Skip Navigation
Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Yeah, that's a possibility. I did fly the router all the way here but if I really can't use it I will go wired. Sadly I couldn't get WiVRn working on wired, and ALVR had really bad performance.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • My router is an Archer C6 from TP-Link. I've never used OpenWrt, but I have used Linux on my laptop & server for many years. Is this worth looking into/possible without any prior networking knowledge?

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • The uni is not at fault here, the dorm is a separate entity that just happens to have a deal to keep some rooms for exchange students like me. The dorm is from iQ Student Accommodation (who told me I could bring a router), and the ISP they use is ASK4 (whose T&C you are seeing).

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Switches are also explicitly banned as they allow bypassing the device limit.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • And importantly, the email is from my dorm (whose contract simply said they provided free fast wifi), while these unexpected T&Cs are from the dorm's ISP.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • While I see where you're coming from, I do need to clarify two things:

    • I use VR mainly for two things: Beat Saber, and sometimes C++ game development (my degree). I can't develop on-headset because of the limitations Facebook imposes, so I am stuck with streaming. I am taking my own path through these studies, for example I rewrote all the assignments and engines to CMake and then Linux which has allowed me to learn a whole lot more than if I simply followed the classes. I wish to mess with networking as another extension to my studies, as it's not covered at all and now is the time I have dedicated 100% to learning (vs later in life).
    • I didn't really choose this university: I chose to do an exchange program for a semester and this was the one option that matched my interests/degree. And the uni seems awesome so far (we haven't started courses though). The dorm is a separate entity from the uni, but they do have a deal to provide rooms for half a year for exchange students. So this dorm was my best option to avoid a yearlong contract.
  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Thanks. I do unfortunately need wifi to do wireless VR streaming... I guess I need to find a way to tune it to interfere the least, but this is a whole alien world to me.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Yeah, I get why they do it security-wise (but am mad about the surprise extracting money part, which was not in the dorm contract!). The dorm isn't from uni (it's a third party) but they did seem on my side given they said I could indeed bring a router... the ISP is the problem here. I think I will feign ignorance and set the settings as low as they'll go while still being able to maintain a good connexion to the headset. Maybe hide the SSID too (it has my name on it lol).

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • y e p, I feel your pain (but I know way less about networking than it seems like you do haha, still haven't made the jump to ipv6 myself)

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • I'm only staying for a semester (via Erasmus, or what remains of it post-Brexit) so while I did consider this I don't think it's very viable.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • The ethernet connexion still requires a login/account creation/T&C acceptance sadly.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Would that work even if the T&Cs are for a third party (the ISP), while the correspondence is with my dorm provider (not legally related to my uni, they just have a partnership)?

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • I'm in the UK, not sure if they have their own british version of the FCC or just follow their rules but it might be different. The router/AP is a tp link Archer C6, which I use as it is performant enough to do VR streaming w/o stutters or high latency.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • So technically I should get away with connecting the router and making an AP right? I can't do a hotspot from my laptop because the performance is not high enough for streaming (this is why I bought a dedicated router).

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • That's fair yeah. In my case the dorms are a separate unrelated company from the uni (they just have a partnership) and the ISP is yet another third party that did the install and sells extras to each student. I think it's pretty scummy since I read my whole dorm contract and it never said this would be a condition to the "free fast wifi" access.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Woah, that's really cool. I'll contact my uni to ask about it and I guess for now use a phone data hotspot and skip on VR.

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • I'd be happy to set my device to passthrough mode, but I think the ISP prevents peer-to-peer connections (which my laptop would make to the VR headset) unless you buy one of their plans for Chromecast/smart TVs. Would that prevent it from working? And would I still be able to connect multiplw devices despite their one-device limit?

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Yeah, the interference argument is fair, but I think this is also the ISP (totally separate third party) trying to protect the paid plans they sell for connecting more than one device...

