internet service at the residence?

Hi,
I'm a student currently living at a student
residence, but which is also a hotel.
Well, so they are using a LAN to give us
internet service, but it's $30 per person
per month and because some people have been
downloading big files but didn't listen
for the manager's warning to not to do so,
they ended up blocking p2p programs,
video games ..and that sort of stuff
that would make owning a notebook pointless.
So, I'm thinking of getting my own service,
and share it with my boyfriend who lives
just two rooms across with a router...
Well, is it possible to get the service
when the hotel provides the LAN?
Also, I don't know if the hotel tv cable
is different from the one at an apartment...do they?
Lastly, would sharing the service with a router
with a person living two rooms away
slow down the internet?

By the way, I have a Toshiba satellite m30 special edition,
and my boyfriend has a Toshiba satellite m10....i think...
but i think we both have wireless modems...but his is from
2 years ago and I just recently bought one. would that
have to be considered when buying the router? and which one
would have the best wireless power..?

Thanks.

 

Hi crc83,
I think your going to be stuck with what the hotel offers; it's really not that bad, they are only blocking you from stealing music and software and opening yourself up to virus attacks big time. More and more schools and businesses are blocking these ports as they are starting to be held legally resposible for what it downloaded on their networks. Plus, like you said a few people downloading large and numerous files drags down the whole network for everyone else.
The reason your going to be stuck is that you won't be able to use the existing network in the hotel, so that avenue is out. the hotel cable is your best bet, but they probably won't let you do that either unless it's the kind of cable service you have to order yourself. If the cable service is already included and you don't have control over the what programming you buy, then I think you out of luck there as well. If you both have wireless on your notebooks and can get cable broadband, then one of you could buy a wireless router and share the connection if your very close to each other(less than 100 ft) and yes it will slow down both connection if one of you are downloading big files. If your both just surfing the net, then it work just fine. The trick is that if the hotel owns both the cable line and the LAN(which it sounds like they do), then it's going to be next to impossible to convince them to let you do this since if they are charging you $30 each for internet service, they probably are making some profit on this themselves. I bet they bought a T1 line for ~$600/month or so and if they have 50 rooms that are each paying $30, that means $900 profit/month for them; and if they let you buyout and eliminate them as the middle man, they would need to do it for everyone. Then in no time they have lost a source of profit for themselves.

good luck
Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

thanks for the reply...
well..this is quite depressing..
we're all students and they earn about $9,000
per month for charging students in this hotel...
that's way too much money....
or are they having like one LAN line for $600
per floor?can they have one LAN line for
10 floors with like...30 people each floor...?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by crc83