. how would you do it? and is there a way the school can block ICS so that you can't share their network to other computers?

[PLuNK]

There should be some kind of GUI for the configuration of ICS within Windows,

Look around for it.

[tp2000ng]

There should be some kind of GUI for the configuration of ICS within Windows,

Look around for it.

I have tried sharing the LAN connection through wireless. but it won't work. Thats why I am asking how I can do it successfully.

[PLuNK]

Hmm.. Maybe some more information?

[tp2000ng]

Hmm.. Maybe some more information?

I have shared the wired LAN internet connection through my laptop's wirless connection. The other laptop connects to this wireless successfully but it won't still share the internet connection. is there something I am doing wrong?

[PLuNK]

Have you assigned It a IP address?

And by that I mean a local one.

But I'm not sure how you go about doing this under Windows sorry.

[tp2000ng]

Have you assigned It a IP address?

And by that I mean a local one.

But I'm not sure how you go about doing this under Windows sorry.

Yes it automatically assigns the IP since its DHCP. thanks anyway

[SquintRingo]

Yes it automatically assigns the IP since its DHCP. thanks anyway

ICS won't work unless you have two separate network cards. Check the device manager to make sure you have separate network cards for wireless and wired, and it's not one capable of both.

[tp2000ng]

ICS won't work unless you have two separate network cards. Check the device manager to make sure you have separate network cards for wireless and wired, and it's not one capable of both.

Yes I have two different network cards

the wireless is dell wireless mini-card

while the wored is a broadcom 440x....

The thing is the second computer would connect but won't share the internet.... is there a way out pls..i really need it

[Blunderboy]

Buying a router would be so much easier then dual network cards and some other alternatives. I do see the attraction and the fun to doing that but a router will more then do the job and comes with a hardware firewall rather then having a comp with 2 network cards and a software firewall and other overhead.

[shikatano]

Does your school make you authenticate when accessing the LAN? If so, just getting a router may not solve the problem. In my school we have to authenticate through Cisco Clean Access so I have a computer (spare pc running Server 2003) with 2 NIC cards, 1 connecting to the wall and I use ICS to share the internet through the other NIC into my router (WRT-54G). From there I can plug my main desktop and anything I want into the router and even broadcast my own wireless.

[tp2000ng]

Does your school make you authenticate when accessing the LAN? If so, just getting a router may not solve the problem. In my school we have to authenticate through Cisco Clean Access so I have a computer (spare pc running Server 2003) with 2 NIC cards, 1 connecting to the wall and I use ICS to share the internet through the other NIC into my router (WRT-54G). From there I can plug my main desktop and anything I want into the router and even broadcast my own wireless.

Yeah for sure, there is an authentication at the first logon...

[PLuNK]

At first HTTP connection?

[tp2000ng]

At first HTTP connection?

the very first time you logon there is a screen to enter your student name and rj-45 port number!

[PLuNK]

Login into the OS or?

[Sparda]

Sounds like some kind of authentication with the network switch?

[tp2000ng]

Login into the OS or?

i mean connecting to the network not the OS...

[tp2000ng]

Sounds like some kind of authentication with the network switch?

yeah...is there a way without a router or I still have to get a router?

[shikatano]

You could get another NIC card and use ICS to share the internet into the switch.

[PLuNK]

What's the problem with the router? (Reason for not getting one..)