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • That's good advice, however this dorm is not part of my uni (just a partner to provide housing) and the internet provider whose T&C I'm expected to accept and sign up for 1y of are a totally separate legal entity, that has a bunch of upsells for stuff like "connect more than 1 device" (which my router/AP would basically be bypassing, and I think that's what these clauses are about). About the interference, is it possible to limit it severely while still having a reliable connection just within my room? I only really want to connect:

    1. Laptop (wired)
    2. Phone
    3. VR for streaming from laptop
  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers
  • Yeah I definitely don't want to hurt the network for other folks staying at this (very large) dorm complex/building. Can I reasonably run it at low power (since I only need it in my room) and not have it bother anyone?

  • Student dorm does not allow wifi routers

    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)
    249
    Looking for FOSS GitHub Client

    I've been looking around for a good GitHub client on my degoogled phone, but have had trouble finding a still-maintained one that's ready to use. I find that I just default to opening URLs in Fennec, which is far from ideal as I have to load the whole website (and it's quite laggy on my Pixel 3a). So I turn to Lemmy: what GitHub client do you use?

    Specifically, I'm looking to browse GitHub repos (view code, issues, forks, PRs) and use it (reply to and create issues mainly).

    9
    NixOS for gamedev

    Hiya! I'm following a gamedev degree in university. It's been a major challenge doing it from Linux, as everything is Windows stuff (.sln Visual Studio projects, DirectX API, excel graphs...). However I've gotten by by making my own tools and dipping into WINE when it gets too difficult. I'm replacing my laptop due to hardware faults (never buying from ASUS again) and my Framework 16 preorder should arrive in a month or two.

    I'm considering trying out NixOS. I currently have Arch on the laptop because it makes it easy to get recent versions of libraries and compilers. However, I've had lots of issues due to inconsistent setup (SDDM theme randomly disappears, KDE apps have black text on dark background, video encoding does not work) and I figured having a declarative config might allow me to set things up better and more consistently. I do have a few worries though, given this is new to me:

    1. Installing proprietary software. For certain courses I unfortunately have to use software like Unreal Engine, Maya, Houdini, Unity, P4V, and a few others. I read NixOS has difficulty with running random binaries. I also could not find an UE5 package in nixpkgs, which Arch does have.
    2. Building binaries. I know nixos does some weird stuff with libraries and binaries. I need to be able to do normal stuff with binaries, and perhaps package and distribute them. It'd be really nice to be able to try out different compilers for my CMake/C++ projects also. Can NixOS do that easily?
    3. VMs. I will be doing dGPU passthrough for testing assignments before handin. I assume this is no problem but it requires some weird stuff so I want to be sure before diving in!

    Am I better off just setting up a brittle Arch install again, or is NixOS worth the plunge?

    21
    [Question] ActivityPub Blogging Platform

    Hi! I'm looking to publish a blog that can be discovered through interactions on the fediverse, and potentially displays replies as comments. I had set up WriteFreely and, though it is missing the replies feature, it seemed pretty well-made. However, when I tried to publish my post, pressing "Move to [blog name]" made it disappear. It's still in the stats page but clicking on it shows "This page is missing." It seems really buggy, hasn't had a release in almost a year, and my post would be lost if I hadn't made a backup. Are there any other good options for publishing a blog?

    9
    Replacing AndroidTV box with Linux server

    Hi! I've installed Stremio on the ISP-provided AndroidTV "decoder" and it allows my family to watch shows while still having access to live TV. However, I am not aware of any option to watch live sports ("Ligue 1" in France) with as good an interface as Stremio, so my father has to watch it on his computer by finding a site that's streaming it and has the least invasive adblock-bypassing ads.

    I wanted to know whether something like Stremio exists that I can set a Linux server to boot directly into and control with a remote (so we no longer depend on the ISP-provided box) and would allow watching the free live TV provided by our ISP, as well as something similar to Stremio's interface for pirating shows/movies, and also has sports streaming. I know torrent streaming doesn't help the ecosystem much, but I'm not sure where else to look. I installed Kodi and played around with it, but I couldn't get Elementum to work (and it looks much more complicated for my family to use than Stremio). Thanks in advance!

    4
    mat mat @linux.community
    Posts 5
    Comments 69