SkieCan we stop hostel students from sharing hotspots?
Yes. Hotspot and tethering can be blocked on the managed device, so a student cannot share their connection with other phones. The setting is on by default in Skie's hardening. A student with an unmanaged second phone can still create a hotspot from that phone, but the managed devices stay filtered.
Hotspots are a classic hostel workaround. One student with a data plan shares it, and a dozen others use it to get past the hostel Wi-Fi and its rules. With Skie, hotspot and tethering are blocked on the managed device, so it cannot be used as the source.
That covers the managed phone or tablet creating a hotspot. It does not stop a managed device from joining a hotspot made elsewhere, for instance on a friend's unmanaged phone. In that case the filter does still apply, because it is on the device, and the app list and Chrome rules apply too. The connection changes, the restrictions do not.
Related controls close more doors. Wi-Fi Direct can be disabled, Bluetooth can be turned off, and USB data and USB file transfer can be blocked. Wi-Fi settings can be locked so a student cannot switch to another network, and VPN apps and setup are blocked, as are proxy and DNS changer apps.
The honest limit is the second device. Skie controls only the device it manages. A student who owns two phones, one managed, has an unmanaged one that can do whatever it likes. A hostel agreement should state that personal devices are covered by the rules too, and the committee should decide how to check that.
A practical tip: decide whether you really mean it. If the rule is no sharing connections, switch tethering off and say why in the agreement. If hotspots are fine in study hours but not at night, the night window and the filter already do most of that job without a block.