LAN issue

[ironhide]

My friend's in a dorm room with a room mate, there's no wifi access and only two ethernet jacks, and they both have computers. Normally this wouldn't be an issue since has two lan ports on his computer, but the IT guys down here won't let them bridge connections or use routers or switches, which means they're stuck swapping cables when they want to get on the internet. The ethernet jack is behind the desk, basically as inaccessible as it could possibly be, so I'm looking for a solution that would let me swap between devices without having to pull the desk out and lay on the floor to change cables.

It should be noted that the only time my friend tried a router, they shut the jack off for 5 days until he removed it.

I suggested him to use his pc as the proxy server,enable ICS to bridge the internet connection to the other pc.So he went and talked to IT, they said it was effectively the same as a bridge in this case, though they STILL refuse to explain how a bridge could cause mass-retardation of the network. It's beginning to sound to me like that they don't feel like being helpful.My friend also mentioned about Cisco Clean Access being used by the IT.I've read on the internet and it's now Cisco NAC appliance.

My friend's afraid that his internet might be shut off again so I thought of seeking advise from you first.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[Shane]

God I hate school admins some times, I understand the restrictions but not being helpful is just being a pain in the butt.

But there is a reason why no router or switch is allowed. The school has to monitor the connections like mad, you can thank the RIAA and others forces for that. They also have a limited amount of IP addresses they can give out. So if you use a switch then your using more IPs then they have set and can cause problems. By using a router they can no longer monitor per machine as the router would cut off monitoring past it, so they don't allow it.

Internet connection sharing to them is the same, because they wont be able to effectively monitor what is going to which computer. So if they ever need to crack down on someone they have to be 100% sure which computer and which person did it.

They can tell what is connected on the end so that's why they could tell and blocked him for 5 days.

Given restrictions like this, the fact they have blocked him once (which means they are also watching him) I would say your friend is out of luck if he doesn't want to lose his internet.

now whether or not they can detect the internet connection sharing in windows is hard to tell as it would still show up as a windows system. You can try, but make sure it is worth the risk first.

here is some info on the monitoring tool you said they use
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6128/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Access_Agent

Hope this helps
Shane

[ironhide]

I agree! their subnetting probably only allows for so many network ip's per dorm. If it were mine I'll start intelligent conversations with those IT guys.Perhaps at the very most, to come up with a better subnetting solution than their current setup (and quite possibly a job).  

Thanks!