First timer setting up wifi, help?

August 29, 2010 5:06 PM

I have never set up wireless internet before. I'm going to college later this week. There's internet in my dorms, but no WiFi. What do I need to set up WiFi in my room?

My machine is a MacBook Pro running 10.6.4.

I'm thinking about buying an Airport Express base station. Would this work? Do I need other equipment? I've literally never dealt with this stuff - I don't know what equipment I need, let alone what to do. Step by step instructions would be awesome, too.

posted by JimBennett to Technology (23 answers total)

Response by poster: And " do I need more equipment" means anything. Assume that I don't have any of the necessary cables and such.
posted by JimBennett at 5:07 PM on August 29, 2010

Plug the wired internet cord into a wireless router. Configure the router. Done.
posted by orthogonality at 5:09 PM on August 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Oh, and also (I know, I'm sorry), I have a printer that I'd like to set up for wireless printing - I read somewhere that this was more difficult on the Airport Express for some reason, but I don't remember why. Should I go with the Extreme instead?
posted by JimBennett at 5:09 PM on August 29, 2010

Best answer: Make sure the dorm allows it. My freshman dorm didn't allow private APs because of the complications for file-sharing issues.
posted by devilsbrigade at 5:10 PM on August 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

Wait until you get there and see what everyone else is doing/recommends. There might even be a set sold at the university bookstore or at a nearby electronics store tailor-made for your dorm or for your campus. This is one thing that you should not try to do in advance or without input from people who are actually living in your dorm.
posted by vincele at 5:10 PM on August 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

But we also had uni-provided wifi.
posted by devilsbrigade at 5:11 PM on August 29, 2010

Best answer: You need to buy a length of Cat 6 ethernet cable to connect the base station to the wall. Don't even think about buying it at Best Buy or anything like that. The place you want to buy this from (and any savvy person will chime in and agree) is Monoprice (along with any other cables you could ever need).

Here's a page where you can select your lengths.

Then you should be set.
posted by Elminster24 at 5:12 PM on August 29, 2010

Many dorms don't allow wifi and/or there is campus-wide wifi. Don't do anything until you get there.
posted by k8t at 5:15 PM on August 29, 2010

Best answer: The Express is really easy to set up. The only wireless printing issue I've experienced is when I used an old (say late 90s) printer, but anything newer than that worked fine.

Depending on your college IT policy, you might find that you have to set it to bridge mode.

One thing to remember in setup in general is that if it's not working it's so easy to just play around and get it to work. The interface is really simple, and if worst comes to worst you can completely reset the device with a paperclip.

Also, one thing to remember is that by default wireless speakers only work in iTunes, but (and I haven't tried it myself) this looks like it fixes that so that all sound (e.g. YouTube, VLC etc.) goes through wirelessly.
posted by djgh at 5:17 PM on August 29, 2010

Echoing most people saying that most dorms do not allow private routers. However, there will likely be university wide wifi. There is a 99% chance of this being covered during orientation.
posted by schyler523 at 5:18 PM on August 29, 2010

Best answer: Don't pass up the opportunity to ask other students -look for cute ones with glasses.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:21 PM on August 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Oh, and other things. You'll want to password protect your network, and also lock it down to just your device(s), as well as hiding it.

Once you've set up the basics (which I believe does include password), go to Manual Setup and then Access Control. Default should be no access, and then add your device(s) MAC address to allow only you on.

Still in Manual Setup, under Wireless, go to Wireless Network Options, and tick the checkbox saying "Create Closed Wireless Network".
posted by djgh at 5:22 PM on August 29, 2010

Response by poster: You guys are wonderful, thanks so much. I didn't even stop to consider if WiFi was allowed, so I'll wait until I find out to buy anything. Thanks again, everyone.
posted by JimBennett at 5:23 PM on August 29, 2010

Usually the Student Life office at colleges mentions what you need for setup on their website. Not to be all creepster, but I figured out where you were going based on your profile, and found the info - it says you will need a 10/100 base T network interface card and an Ethernet cable to connect to the network, and that they'll tell you more at orientation. A Mac person can probably tell you how that translates to your situation. Since they don't mention wireless, I wouldn't buy anything yet.
posted by donnagirl at 6:11 PM on August 29, 2010

Genuine question -- won't your dorm room be so small that you don't even need WiFi?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:18 PM on August 29, 2010

Response by poster: Not creepster at all, donnagirl, and that does help. Their website is usually pretty terrible, so I tend not to think to check it.

