Question related to Padre 's back-to-school shows

[G+_Thomas Kregel]

Question related to Padre's back-to-school shows. He talked about putting in your own router and how schools may not like it.

 

My question is similar. Just helped my 85 year old mom to move into a senior apartment complex. Internet is free via WIFI for her. Every resident uses the same WIFI password.

 

Can/should I purchase a router that talks to her WIFI and rebroadcasts securely? Everything seems to work without a router, except for her Grace Digital Internet Radio. It fails to connect and error mentions port 80, I think their firewall has blocked it.

 

Does anyone know what I can do?

[G+_Thomas Kregel]

Also if I should get a router please help me pick out the right type.

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

Sadly, even if she has her own router, the traffic out the back would still be broadcast over the shared link. Anyone w/the password can see her traffic, so no real gain of security. :(

[G+_Black Merc]

Port 80 is http, the main web port. That app or device may use that port to start its handshake with the host servers... Are their any settings in app/device you can change to avoid that port? Else, i fear your stuck without setting up a proxy(big hassle for internet radio).

 

As for grabing wifi to secure wifi, i submit two http://reasons.for not. The campus wifi is probably used all the good channels, to introduce a rogue wifi(in their eyes) will just slow down the network. To not go to a secure hard wired network (i believe) would just be a waist.

[G+_Akira Yamanita]

It's possible that they're blocking certain streaming radio sites or types of media. Tiny Hardware Firewall might work. It tunnels the traffic over a VPN (there is a subscription fee) so it gets around filtering (unless they block VPNs) and possible monitoring. (I have not used it so this is not an endorsement.)

[G+_Damien Wessling]

I agree with Akira, notwithstanding the additional cost, a VPN solution would be best option. You might want to do a few tests first before you commit to purchasing. ProXPN has a trial period which will allow you to test whether you can actually gain a secure connection.

 

Given the nature of how they're managing their residents internet, (with apparent disdain) there's a chance they'll have blocks in place for secure ports. This, as you know, compromises their security by either allowing their traffic to be sniffed or just unable to connect to sites requiring encryption. (Personally I'd be questioning their policies, ethics and liability exposure etc) ProXPN have an option to securely connect over Port 80 which might be a viable solution. I've used that opinion when travelling through the US and Egypt where I had difficulty getting secure connections at holels and coffee shops etc. Something to do with the 'man in the middle' type of arrangements they used to handle their internet.

 

The next issue at hand is ease of use. Whatever the solution, it needs to be reliably autonomous. You don't want your Mom to go through a crazy bunch of steps just to listen to her steaming music or browse the internet. Maybe something like a dedicated Raspberry Pi image that boots up and logs into a VPN.

 

PI WiFi -> Facility unsecured WiFi

Mom -> Wired to PI

or

Mom -> Wireless AP -> PI.

 

Hope you find a solution for her. ??

[G+_Thomas Kregel]

I took the unit home and checked for a software upgrade. There is one, I installed it and no longer get the error. Perhaps someone else ran into the same problem. I have a VPN subscription, perhaps I could run here PC on it. Thanks for a great idea! Need to learn my Raspberry Pi programming. Still playing with Arduino.

[G+_Thomas Kregel]

Thanks to all the folks for great ideas!