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This might be a common situation but I couldn't find anything that provided a clear answer.

I moved into an apartment complex. All the apartments are on a LAN sharing the same Internet connection. I have no control over the central router.

What is the best way to set up my Internet access?

I want to isolate myself from other people living in the apartment complex. I need wireless because my phone does not have an ethernet port :) So I have bought my own router (with wireless) and installed DDWRT on it.

Is there a way to set it up to avoid double NAT, while still isolating myself from the other apartments?

There is no UPnP on the central router. I think they disallow open ports anyway for security reasons. Is there any way I can open ports without access to the central router? Or is there a workaround like using a VPS or reverse-ssh (and how does it work)? Bittorrent works without open ports. Hosting webservers I can do on a VPS. What about remote desktop/VPN? Games nowadays don't require open ports?

A more general question: is this the way to set up Internet access in an apartment complex? It seems a bit strange that with all the different protocols and routing types and the Internet being just a bunch of routers connected together, that there is no way to host a server behind a third party router? Should I try to talk the admin into making the router use BGP or something (but it won't work because the ISP needs to do that). Actually, why can't you get multiple IP addresses from your ISP on a single connection?

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Unfortunately, I doubt that whoever is the net admin for your apartment complex is going to make changes to the entire LAN just to suit your needs, but it is a nice thought.

Secondly, I'm not 100% sure if DDWRT supports pass-through NAT or a VPN pass-through, but if it does (I believe so), you can set it up in such a way so that you can avoid NATing through both yours and your buildings NAT.

In the end, unless you are able to (somehow) convince your buildings net admin to segment the network or configure vlans throughout the complex to divide network traffic (depending on the network devices used by the administration) you will be operating off of a shared pool. Even if you were to gain access to your buildings gateway device, you are still segmented off of it someway...somehow (considering you have physical connections that you are already connecting your own router to).

Not sure if you want to attempt breaking into the network infrastructure at your complex, unless you're looking to get evicted. Your best solution is to work with what you have, unless you can get your own ISP.

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Gut feeling is that they are not going to spring for VLANs. You want a VPN service. This is getting to be quite common now as buildings can have the intercoms over IP as well as smart meters for power, gas. hot water, smoke detection and the like. You could always ask for permission ($$$) to have your own VLAN or broadcast domain. They may allow it if you pay. You could tunnel through their network to wherever the service comes into the building, so you may not have to run cable. Are you an owner or a renter? Ask the landlord, as a landlord myself I am open to ideas that improve the value of the property. Otherwise 5G or fixed wireless if there are any providers in the vicinity.

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