1 Feb 2012 20:22
Re: TriZPUG reminder - meeting this Thursday
I filed a support request with UNC, asking for Internet access as a visitor, and received the following e-mail response, plus a phone call:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: UNC-CH PTR <arsys-VmDwfsRW9dDyN1fNyCEQT3imJQPt71L+@public.gmane.org>
Date: Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 9:24 PM
Dear Customer : The worklog of your problem ticket has the following new information.
Worklog Entry: Called user and let him know since he did not have a direct affiliation with the university we could not register, but advised user if he could find the person affiliated with the university in the group, they could register under their credentials, or user could seek to get affiliate role and then register himself.
The gentleman who called me explained that UNC needs to restrict access to only computers that are in its database, so that they can track internet access, and assign blame for copyright violations. (That seems very big-brother-ish, to me; I guess things haven't changed much since I was in college: college students seemingly still are considered less than full citizens, with less than normal rights.)
He suggested that I get someone in the group who has a UNC affiliation to register my computer under his credentials, if I need Internet access while on campus. (Contrary to the email, he did not hold out any hope that I could "get [an] affiliate role" and register myself -- I asked if I could get my own credentials, and he said no.)
Alternately, perhaps we could program a cheap router to spoof a registered MAC address, for use at our meetings? I don't know whether that might get someone in trouble.
I don't really need Internet, I guess, except that I might need it to do a lightning on, for example, lxml.
Of course, if we're going to meet off-campus, this is all moot, I guess.
I don't really need Internet, I guess, except that I might need it to do a lightning on, for example, lxml.
Of course, if we're going to meet off-campus, this is all moot, I guess.
Dave
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 6:55 AM, David Burton <ncdave4life-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote:
The UNC classroom meeting place was very nice in many ways: plenty of room, nice desks, and a fantastic computer projection screen. The difficulty finding it (and getting there on a game night) was the worst problem.. However, one other surprising (to me) disappointment about the UNC meeting location was the lack of Internet access.
There were three visible wireless SSIDs, all with strong signals:"UNC-Setup" -- open, but I couldn't do anything but ping the gateway"UNC-1" -- need passphrase"UNC-Secure" -- need passphraseReading on the UNC web site, it appears that they try very hard to limit access to "members of the UNC community" (which doesn't include the NC taxpayers who merely pay much of the bill). Apparently, they go to the remarkable trouble of keeping a campus-wide database of authorized MAC addresses, and their DHCP servers are configured to access this database and block access from unauthorized MAC addresses: http://help.unc.edu/4924Even wired access is apparently blocked through this mechanism, which would seem to rule out my 2nd thought, which was to just bring a wireless router to the meetings and plug it in somewhere.
So, if we need Internet access for a presentation, is there a good solution to this problem? (Programming a router to spoof some MAC address in the database doesn't seem like a "good" solution!)
<div> <p>I filed a support request with UNC, asking for Internet access as a visitor, and received the following e-mail response, plus a phone call:<br><br></p> <blockquote>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: UNC-CH PTR <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:arsys@...edu">arsys@...</a>><br></span>Date: Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 9:24 PM<br><br>Dear Customer : The worklog of your problem ticket has the following new information.<br> Worklog Entry: Called user and let him know since he did not have a direct affiliation with the university we could not register, but advised user if he could find the person affiliated with the university in the group, they could register under their credentials, or user could seek to get affiliate role and then register himself.</blockquote> <br>The gentleman who called me explained that UNC needs to restrict access to only computers that are in its database, so that they can track internet access, and assign blame for copyright violations. (That seems very big-brother-ish, to me; I guess things haven't changed much since I was in college: college students seemingly still are considered less than full citizens, with less than normal rights.)<br><br>He suggested that I get someone in the group who has a UNC affiliation to register my computer under his credentials, if I need Internet access while on campus. (Contrary to the email, he did not hold out any hope that I could "get [an] affiliate role" and register myself -- I asked if I could get my own credentials, and he said no.)<br><div><br></div> <div>Alternately, perhaps we could program a cheap router to spoof a registered MAC address, for use at our meetings? I don't know whether that might get someone in trouble.<br><br>I don't really need Internet, I guess, except that I might need it to do a lightning on, for example, lxml.<br><br>Of course, if we're going to meet off-campus, this is all moot, I guess.</div> <div> <br>Dave<br><br> </div> <div> <br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 6:55 AM, David Burton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ncdave4life@...">ncdave4life@...</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote">The UNC classroom meeting place was very nice in many ways: plenty of room, nice desks, and a fantastic computer projection screen. The difficulty finding it (and getting there on a game night) was the worst problem.. However, one other surprising (to me) disappointment about the UNC meeting location was the lack of Internet access.<div> <br> </div> <div>There were three visible wireless SSIDs, all with strong signals:</div> <div>"UNC-Setup" -- open, but I couldn't do anything but ping the gateway</div> <div>"UNC-1" -- need passphrase</div> <div>"UNC-Secure" -- need passphrase</div> <div><br></div> <div>Reading on the UNC web site, it appears that they try very hard to limit access to "members of the UNC community" (which doesn't include the NC taxpayers who merely pay much of the bill). Apparently, they go to the remarkable trouble of keeping a campus-wide database of authorized MAC addresses, and their DHCP servers are configured to access this database and block access from unauthorized MAC addresses: <a href="http://help.unc.edu/4924" target="_blank">http://help.unc.edu/4924</a> </div> <div><br></div> <div>Even wired access is apparently blocked through this mechanism, which would seem to rule out my 2nd thought, which was to just bring a wireless router to the meetings and plug it in somewhere.</div> <div> <br> </div> <div>So, if we need Internet access for a presentation, is there a good solution to this problem? (Programming a router to spoof some MAC address in the database doesn't seem like a "good" solution!)</div> <div><br></div> </blockquote> </div> <br> </div> </div>
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