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While in college, I've been lucky enough to have a dorm floor where someone brought a Nintendo 64 and Super Smash Bros - now, it's a permanent fixture in the common room where a a bunch of my friends and I on the floor play all the time. We're all a bit competitive, so the inevitable trash-talking commences. This comes to the point where the S-word is mentioned: "dude, your character takes no skill." Of course, I had to retort: if they wanted a real game of skill, they would have to play some Starcraft.
Unfortunately, I don't know that many people at my college that play SC1 or SC2 (we don't even have a CSL team). Since none of my friends on my floor have Starcraft 2, it'd be an unlikely jump for them to immediately dive into spending $60 for a copy, especially since a couple of them haven't even played RTSes before. However, I knew that they could get SC:BW off ICCUP, and I was definitely down to play Brood War LAN, even though I hadn't really played it that much compared to SC2 (very briefly D player with like a 2-3 record in ICCup when the beta went down).
Still, three of them had played SC1 in the past and openly admitted to not really knowing how to truly play. In fact, if it weren't for SC2 I probably would have had the same experience as they did, briefly playing the campaign a little when in elementary/middle school and not much else. However, they didn't really seem that interested, although their interest was a little bit piqued, and one of my friends who's more of a gamer started playing a little (with the ICCup version, campaign didn't work so he just played 1v1s against computers and kept losing xD). This was fine - I myself had merely a rudimentary understanding of mechanics as a diamond player in SC2, and I didn't really know any build-orders besides basicas like 12 hatch - and I was cool with just getting them to learn/messing around in 1v2s or whatnot.
The problem occurred when I tried to start a LAN game with them. We couldn't join each other's games/our computers can't host. Because it's University wifi, I have no idea how to portforward (don't know router passwords and whatnot). And even though I would always make the program an exception in my windows/antivirus firewalls, I could never host, even in previous times where I had an internet connection that didn't block it, so I'm honestly unsure as to what specifically on a computer could block hosting.
How can I fix this? Would Hamachi override any router firewalls blocking hosting? Or perhaps I could create an adhoc network? I tried an adhoc network with one friend, but that didn't work - although he was using windows bootcamped on a Mac, so I'm not sure how that would work with hosting.
The second part: is there any way I could get them a little more interested in SC/what would be the fastest way to get them playing more competently? Of course, I first have to address the hosting issue - if it's such a hassle to get it working in the first place, they'll more naturally gravitate to the Smash Bros that's already set up and already entrenched in the common room through our constant play of it. I'm sure I can get them to try it once it works, just for a slight change of pace of games if nothing more - but is there anything you'd recommend as a particular way to get them hooked/ease their learning of it [without having them study hours of korean vods or something]? For example, the b.net website has race overview videos for the races in SC2, which is cool - do they have anything similar for BW?
TLDR: LAN hosting not working, can't portforward because I don't know passwords for university routers. Also, how to help friends learn BW in the easiest way?
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Hamachi would probably work. Can't say for sure though although its probably your best choice short of buying a wireless routing and using it for a local network.
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I've played BW over Hamachi, friend's Ad hoc network on Windows, and Garena at my school. Easiest way to get them to learn BW is to just play some 3v3s with them so they get basic unit control and unit production down. It's hard getting complete newbies to enjoy competitive sc unless they're into it first.
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To help your friends learn BW, just show them a few VODS, point out details, and give them a few games to practice.
As for Hamachi, it is the best choice in this scenario, I second that.
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Yeah, I'll definitely try hamachi when I get the chance. Do you guys think that pitting them against each other 1v1 while teaching them could work? Computers will probably annihilate them, and those grudges could incentivize more playing ^^.
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You could also physically connect to each other's computers with ethernet cords and play in the same room that way via LAN too. Hamachi will most likely work and is very easy.
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Do a true old school LAN and put all your computers in the same room. 
Otherwise, i would try Hamachi or Garena. It always took like 10 tries to successfully host on Hamachi whenever i played though. :S
As for learning, just tell them to make lots of workers and expand and keep money low. That should be enough work in itself for a few weeks/months. Don't even care about strategy, just let them figure out for themselves why BW is so awesome.
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For hosting, try to find your friendly networking nerd or just settle with Garena or Hamachi. Both are pretty easy to set up, you just have to spend 10-20 minutes figuring it out.
If you want to get your friends hyped about BW, pro vods are the way to go. I highly recommend they check out the Avertec-GOMtv Classic casted by Tasteless. Showing them vods commentated by Koreans can be daunting at first, they need Tasteless to get them initially hooked. As for learning what the units do, playing a game against a computer just to see what the units do, but for the most part I learned everything I needed to about units from Tasteless. Once they are hooked check out the MSL casted by Daz and Petzergling under the youtube account akhbar. They give you a little more of a fanboy look at BW, with the frequent 'baller' and 'badass' comments being thrown about. They really started my interest in the Proleague and Korean BW.
I hope you have better luck converting your friends to a real mans game than I did. My friends played BW with me at first, but when I started plowing through the learning curve and they couldn't keep up, it was hard to keep them interested. The learning curve of BW ended up being too daunting for them, as they were casual games that liked to get competitive without putting too much effort into it. As a word of advice, don't allow yourself to get significantly ahead of the others, or your friends will eventually give up. Good luck!
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EPT
