Wifi connection problems in student dorm

[Confusion20]

Hi sorry to write in English but I am new here and haven't started my German course yet. I moved into a student dorm. I need help with setting up my wifi network. The flat has a single LAN line connection which I used to setup my TP Link wifi router. I first set to static and entered the ip address, subnet and gateway information provided. When I want to connect to the internet I have to enter the SSH information. I would like a more normal wifi connection where I can freely connect all of my wifi devices and wouldn't have to keep entering the SSH info. Could someone please help?

 

[chrigu]

PLZ, Go to the Admin of our student dorm and ask for help.

 

[Confusion20]

I'm not sure but that might be same person I spoke to from studNet help desk who told me that I had it configured correctly. However, there has to be a better way to do this. In fact I stayed at a place where they had it setup like how you would normally expect it. Though they didn't set it up so they couldn't help me.

 

[chrigu]

and why do you think we can help you, if the responsible admin can't do that either?

 

[Confusion20]

Because the question seems to have been asked before in similar ways on the forum. I just couldn't follow the answers or the steps.

 

[snaxilian]

First of all there are hundreds of student dorms in germany and most of them have different types on how to connect, use or authenticate the students to allow access to the internet.
For example where I lived and studied you had to provide the MAC address of your PC (or the MAC of the WAN Port of your router) and get an ip address, subnet, gateway etc via dhcp protocol and that's it. Other dorms use a dual access pptp or other vpn protocols and clients.

But you provide not enough information to help you. To help you with your problem we first have to understand the whole problem to find a solution.

However, there has to be a better way to do this.

Please tell us why there has to be other ways just because of your wishful thinking and fantasy.
If you use linux on your pc there are some posibilities to automate the login, e.g. https://raffaels-blog.de/post/studnet/ or https://blog.stadtplan-ilmenau.de/wlan-im-studnet-in-leipzig/

 

[Confusion20]

One reason that I think that there has to be another way is because 2 days before I moved into my current apartment I stayed at another dorm which is administered in the same way and by the same group. However, that apartment had their router setup where you just needed the wifi password. The person staying there told me that a friend set it up for them 2 years ago and they have know idea how they did it.

 

[snaxilian]

Maybe there lives a small IT magician in there or this friend installs a router with linux on it, e.g. openwrt or ddwrt and wrote a script on that specific router to authenticate. The two solutions from my previous post could be an inspiration the a setup similar to which your friend have.
But you need some linux skills or have to find someone. Go out and get in contact with your neighbors, make new friends, ask for help and maybe there is someone who had done such a setup. But this is a very tinkered solution.
If it is just for authentication a small raspberry pi will be sufficient, even the old and "slow" raspberry pi 1. With some luck you can buy these second hand for less than 50€ including a small sd-card and a power adapter.

 

[Raijin]

When I want to connect to the internet I have to enter the SSH information.

Are you sure about that? I never lived in a student dorm, but I never heard of anyone needing to login via SSH to connect to the internet either - and I seriously doubt it would be practicable for not-so-experienced users. Maybe you are talking about a captive portal rather than a SSH login?

 

[Darklanmaster]

may you can post a link where the configuration is described? The dorm or the IT-department should have a webpage

 

[snaxilian]

@Raijin @Darklanmaster Student dorms in Leipzig use ssh for authentication of the user and from what I've read in the postings of the threadowner I'm sure he lives there or in some dorm which uses the same technology. Is it user-friendly? No. Are there better solutions today available? Definitly yes.
My guess: This is a cost-friendly solution which is in there since way before someone invented captive portals
But the Studentenwerk don't have that much money or the employees with the technical knowledge to install new/better/other solutions. The maintenance/upkeep of the dorms (and their eletricity, water, interior like kitchens, internet access) is mostly under the budget of the Studentenwerk and not of the universities.

 

[Raijin]

thx @snaxilian , didn't read your links before posting, but now I did. This is really inconvenient as most people wouldn't even know what ssh is, not to mention they don't have putty or something similar installed. It's a bit awkward...

However, your links show an automated solution as long as a linux device is available. If not, it should be easy enough to setup a 15€ Router with OpenWRT and implement the commands provided in the links in 30 minutes max.

 

[snaxilian]

I agree with you about the not-so-perfect user experienace but the studNet help desk offers guidelines and tutorials for Windows, Linux and Mac 🤷‍♂️
Openwrt or similar systems doesn't have always a ssh client included. I think I've read some threads and/or bug reports so a Raspberry Pi would be the more simplier solution.