Uni Halls Internet is being annoying.

bledd · 19 Mar 2009 at 17:11

just get a router don't mess about using a pc to share the connection, it's a dirty way of doing it

Ross1234 · 19 Mar 2009 at 17:20

ok

Just to check:

I can have

internet connection <-- router <--- laptops and stuff

and the laptops and stuff will be hidden and the uni will see the router as my laptop when in wireless mode

Kol · 19 Mar 2009 at 18:33

^ yes. I used to do that at Uni. It was simple - so long as you spoof the MAC of that registered with the network.

RobH · 19 Mar 2009 at 22:19

Yep, a NAT router will only look like a single device, you may not even need to spoof the MAC if you can register it as a device on the network (use one of your MAC registration slots). They won't be able to tell that you are using a router with several devices connected. This gives you the advantage of wireless too so you can hook up your mobile devices too.

Illusion · 19 Mar 2009 at 22:31

Ross1234 said:
Oh, I didnt know that. Now i understand what you are saying. Thats very helpful thanks. Is there any way to make my pc act as a nat router or do i have to by one.

Turning on ICS means your PC is acting as a NAT router. If they have anything in place to detect routers by NAT'ed address they will pick this up instantly so it's never going to work. You could get a wireless access point and leave this plugged into your wall socket whilst having your 5 MAC's registered with them.

When each device connects via the WAP it's MAC address will be passed through to their system as opposed to its own MAC address.

This way would at least allow you to use each device without unplugging etc even if it is only one at a time.

What company provides the connection? Is it managed by the Uni?

RobH said:
They won't be able to tell that you are using a router with several devices connected. This gives you the advantage of wireless too so you can hook up your mobile devices too.

If they disabled his connection as soon as he turned ICS on they will definately be able to detect he is using a router as it is doing exactly the same thing.

Third edit:

It is possible they only detected your PC was performing NAT because the private interface (192.168.x.x etc) was visible on their network. You could possibly get around this by using two seperate NIC's if you didn't already do this.

Thanks

Kol · 19 Mar 2009 at 23:09

^ I don't think 'they' disabled his connection because of the ICS. When I was at uni, if I bridged the wired&wireless connections it essentially had a 'new mac' for some reason and my connection didn't work as this 'virtual mac' or whatever wasn't registered with the service. I can't recall specifics but I fiddled around with some program and it worked. In the end I gave up and used a router spoofing the original mac.

bledd · 20 Mar 2009 at 13:59

Kol said:
^ I don't think 'they' disabled his connection because of the ICS. When I was at uni, if I bridged the wired&wireless connections it essentially had a 'new mac' for some reason and my connection didn't work as this 'virtual mac' or whatever wasn't registered with the service. I can't recall specifics but I fiddled around with some program and it worked. In the end I gave up and used a router spoofing the original mac.

exactly..

this is the way to do it.

RobH · 20 Mar 2009 at 14:20

The NAT router will look no different from a NIC on the network side so it's undetectable.

Illusion · 20 Mar 2009 at 17:08

RobH said:
The NAT router will look no different from a NIC on the network side so it's undetectable.

They would only need to look a bit closer and see decreased TTL's and connections destined to the IP on different numbered NAT ports to realise it's a router. I would expect a company with a no router policy to be doing this however I guess a lot of them don't enforce it too well.

Kol · 20 Mar 2009 at 17:13

Notts Uni halls suggested that but it never caught me out. The only problem I had were those alluded to by the OP but that was nothing to do with ICS, merely down to unregistered mac changes. Most unis say no to router but never enforce it (from my experience). The number of users in halls using a router are relatively low (again in my experience) ...

JonJ678 · 22 Mar 2009 at 04:27

Cable router, problem solved.
If you want to take the **** slightly, get a wireless router.

Alternatively use a second nic, but do not bridge the connection. If need be tell your firewall that the second nic is absolutely not allowed to see the internet.

Sat behind a cable router at uni now. It was simply easier than spoofing the registered mac on whatever device i wanted to plug in at the time

Ross1234 · 22 Mar 2009 at 17:02

I dont understand the second nic thing. could you please explain?

Illusion · 23 Mar 2009 at 22:23

Ross1234 said:
I dont understand the second nic thing. could you please explain?

I guess he means use Internet Connection Sharing with one NIC for the internal range (192.168.x.x) and another for the external connection that is connected to the halls network. You could use a software firewall to completely block one from the other however I don't really think that would be necessary.

Amoeba · 23 Mar 2009 at 22:52

Illusion said:
They would only need to look a bit closer and see decreased TTL's and connections destined to the IP on different numbered NAT ports to realise it's a router. I would expect a company with a no router policy to be doing this however I guess a lot of them don't enforce it too well.

This.

Lancaster uni supposedly monitored TTLs but I never got caught out (ran a software router on my server over a couple of NICs).