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.

My router is an Archer C6 from TP-Link. I’ve never used OpenWrt, but I have used Linux on my laptop & server for many years. Is this worth looking into/possible without any prior networking knowledge?

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.

And importantly, the email is from my dorm (whose contract simply said they provided free fast wifi), while these unexpected T&Cs are from the dorm’s ISP.

While I see where you’re coming from, I do need to clarify two things:

• I use VR mainly for two things: Beat Saber, and sometimes C++ game development (my degree). I can’t develop on-headset because of the limitations Facebook imposes, so I am stuck with streaming. I am taking my own path through these studies, for example I rewrote all the assignments and engines to CMake and then Linux which has allowed me to learn a whole lot more than if I simply followed the classes. I wish to mess with networking as another extension to my studies, as it’s not covered at all and now is the time I have dedicated 100% to learning (vs later in life).
• I didn’t really choose this university: I chose to do an exchange program for a semester and this was the one option that matched my interests/degree. And the uni seems awesome so far (we haven’t started courses though). The dorm is a separate entity from the uni, but they do have a deal to provide rooms for half a year for exchange students. So this dorm was my best option to avoid a yearlong contract.

Thanks. I do unfortunately need wifi to do wireless VR streaming… I guess I need to find a way to tune it to interfere the least, but this is a whole alien world to me.

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)?

I’m in the UK, not sure if they have their own british version of the FCC or just follow their rules but it might be different. The router/AP is a tp link Archer C6, which I use as it is performant enough to do VR streaming w/o stutters or high latency.

So technically I should get away with connecting the router and making an AP right? I can’t do a hotspot from my laptop because the performance is not high enough for streaming (this is why I bought a dedicated router).

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 I definitely don’t want to hurt the network for other folks staying at this (very large) dorm complex/building. Can I reasonably run it at low power (since I only need it in my room) and not have it bother anyone?