UCI Housing Network and Cable TV Issues

On their website, Resnet has this little blurb:

IMPORTANT NOTE: ResNet advises against purchasing a wireless "router" and instead recommends that residents purchase a wireless "access point". They are cheaper and provide the same wireless access and security without complications such as Network Address Translation (NAT), DHCP, and Layer 3 isolation.

Of course, this is just rubbish.
Wireless access points are nowadays very hard to find, and cost the same as or more than routers.
The proof: Fry's Electronics offers a LinkSys wireless router for $29.99 here.
A comparable LinkSys wireless access point is $79.99 at Fry's, as can be seen here.
I think every college student can do the math...

And of course, the installation of a wireless router is as easy as the installation of an access point. Setup of NAT, DHCP, etc. are not a problem with modern wireless routers, since these routers have sensible defaults. How else would computer-illiterate people be able to handle that everywhere in the world???
The only somewhat complicated issue is the security, and that's the same for routers and access points.

The real problem Resnet has with wireless routers, and one that they don't like to talk about, is that their oh-so-cherished CCA doesn't work through routers. Once one machine has authenticated through the router, all other machines connected to it are home free.
As I have explained on this blog before, that's a fundamental flaw of CCA. It shows once again that CCA is a bad system and should be abandoned. Resnet spent lots of money on a flawed system that any knowledgeable person knew from the beginning to be broken.

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