"Genuine question -- won't your dorm room be so small that you don't even need WiFi?"

Believe it or not, no. The dorm I'm living in is 'apartment style.' Usually that means it's two beds with a bathroom and a kitchen - small, confined, and I could run wired.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck in a six person unit. That means that there's three small bedrooms with two beds per room, and a central area with a small living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. So it's a little bit bigger than a normal dorm, which means that if I'm in the kitchen or the central area and I want to use the internet, I can't, unless I get WiFi set up.
posted by JimBennett at 6:45 PM on August 29, 2010

Best answer: Your dorm doesn't allow a lot of things that people have done/are doing/will do in your dorm. Just keep that in mind. A router, if a no-no, is really no big thing, in the scheme of things.
posted by papayaninja at 7:33 PM on August 29, 2010

Most universities don't want to deal with the headache caused by people who don't know how to setup their routers. Problems arise from user's routers acting as DHCP servers and handing out fake IP's to others on the network, causing them to not get service. Disabling DHCP or using "Bridge mode" on Apple routers is perfectly safe and your network admins won't ever know the difference and you won't be messing up the network for everyone else. Wireless printing only works with select printers. I believe all HP's work great with Apple routers.
posted by yaemes at 9:21 PM on August 29, 2010

Even if they're not allowed, if you stop it broadcasting the wireless network ID, enable WPA security, and nobody official actually sees it (put it in a cupboard or a shoe box) you can do what you like.

Even if you do have a LAN port in your room, wifi is much nicer for surfing the internet in bed and connecting other devices (phones, tablets, whatever).
posted by dickasso at 4:00 AM on August 30, 2010

I strongly disagree with djgh's advice. MAC filtering is not security because MACs are spoofable; all it takes to work around MAC filtering is sniffing the traffic to find out what MACs are in use, then spoofing one of those. Turning of the SSID broadcast is pointless too, since the SSID is also easily retrieved by sniffing traffic. All that either of these practices will do is make your network flaky for legitimate users.

If you are in fact allowed to set up your own WAP, I recommend you use a SSID that clearly identifies where it is (I use my house address), leave the SSID broadcast on, and don't fartarse about with MAC filtering. Really all you need to do is make sure you're using some flavor of WPA, preferably with AES encryption rather than TKIP, with a strong password. WPA2 is stronger than WPA but there are still numerous devices, notably printers, that don't support it. But as long as your WPA password is not subject to a dictionary based attack, your wifi won't be hijacked.
posted by flabdablet at 4:32 AM on August 30, 2010

Oh, and you should absolutely configure it as a plain old WAP, i.e. a bridge to the Ethernet it connects to, not as a router. Having more network segments than you need will just cause unnecessary grief. Also, do a site scan and try to pick a channel as far away as possible from others in use. If your WAP allows you to control its transmit power, cut it back to the minimum that still gets you a full speed link inside your apartment.
posted by flabdablet at 4:39 AM on August 30, 2010

In my dorm, unauthorized wireless routers caused everyone's internet to go down. If your university prohibits them, please don't be the jerk who tries to use one anyway.
posted by litnerd at 10:10 AM on August 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

You may consider the possibility that it simply won't work even if it's allowed. Unfortunately, multiple uncoordinated access points in close proximity generally step on each other and don't work too well. This is a well-known issue in apartment buildings and the like.

If you decide to get one, be prepared that it might not work out well if lots of other people have them and have a backup plan of a cable. You might be able to just borrow someone else's connection that they already set up, too.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 5:22 PM on August 31, 2010