Ethernet in, Wifi out?

Question

A friend of mine is going to university where only ethernet is offered in the rooms. He only has an iPad, and want's a device that will allow him to broadcast ethernet wirelessly.

The ethernet won't be under his control at all.

Does such a device exist?

Answer 1

Yes, you need a bog standard Ethernet Wireless Router.

Many exist, they simply have an Ethernet/RJ45 Port as the WAN connection instead of a RJ11/Modem.

Many places do not allow this, and block ports based on MAC Address, so you may want to try and find one that supports MAC Cloning, you can then set it up on one machine and copy that MAC address to the router and it will look like it is the same machine connecting.

Answer 2

What you want is referred to as a Wireless Access Point. An access point simply extends an Ethernet connection to wireless clients, which is essentially what you want to do. No extra ports and usually at a much lower cost to the consumer. The router may be the better choice however if you have some machines that will be using a wired connection.

One Ethernet in:

Many wireless connections out :)

Configuration of these devices is usually much simpler than that of a router as well.

Answer 3

If he has a mac or a friend does, you could share the ethernet internet connection via wifi. I think there might be a way to do it from PC too.

Answer 4

Any cable router will do that although the IT department at the uni may be watching for people doing that.

EDIT: William's answer is probably more accurate although here in the UK ethernet routers are generally sold as cable routers since they are compatible with the main cable network as opposed to DSL routers.