Setting up a AP express for college-stealth

Hello all
I'm planning on setting up my Airport Express in my dorm when I get to college in a few days and the official campus policy regarding wireless routers is:

"most people dont know how to secure them and they end up taking down the network, so we ask you just bring a long ethernet cord"

and we all know how convenient THAT would be.

So i'm wondering
besides using 128 bit WPA2 hex (whatever the most secure encryption APE supports is)
and "hiding" the broadcast SSID ( i think APE does this?)


what other things can I do to make it work better and/or stealthier?

I know theres something about pairing it only with certain MAC addresses? but would that even be helpful or would I need access to the modem for that?

Also is there a way for admins to know if the user is plugged in or on wireless and/or a way to fool them?

Finally, what settings should be used-will DHCP interfere with the setup? what about NAT settings or anything

I have a basic understanding of the wireless network world but not so much the specifics or logistics-mostly just a "mysterious black box" understanding and am familiar with most of the terms and can usually get things working, I just dont want to get my router taken away or anything while I'm figuring it out.

Thank you all in advance for all your input,
Pat

I can't imagine that doing anything more than using a secure password and suppressing the broadcasting of your device is necessary. It wouldn't hurt to set the MAC Address Access Control option to "local" and then just plug in the MAC address of your Mac. Beyond that, I think yer set.

Oh yes... as far as NAT settings... if your Mac is the ONLY computer using the Airport, then set its IP address as the default host. You should probably set up your Mac to have a static IP address in that case also. As for DHCP... just leave those settings alone. Well actually.. again if only your Mac is going to be connecting, I suppose you could limit the DHCP range to one IP address (the one for your Mac).

Others (on the interwebs about similar but different situations) have mentioned something about having to register as an access point to get a DHCP so I don't know how I should set it up without drawing attention to myself, or if this is only at colleges that allow routers that are "registered" with the school?

Also...is there any harm in just leaving DHCP set up so others in my care can use it? is this possible while staying "under the radar"?

thanks again