Using Router as a Repeater? - Printable Version
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Using Router as a Repeater? by M73A on 10-12-2008 at 12:37 PM
I have an old router that i want to plug into my university's ethernet plug. and turn the wired connection into a wifi connection.... i was just wondering if it was possible before i take all my stuff up there?
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by Ezra on 10-12-2008 at 12:44 PM
Depends on the firmware on the router, I know for a fact that DD-WRT can do this, but if we don't know the model/firmware it has, I have no idea.
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by M73A on 10-12-2008 at 12:45 PM
Buffalo Airstation G54
lol the casing has discoloured so bad it is now yellow, it is OLD lol.
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by Ezra on 10-12-2008 at 12:49 PM
quote:
Originally posted by http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/networking/buffalo-wireless-router.php
NOTE: Repeater function is supported with Buffalo bridges, repeaters and routers, but can communicate with other manufacturer's 802.11b and 802.11g client adapters. The Buffalo acts as a standard wireless access point so anyone can connect unless it is secured.
I guess that's a yes, so go for it
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by M73A on 10-12-2008 at 12:51 PM
hmmmm. lol. i may have to give this ago! 
thanks!
i just guessed that it was so old it wouldnt do anything other than adsl - wifi lol
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by Ezra on 10-12-2008 at 01:00 PM
quote:
Originally posted by M73A
i just guessed that it was so old it wouldnt do anything other than adsl - wifi lol
The specifications say it doesn't have a modem, so it should work on Ethernet, so it doesn't matter if your connection is ADSL, Cable or Fiber, as long as it gets an Ethernet signal.
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by M73A on 10-12-2008 at 01:03 PM
i have got it working at home! LOVE IT. lol
this is going to revolutionise my flat at uni haha
thanks! i will probably post back later asking how to set it up with their network. but this worked straight away so far
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by ShawnZ on 10-12-2008 at 01:46 PM
quote:
Originally posted by M73A
i just guessed that it was so old it wouldnt do anything other than adsl - wifi lol
what does adsl have to do with your router o.O
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by Ezra on 10-12-2008 at 02:21 PM
quote:
Originally posted by ShawnZ
what does adsl have to do with your router o.O
Some (consumer)routers also come with a build-in modem, and lots of people don't know the difference between these different types of routers because they are essentially not routers, but a modem/router/switch/accespoint/NAT hybrid.
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by andrewdodd13 on 10-12-2008 at 03:12 PM
It should work.
Be very careful though, universities (if this is in halls) are usually very strict in saying that you're are explicitly not allowed to do this. And I know at my uni they have pretty good ways of insta-banning your room's account automatically. 
RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by segosa on 10-12-2008 at 03:16 PM
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
It should work.
Be very careful though, universities (if this is in halls) are usually very strict in saying that you're are explicitly not allowed to do this. And I know at my uni they have pretty good ways of insta-banning your room's account automatically.
then just connect the university connection to the wan port of the router and register the router's mac address on the university's network - as far as they will then be able to see you have one machine connected and they don't need to know what's going on behind the router (and they won't, unless they do some lame packet inspection but even then they'd need to be specifically looking for the signs of nat)
don't let your flatmates use your connection over wireless unless it's a shared one already, because you'll quickly find it's you who gets blamed and disconnected if someone else breaches the tos.
you also don't need the "repeating" functionality of dd-wrt; that's something else. all you need is the router itself to have an ip, dhcp enabled (you'll want that), the wireless configured properly and secured, and for it to be connected to the university network in some way or another.
I still recommend dd-wrt anyway, as it's a very nice router firmware alternative providing your device supports it.
RE: RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by andrewdodd13 on 10-12-2008 at 05:27 PM
quote:Generally this is what they do. I was told that a masters student came up with some piece of software which inspects the header of a random packet from each room every now and then and checks if it's using IP Masquerading.
Originally posted by segosa
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
It should work.
Be very careful though, universities (if this is in halls) are usually very strict in saying that you're are explicitly not allowed to do this. And I know at my uni they have pretty good ways of insta-banning your room's account automatically.
then just connect the university connection to the wan port of the router and register the router's mac address on the university's network - as far as they will then be able to see you have one machine connected and they don't need to know what's going on behind the router (and they won't, unless they do some lame packet inspection but even then they'd need to be specifically looking for the signs of nat)
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by Ezra on 10-12-2008 at 05:36 PM
quote:
Originally posted by segosa
then just connect the university connection to the wan port of the router and register the router's mac address on the university's network - as far as they will then be able to see you have one machine connected and they don't need to know what's going on behind the router (and they won't, unless they do some lame packet inspection but even then they'd need to be specifically looking for the signs of nat)
That might not work, at my university they use 802.X for authentication and I think dd-wrt support this, but I don't think standard firmwares do. So then you'd need to use repeater mode as then authentication is handled at the devices again and not the router. Also using NAT will cause all the problems that NAT has and repeater will avoid these.
RE: RE: RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by segosa on 10-12-2008 at 07:37 PM
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
quote:Generally this is what they do. I was told that a masters student came up with some piece of software which inspects the header of a random packet from each room every now and then and checks if it's using IP Masquerading.
Originally posted by segosa
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
It should work.
