Author: Paul Stimpson Date: To: jfk, Hampshire LUG Mailing List Subject: Re: [Hampshire] [OT] Wireless Access Point
Hi,
+1 for dd-wrt.
I would ask on your local Freecycle if anyone has a DLink DIR615 (the wireless router that Virgin Media give you free if you subscribe to the 50Mbps package) they don't want any more. The Virgin DIR615 comes with custom Virgin firmware that is notoriously old and bad. Mine crashed so much with the original firmware that I would have thrown it at the wall if I hadn't put dd-wrt on it and I've seen others freecycled so hopefully there will be more going spare.
Alternatively you could ask the University to fix the problem for you. I believe that under the disability act they are required to make reasonable adaptations to accommodate your son's disability. The only problem I can see is that if you ask for wifi and they tell you it's banned you can't claim you didn't know it wasn't allowed if you go DIY.
Before you do anything I would have a look at the rules to see if it is naughty, see if anyone else is doing it and take precautions like turning off the SSID broadcast on the AP and using dd-wrt's "MAC address clone" function to clone the MAC address of the wired Ethernet port on your son's laptop in case they scan the network looking for unauthorised APs.
