I would like to offer a hypothetical solution to those off-campus. I'm in first-year engineering living on-campus but I also have previous experience in amateur radio and know of someone who has implemented something along these lines. (Not at Mac)
I hope that this doesn't sound TOO techy for this forum but I think it would be an interesting read for many.
I'm not suggesting anyone do this. This should be considered as a fun "wouldn't it be cool if.." post. I mean this for informational purposes only as I'm sure this violates the McMaster network agreement in more ways than one.
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We know that access to the segment which the DC++ hub (and all of it's peers) is restricted to those connected by wire
only within res rooms. Unfortunately library and wifi segments are routed on different subnets.
Does that mean that access is denied to those not on res? It doesn't have to.
What you (would) need:
- A 5GHz Wireless Bridge (others would work too, though more expensive)
For example ->
Ebay Link
--That one's $500, you probably could find this hardware used/in parts for far less (I've heard it being done for $100). It would be a hunt though.
If properly set up, this is essentially a link or 'bridge' that operates in the microwave spectrum (wont cook food) that usually requires a direct line of sight for point to point communication. Some adjacent office buildings will use this if they have a sister building that needs fast and cheap access without going out to the internet. Usually it compares favourably to lying a new hard wire after everything has been built.
Depending on how close you lived to campus this could possibly work. Low-end bridges can't do more than 4km while the super-duper-New York-to-Queens-high-roller ones can do up to 15km (Burlington?)
Setting up the bridge on the off-campus end would probably be no problem. Your house. Your rules. But then on the other side..
You would have to have a REALLY good friend living in a building that:
A) You have a somewhat direct line of sight to. This is flexible..you just might get lower speeds. Windows are ok.
B) Doesn't mind violating network regulations and risking losing their account, etc.
C) Will let you spend a Sunday monkeying around with a high-frequency antenna that they will have to live with for the year because they like you so much.
And lastly to connect it on both ends you would need
- Any additional home router
For example ->
Futureshop Link
--This one's $50 new. Some people (especially of the tech persuasion) have extra wired-only routers lying around from back when it was trendy enough to have high-speed internet, but wacko to try out wireless. You can get these for nothing used.
This would be for both ends. MAC-cloning (not a student but an address imprinted into your network adapter) I suspect would have to be enabled on the router. I could be wrong on this.
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There's my network engineering solution to all those in DC withdrawal. This has been done very cheaply as I've heard of a guy and his friend set this up in their neighbourhood to play XBOX systemlink with basically no latency. They say it was just as if the other was sitting right there. Speeds can be up to 54Mbps (5x res) under optimal conditions so if a link like this were to be created it would be as if you're in the same room and just as if you're still in first year pirating to your heart's content.
Once again
I am not suggesting that anyone attempt this as I'm posting this just to share what I came up with.
I feel for the off-campus people as next year I will leave this wonderful world of limitless P2P behind next year.
Enjoy.
