I never knew about this (using Linux) but when I plugged my mouse onto a friend’s laptop and suddenly a big banner animated onscreen, my heart sank lol. No idea how this works but it was pretty unexpected.

Is the AI image from The Register?

I tried setting this up, and I can connect to my honeserver, but I’ve no idea how to access its LAN services. How does it work?

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.

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).

Switches are also explicitly banned as they allow bypassing the device limit.

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).

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)

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.

The ethernet connexion still requires a login/account creation/T&C acceptance sadly.

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)?

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.

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.

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?

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…

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

Yeah, that’s what I did at my previous dorm (which didn’t have a third party ISP trying to sell stuff to students). I brought that same router to this one because they told me it was fine, but now I’m faced with these T&C I didn’t know about from a third party.

Yeah that’s the thing… the max devices is one, unless I pay a fee (per device I think). This third party that manages the internet offers a bunch of upsells in the account creation for stuff like more devices.

Yep, that’s what I mean with VR streaming. The PC connects thru eth to the router, and the headset is connected to the router’s AP via wifi. I get the point about unauthorized access, but I set strong passwords and never share them. I think this clause is more about preventing me from connecting more than one device to the internet, which they want to charge me for if I do. Obviously having my own AP would allow me to easily circumvent that.

Unfortunately, connecting to the ethernet port still prompts me to log into the network (make an account and accept these terms)