this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2024
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I just moved into a student dorm for a semester abroad, and beforehand I emailed them asking whether they had ethernet ports to plug my router into (I use it to connect all my devices, and for WiVRn VR streaming). They confirmed that I could, but now that I'm here the wifi login portal is asking me to accept these terms from the ISP, which forbid plugging in a router. There's another clause that forbids "Disruptive Devices" entirely, defined as:

“Disruptive Device” means any device that prevents or interferes with our provision of the 4Wireless to other customers (such as a wireless access point such as wireless routers) or any other device used by you in breach of the Acceptable Use Policy;

So what are my options? I don't think I can use this service without accepting the terms, but also I was told by the student dorm support that I could bring a router, which contradicts this.

EDIT: some additional context:

  • dorm provider is a company separate from my uni (they have an agreement but that's it)
  • ISP (ask4) is totally separate from dorm provider, and have installed a mesh network that requires an account. On account creation, there are many upsells including one for connecting more than one device. The "free" plan only allows me to sign in on a single device, and I can upgrade to two devices for 15 pounds.
  • ethernet requires login too
  • VR streaming requires a high performance wifi 6 network, which is why I bought this router (Archer C6 from tp-link)
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[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

You got the goods! I used an HTTP tunnel when I was in college.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I also like the idea of ptunnel

Ptunnel is an application that allows you to reliably tunnel TCP connections to a remote host using ICMP echo request and reply packets, commonly known as ping requests and replies.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I don’t understand how that can be reliable without being extremely obvious.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Yeah, any off the shelf network intrusion software would probably immediately flag either of those based solely on the amount of traffic.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Well it would be obvious. Any decent network tool would be able to filter traffic on a port or type (ICMP, DNS, etc).

“Wonder why this kid has 2.5Gb of DNS traffic last week? That isn’t normal. Maybe we should go check it out”

The trick to staying hidden is to look like noise. And this would not be noise.

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

In 2014 when I was in the hospital for a week I got a visit from their IT. Seems like pushing 5 to 10 gig a day through a ssh connection triggered something. Just a gig of ICMP of any variety would trip a alarm.