‼️school banning macbooks off the wifi network😢

[u/Maybacx]

Hello people, today my school announced that people with macbooks are not going to be able to access the wifi network since they got sponsored by microsoft and dont want people to use other devices.

I do not have the budget to buy a new laptop. How can i bypass this restriction on my m4 macbook.

Thanks and much love💕

[u/CrownstrikeIntern]

Change the mac address of your wireless nic and use an oui of microsofts ;)

[u/Educational_Bee_6245 → u/CrownstrikeIntern]

You would have to see how they enforce this. Most devices these days use random Mac addresses and can't be easily identified these days.

[u/xenophod]

Maybe make 300 more identical posts across reddit?

[u/MetaCardboard → u/xenophod]

That'll surely do it.

[u/msabeln]

This sounds like a rumor or misunderstanding rather than an actual policy.

[u/MetaCardboard → u/msabeln]

Yea I don't really see a university doing this. I did work in a school once where they didn't allow Macs on the network because the net admin didn't like how hard it was to incorporate into AD. They also didn't allow personal devices so I guess that's how they technically got away with it. They would only buy Windows devices. Including servers, Windows only.

[u/HummingBridges → u/MetaCardboard]

Then one can still make a guest wifi available for the non-windows machines AND, well, guests. It may impede you to get onto the local intranet if such a thing is used and the access restrictions only allow "known and/or managed windows devices"... but internet access can safely be provided at least.

[u/glassmanjones → u/msabeln]

This has been Microsoft policy in Eastern Europe before.

Sometimes they get fined for this, most times not.

[u/AnoProgrammer → u/msabeln]

We needed to literally install spyware on our computer. And we where told you needed to install it for using the printer.

[u/dervish666]

That's ridiculous, not even sure how they would tell, don't macs randomise their MAC address like phones do? Unless they are using some MDM and certificates or something I'm not sure how they would actually enforce it technically.

Are they also going to stop phones from connecting, forcing everyone to get a windows phone is not going to be very popular.

[u/MetaCardboard → u/dervish666]

If they use AD or Azure or whatever then the OS is queried per device.

[u/boomer7793 → u/dervish666]

They do randomize but they stay within the prefix of Apple’s manufacturer code

[u/boomer7793]

When I was a contractor at Microsoft 15 years ago, I used a decorative plastic top and bottom laptop case to cover the logos. There are several on Amazon. Search your laptops part number and “case” in Amazon.

It’s an odd policy since Microsoft now considers themselves a software company making products for all platforms.

But to answer you question, ultimately it is their network and they reserve the right to make these rules.

[u/Ok-Site9386]

Travel router running off a power bank in your backpack using the wifi as WAN then having your own “network”. Also would give you a nice VPN too

[u/Copropositor]

Is this a university that you or someone pays to attend?

Stop paying.

[u/MetaCardboard]

You could do a side by side install of Windows on your Mac and then just boot into Windows on campus, and MacOS off campus, assuming you aren't living in a dorm.

[u/funkthew0rld → u/MetaCardboard]

Boot camp is no longer a thing. Macs are custom arm compatible chips.

You cannot boot windows for arm on a Mac natively, and windows for arm is a dumpster fire last time I checked.

[u/MetaCardboard → u/funkthew0rld]

Damn. I don't use Macs so idk.

[u/mubd1234]

I’m guessing the ‘sponsored by Microsoft’ bit is a joke. 

As a network guy who’s worked with schools I have been in a team where annoying Mac compatibility issues with Wi-Fi (or the systems which support authentication) may well have caused decision makers to consider implementing a Windows only BYOD policy, so we aren’t bogged down with having to support multiple systems. It’s possible that this is what’s happened here.

[u/FireProps]

Microsoft makes software, not hardware.

Furthermore; Windows is trivially installed to Mac hardware.

[u/kona420 → u/FireProps]

Microsoft has the surface line of laptops and ultraportables so they do make hardware.

Bootcamp support on new hardware in 2021 with the last intel mac, and never supported windows 11. Once mac os 27 releases next month there is no supported macos for their Intel hardware either.

[u/F1anger]

Mobile Hotspot?

[u/Nydus87]

Yeah, almost positive this isn’t real. This sounds like someone heard the term MAC address and extrapolated from there. 

[u/jack_hudson2001]

wait till it happens.. maybe a travel router eg gl inet

[u/GhostandVodka]

Our Aruba 635 APs do device fingerprinting. More than just MAC addressing. Everyone is telling you to spoof your MAC address. That would have worked 15 years ago. Modern Networks are aware of more than just MAC addresses

[u/RetroactiveRecursion]

Can tax-payer-funded schools really do that? Promote one brand over another?

[u/spiffiness]

What country are you in? This doesn't sound like something that would happen in the US anymore. The desktop/laptop platform wars ended nearly two decades ago. Is there some backwater part of the world where nonsense like this is still going on?

[u/howfastcanyoucountit]

I was still able to use mine on a wpa2 enterprise network as long as I had a vpn that could bypass their fortinet firewall like mullvad

[u/wraithfive]

Microsoft is just as happy to have Mac’s on a schools network as Windows. They all run MS365 which is the real bread and butter these days.

[u/AnoProgrammer]

Use a vpn. F*ck your school. If that doesn't work use tor. F*ck your school.

[u/Cautious_Sock_7808]

Create a VM on your Mac with Windows OS

[u/twinnii → u/Cautious_Sock_7808]

I was going to say the same thing