Create My Own Access Point With Unchanging Subnet

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
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I currently am attending University and living in residence, where they have a WPA2-Enterprise network that uses our uni email/password to validate, as well as a WPA2 PSK for non-enterprise devices. To connect to the non-enterprise network, you need to register the device's MAC address, then it assigns you a random password to login to the SSID. When I first tried to hook up my Google Home and Chromecast to the non-Enterprise network, I found myself usually unable to even get past set-up and when I did (rarely), my phones/tablets were unable to see them while on said non-enterprise network.

After some troubleshooting and asking around, I finally got a straight answer from the IT admin that it has to do with the fact the non-enterprise network utilizes a changing subnet. I'm not super literate on network lingo so I wasn't totally sure what that meant. I've looked around and it seems a possible solution would be to register my own router as an access point to the non-enterprise SSID and assign it a non-changing subnet, passing all the traffic through there and making it appear to the uni router that it is just traffic from one device. There's no housing/IT rules against me setting this up and I would have it locked down so that only I would be able to attach devices to the ad-hoc router. Asking them to change their entire network strategy is a little out of the question given how large the campus is. Would this be possible/how would one even go about doing it with OpenWrt?

I'm planning on using OpenWRT, but am unsure as to what device would get me the functionality I need. I've looked through the recommended devices list and am currently eyeing a $70 CAD TP-Link A6 or a GLiNet AR300M (no antenna vs antennae)? Apologies for the intro level post as I'm really new to networking stuff.

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NAC/NAP pre-auth? either way... you need to talk to the IT guy again... because they did a shit job of explaining what you need...

either way... yes openwrt + travelmate will likely do the job...

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Universities usually imply professional setups including the 5 GHz band, if that's the case - and assuming good 5 GHz coverage where you're located, triple-radio devices (e.g. specimens based on ipq4019) would make sense. While those are higher priced than the devices you're looking at, they will provide the best results (at least if you are expecting to use its wireless capabilities, 5 GHz in particular).

That said, tightly managed wireless deployments like the ones you are suggesting usually frown upon their users setting up private APs (as those mess up the airspace and circumvent access restrictions), so make sure that your plans are indeed fine with IT.

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Would I need a dual band router to pull it off or will any regular travel router supported by OpenWRT be able to do the job?

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I am totally fine just putting out a 2.4 GHz signal since I really won't be doing anything super bandwidth intensive on the ad-hoc network. Could I still get good performance out of lower-priced devices?

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