Router Question

[Airman Thunderbird]

Junior's going to college in August. The dorm rooms are setup with
network cables for Internet and school network access. Would like to put
a router between Junior's laptop and desktop and the school network. The
school IT guys tell me they frown on routers as they can shut down a
whole floor if misconfigured to broadcast DHCP.

I can turn off DHCP, I guess, but my question is, how could the router
broadcast DHCP to the wide area network, unless you stuck the WAN cable
in the wrong slot or something?

 

[David Vair]

Yes it would only broadcast to the whole network if it was put into wrong port.

 

[Randella]

I am sure they are just extra careful because of the amount and type of
users they have. It is typical anywhere public access is granted...

-randy

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Yes it would only broadcast to the whole network if it was put into wrong port.

Or if wireless router, the router's signal "may" be stronger than the campus
ones.

 

[Lorne]

on the other hand... college IT departments don't like the students to
have/use routers as monitoring and troubleshooting issues becomes a hassle
when they can't access your computer because of the router.
(also, they like to think they are the only knowledgeable individuals on
campus!!)