defzons,

I've re-spliced your post to highlight the most prominent (and troubling) issues:

Originally posted here by defzons

RiotGirl.. we all share the appartment. And some very important element; He who unplugged my card, is the son of the owner of the appartment. (we all pay rent though) He got the largest bed-room, and give a **** when it comes to clean up after himself..
Great. Not only is the router in HIS room (physical access) but due to his father owning the apartment, you have absolutely ZERO bargaining power. I don't think a technical solution will help you out if someone has physical access to the router and the machines (but it cuts both ways - remember that .. I'll touch upon this later) although you should hopefully receive a few technical answers. My way of handling the situation would be plan your objective Thai style i.e. think with your head:

Let's assess the situation:
1 Son of owner of the apartment
2 Childish and immature
3 Physical access to the router and machines

First, I would get a physical lock on your bedroom until you move out so that this guy doesn't have access to YOUR machine. Think about it - if he is prepared to remove hardware, then he will be prepared to physically tamper with your machine in other ways i.e. removing components, installing software (keylogger, trojan, etc). So, make sure you have TOTAL access and control to your box (laptop), make sure it's 100% clean - no virii, trojans, worms etc - no loggers or any other malicious malware installed. At this point I would have NO trust in this house-mate of yours.

Second, make the first move to offer the olive branch to make peace. Due to his personality (see your quotation below), reason often doesn't work with surly, childish adults. You have to appear to acquiesce to their demands - lulling them into a false sense of security - apologise for your role in the situation (yeah, it sucks at having to suck it up - but remember the objective: access to the router until you leave. Oh, and some revenge Thai style .. but that's your call. I neither condemn nor condone any future actions that you might take).

If you have to squirm and make him feel like the 'Man', swallow your pride (temporarily) and do so. You have ZERO, absolute jack bargaining power with this individual judging by your living situation, your present needs (access to router) and his personality. Once you get him on side and have access to the router, you have achieved part of your objective. Your other objective is to take as much sh$t from him, without acquiescing to any unreasonable demands to allow you to get your work done before you move out.

But as childish he is for most of the time, he didn't get the point.
I know the situation is very childish, in detailed way, but it isn't when it comes to moral & princ. matters.
** Thai style: once you're close to moving out (and you should have LOCKED away your box and/or laptop (if he has physical access, he practically has root, for all intents and purposes), his bargaining power over you diminishes to practically nothing when all of your sh$t is out of that apartment. Remember? Thai style? Your patience will be rewarded .. he who has access to router and/or box has root access. I leave it the choice up to you whether at this point you wish to cut your losses and just be thankful to be out of that apartment or whether you wish to dish out a slice of revenge served up cold ..

You have to be pretty dumb to f**k someone off (like he has done to you) if that person has physical access to your box and is due to be moving out of the apartment. I leave the choice up to your sense of ethics.

Regards,
Riotgirl