Hey guys! I have a quick question, I’m currently in a dorm room environment and most of my roommates are having wireless issues with the dorm’s WiFi. I have two wireless modules on my computer, one that came with the motherboard and another that is a wireless dongle. Is there a way to set up the wireless dongle as a secure ad-hoc network while my other module is hooked up the the WiFi? I can’t seem to remember how to do this so any help would be appreciated 
. I am running Windows 10 Pro on my computer.
The reason I am doing this is because the WiFi is having issues leasing ip addresses to certain devices (like the computers that my roommates have). Some of them are able to get a class a address while others get an apipa address, my computer seems to work fine for the moment so the purpose of this is to have a temporary solution while I.T. tries to fix the issue.
Please help, I am dead inside 
OK, you are probably in a crowded wireless environment. There are only 12 channels for WiFi in each band. So, odds are that you and most everyone else are on your default channel. So, of course they are going to have problems.
Do a “Site Survey” to see what channels and SSIDs are in use. Since this is a dorm - dense living arrangements - odds are that ALL the channels are occupied. Everyone is trying to talk over everyone elses’ WiFi. In other words, you’re fucked. In fact, some dorms prohibit WiFi for this reason - people refuse to play nice with each other.
You’re going to have to find the least crowded channel on the least crowded band. Probably on the 5GHz spectrum on something like a channel 3 or 9.
If everyone has 802.11ad devices and an 802.11ad router/access point, then you can use the new 6GHz band and probably be totally alone… for a short while until people start buying those 802.11ad devices en mass.
I agree with the site survey, but if your school’s IT is worth it’s salt it will have set up the wireless network in such a way that the channels wouldn’t overlap in the building. However, you won’t know this until you do the site survey. I use an app called “WiFi Analyzer” on my Android phone to do this. It will show you all active wireless networks and what channels they are using on a graph. Like @NetBandit said, if you can get on a 5Ghz channel, that is probably your best bet. Unfortunately you won’t be able to do much about the wireless network config as it is managed by the IT department.
Bottom line, unless the IT department fixes it, you might be SOL for wireless. Do you have any wired network jacks in your dorm? That would be the best solution for the time being and even permanently if possible.
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I doubt that the school’s IT is going to manage the personal routers/access points that the students install on their own. If they did, this wouldn’t be a problem.
So you have people in the dorms plugging their own routers into the network? Has IT not put up signs or emailed students saying “DONT DO THIS! you fucking twats”? You can bet any router a student plugs into the network is going to be default configured, therefore running DHCP. So who knows how many DHCP servers you have shitting addresses all over the network like an incontinent seagull. It’s a wonder people are able to get online at all, let alone intermittently.
If the IT department is letting students setup their own access points, then there is no way they are managing them (and they are really bad at network security). But from what I understand, the OP is talking about “dorm wifi” which I assumed meant the managed wireless network in the building, especially if it is handing out 10.x.x.x (Class A) addresses. I could be wrong in this assumption. If the OP could set up their own AP, then that would be the easiest solution to this whole thing, but I doubt (more like hope) the college IT department isn’t letting this happen.
@mrpopo I’m guessing the IT department has implemented some sort of port security on their switches to prevent people from plugging in routers and APs, but who knows. I’ve seen many “professional” network setups that were laughable before, so anything is possible. I’m hoping that someone that has the brains to get their own “wireless router” will also have the brains to plug the Ethernet cable into the right port. I am probably incredibly naive to even hope for that, but if the IT department is that dumb then they kinda deserve this after the 100th time this scenario has played out.
probably because:
so all the wireless is kung fu fighting
So let’s further worsen the problem by creating more wireless noise by creating more wireless networks. Brilliant!
That’s my point. It’s a battle royale for wireless there because NOBODY is following the rules of not setting up their own wireless network. While you could install your own wired network, that’s not going to help for portable devices.
There’s no way to do that. Best they could do is blacklist MAC addresses, but that’s easy enough to get around.
It doesn’t take brains. All it takes is [mom and dad’s] money.
You absolutely can do this. Cisco switches (and I’m sure others too) have the ability to dynamically learn source MAC addresses and cut the port off if more than X addresses are used on a single port. This would be the case if someone was using a router or AP. Considering their network probably (at least I hope it does) has some sort of login required via student ID or whatever, they could even have a captive portal that collected the system’s MAC address and whitelisted it upon valid sign in.
This is so very true and makes me cringe a little. lol
I should probably also explain that the ethernet jacks at the dorms are disabled because of the fact that people were bringing their own routers. right now the dorms are 100% wireless only, there are issues with that of course, I do appreciate the advice though. I’ll try running a site survey later and see what exactly is going on.
Not even that, the wifi is open without security so anyone could join as long as they are close enough.
I do feel that the main issue was the when IT designed and deployed the wireless network that they did not set up things properly, I’m still confused as to why they disabled the ethernet ports in the first place rather than setting up better security but I guess that shows how much they know, I’ll be sure to set up a ticket with them to see if there is anything else I can do since I don’t want to make things worse for other people; I just need something that works for my roommate and I who have network issues.
@Xaom From what you are saying, the network admin is really dropping the ball here. Disabling the ethernet ports because of rogue APs or routers is using a tech solution for a policy problem. However, you can’t control any of this and it doesn’t really help your situation. If the wireless is indeed open and has absolutely no sign on required, then I would recommend getting a cheap wifi repeater for your dorm (after your site survey of course). I’ll link an article that will allow you to turn your computer into a repeater if you are only going to do it temporarily.
I know this situation is mostly out of your control, but it seems the IT department really dropped the ball here.
Considering your in a school. It’s student VS The Man (Schoolt IT). It a war you ultimately loss since their there the super power over you.
Goal is to get what you want and “The Man” doesn’t notice. If it’s game of thrones well it gets harder and harder. But its a real world problem with people VS government so have at it.