So for meal plans, i've been reading that people recommend getting the smallest meal plan and then adding funds to it if you run out. If I'm going to be living in residence should I bother doing this or would buying a regular be simpler.

By bringing your own wireless router to make your own network using the residence internet, is it even significantly faster? Whats the point of it, any advantages besides being able to have multiple devices and a printer? Which routers are recommended that are cheap and work well. Thanks

As i mentioned in preivous threads smaller meal plan is better. You can add money any time, the office is in centro or add to credit card. People recommend smallest because it guarantees less room for error in no leftovers, cause it doesn't transfer

Wireless will prob be same if not slower. There is never an advantage to ethernet except convenience and multiple devices

Hey Imperious

First off... welcome to the MacInsiders community! Thanks for posting your questions, please spread the word about MacInsiders and tell your friends

Definitely a popular question about meal plans, I think I'll post something on the MacInsiders homepage soon to answer some common meal plan q's

Here's what I posted in another thread that will hopefully help:

If you're in residence it is mandatory to get a meal plan. But if you're not living in res, then you don't need to get a meal plan. And to be honest, there's plenty of food choices around campus that cost less and you can save a lot of money not always buying food on campus. The average price for a basic meal is $9-11. If you are buying food every single day from the locations on campus that accept meal plan like commons, La Piazza, etc. then that adds up really quick. It's convenient, since you can get food while on campus easily, but if you're off-campus then there's a lot of food places in Westdale you can go to. If you get a meal plan, then that money you invest into the meal plan.. you can ONLY use as locations that accept the meal plan. If you want to for example go and buy groceries, stop at Wendy's/McDonalds/Tally Ho/Burrito place down the street.. etc. you'd have to spend out of pocket since they don't accept the meal card. The only off-campus places that accept it are East Side Marios, Kelseys, Basilique, Boston Pizza, Mahal, Pizza Pizza, Gino’s Pizza, and Pita Pit. So you're basically limiting yourself to spend $3290 at the places on campus, and those additional off-campus places.

However, if you like those places and can see yourself eating there every day for an entire year, then go for it! The advantage is that the meal plan does give you a 5%-13% discount on food depending on the plan you get (bigger discount for bigger plans). So if you plan to eat out at those places all the time, you basically can save some money that way.

If you don't see yourself locking in that $3290 to those places, and want more flexibility, then you can get the flex plan which lets you just refill your card throughout the year. So you don't have to lock yourself into that high price.

Before you decide, I'd take a trip to McMaster and try out some of the food places on campus to get an idea of if you can see yourself eating there every day.

As for having your own router, if you're in residence you get a physical cable connection to the internet which is the fastest. If you have a laptop, just put it on your desk in your dorm room and plug in the ethernet cable for the fastest internet.

If you bring a router the only advantage would be to have wireless so you can work on your laptop while laying in bed or something like that. Or if you needed wifi for a printer. But that's about it.

You can get a simple Wireless N router from Canada Computers (which is located near McMaster at Dundurn plaza) for $19.99
http://www.canadacomputers.c om/adv...uter &x=0&y=0

UPDATE: See here http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=9300 7