Be very careful though, universities (if this is in halls) are usually very strict in saying that you're are explicitly not allowed to do this. And I know at my uni they have pretty good ways of insta-banning your room's account automatically.
then just connect the university connection to the wan port of the router and register the router's mac address on the university's network - as far as they will then be able to see you have one machine connected and they don't need to know what's going on behind the router (and they won't, unless they do some lame packet inspection but even then they'd need to be specifically looking for the signs of nat)
what? the router is the device that grabs an ip off the university's network and ip masquerading is exactly what makes nat possible - that is, as far as the university's end is concerned every packet coming from that room is coming from only one device (the router) with the source ip being the ip that the router has on the university network. ip masquerading is exactly what prevents detection, and i don't think there's anything in any packets that leave the room that would give it away.
quote:
Originally posted by Ezra
That might not work, at my university they use 802.X for authentication and I think dd-wrt support this, but I don't think standard firmwares do. So then you'd need to use repeater mode as then authentication is handled at the devices again and not the router. Also using NAT will cause all the problems that NAT has and repeater will avoid these.
are you talking about wireless? I was under the impression he had a wired connection to the university network, not a wireless one.
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by Ezra on 10-12-2008 at 07:41 PM
quote:
Originally posted by segosa
are you talking about wireless? I was under the impression he had a wired connection to the university network, not a wireless one.
802.1X works on wireless as well as wired connections. The port will be dead until the connection has been authenticated.
RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by segosa on 10-12-2008 at 07:45 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Ezra
quote:
Originally posted by segosa
are you talking about wireless? I was under the impression he had a wired connection to the university network, not a wireless one.
802.1X works on wireless as well as wired connections. The port will be dead until the connection has been authenticated.
oh I see. I wasn't aware universities used that for wired too. mine just uses mac address auth.
RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by andrewdodd13 on 10-12-2008 at 11:12 PM
quote:Well, I'm not too techy on the subject.
Originally posted by segosa
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
quote:Generally this is what they do. I was told that a masters student came up with some piece of software which inspects the header of a random packet from each room every now and then and checks if it's using IP Masquerading.
Originally posted by segosa
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
It should work.
Be very careful though, universities (if this is in halls) are usually very strict in saying that you're are explicitly not allowed to do this. And I know at my uni they have pretty good ways of insta-banning your room's account automatically.
then just connect the university connection to the wan port of the router and register the router's mac address on the university's network - as far as they will then be able to see you have one machine connected and they don't need to know what's going on behind the router (and they won't, unless they do some lame packet inspection but even then they'd need to be specifically looking for the signs of nat)
what? the router is the device that grabs an ip off the university's network and ip masquerading is exactly what makes nat possible - that is, as far as the university's end is concerned every packet coming from that room is coming from only one device (the router) with the source ip being the ip that the router has on the university network. ip masquerading is exactly what prevents detection, and i don't think there's anything in any packets that leave the room that would give it away.
But if there was no identification at all, how the hell would the router know where to send the packets it receives?
RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by segosa on 10-12-2008 at 11:23 PM
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
quote:Well, I'm not too techy on the subject.
Originally posted by segosa
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
quote:Generally this is what they do. I was told that a masters student came up with some piece of software which inspects the header of a random packet from each room every now and then and checks if it's using IP Masquerading.
Originally posted by segosa
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
It should work.
Be very careful though, universities (if this is in halls) are usually very strict in saying that you're are explicitly not allowed to do this. And I know at my uni they have pretty good ways of insta-banning your room's account automatically.
then just connect the university connection to the wan port of the router and register the router's mac address on the university's network - as far as they will then be able to see you have one machine connected and they don't need to know what's going on behind the router (and they won't, unless they do some lame packet inspection but even then they'd need to be specifically looking for the signs of nat)
what? the router is the device that grabs an ip off the university's network and ip masquerading is exactly what makes nat possible - that is, as far as the university's end is concerned every packet coming from that room is coming from only one device (the router) with the source ip being the ip that the router has on the university network. ip masquerading is exactly what prevents detection, and i don't think there's anything in any packets that leave the room that would give it away.
But if there was no identification at all, how the hell would the router know where to send the packets it receives?
this is how nat works. the natting device doesn't know where to send initial incoming packets (for new connections), indeed, which is why port forwarding exists. outgoing packets seen by the router are recorded so that the packets that come back can be sent to the correct internal ip.
RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by ShawnZ on 10-13-2008 at 01:02 AM
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
But if there was no identification at all, how the hell would the router know where to send the packets it receives?
ehm, you haven't noticed in the last decade that it's a pretty common problem that people behind routers can't set up servers because the routers don't know where to send the packets? that's what port forwarding is for...
RE: RE: Using Router as a Repeater? by andrewdodd13 on 10-13-2008 at 03:10 PM
quote:Of course. But that's only because the listening server is behind the NAT. I just didn't realise that the router does some fancy stuff with ports for outgoing connections.
Originally posted by ShawnZ
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
But if there was no identification at all, how the hell would the router know where to send the packets it receives?
ehm, you haven't noticed in the last decade that it's a pretty common problem that people behind routers can't set up servers because the routers don't know where to send the packets? that's what port forwarding is for...
I asked them to explain it when I was there today, basically, they wouldn't tell me how they check, because they thought I was trying to find a way round it. Fun times.