• Re: Using a mobile phone AP for an Ethernet network?

    From Theo@21:1/5 to David on Mon May 13 12:55:32 2024
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    Virgin Media seems to have a problem at the moment.
    It has been intermittent over the last few weeks but seems to have become
    a hard fault today.
    I can get individual PCs on line by linking them to a mobile phone hot
    spot (mainly - that is another issue to pursue) but any devices linked to WiFi routers which rely on the Ethernet to connect them to the Internet
    are banjaxed.

    My initial searches don't seem to catch this particular problem.

    I am thinking of a wireless router/AP which can be told to connect to
    another wireless device instead of Ethernet.
    Further this router should maintain its SSID so devices will not see any change (apart from speed).

    Does such a thing exist?

    A few options...

    If your router has an ethernet WAN port, a 'game adapter' is intended to connect wired consoles to a wireless network. TP-Link used to have a good range - it looks like they're labelled 'travel router' with added 3/4/5G: https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-usb-adapter/tl-wr902ac/
    ('client mode' they call it)

    The router connects to that as its ethernet WAN, which then uses the wifi to uplink to your phone. It'll double NAT, but I think that's inevitable.

    It's also possible to set up a router to do this directly, but you'll need a second wifi device (the router's wifi is busy being an AP). Either a USB
    wifi or steal one of the wifi channels (eg uplink via 5GHz and offer 2.4GHz
    as an AP). Would need custom settings - OpenWRT should be able to do it.

    Theo

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  • From David@21:1/5 to All on Mon May 13 11:38:36 2024
    Virgin Media seems to have a problem at the moment.
    It has been intermittent over the last few weeks but seems to have become
    a hard fault today.
    I can get individual PCs on line by linking them to a mobile phone hot
    spot (mainly - that is another issue to pursue) but any devices linked to
    WiFi routers which rely on the Ethernet to connect them to the Internet
    are banjaxed.

    My initial searches don't seem to catch this particular problem.

    I am thinking of a wireless router/AP which can be told to connect to
    another wireless device instead of Ethernet.
    Further this router should maintain its SSID so devices will not see any
    change (apart from speed).

    Does such a thing exist?

    Cheers



    Dave R


    --
    AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Tony Mountifield@21:1/5 to wibble@btinternet.com on Mon May 13 14:18:37 2024
    In article <laecdsF2ss4U1@mid.individual.net>,
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    Virgin Media seems to have a problem at the moment.
    It has been intermittent over the last few weeks but seems to have become
    a hard fault today.
    I can get individual PCs on line by linking them to a mobile phone hot
    spot (mainly - that is another issue to pursue) but any devices linked to WiFi routers which rely on the Ethernet to connect them to the Internet
    are banjaxed.

    My initial searches don't seem to catch this particular problem.

    I am thinking of a wireless router/AP which can be told to connect to
    another wireless device instead of Ethernet.
    Further this router should maintain its SSID so devices will not see any change (apart from speed).

    Does such a thing exist?

    Yes, my Draytek router can be configured to connect to another WiFi network
    as its WAN connection. It was very useful when our local DSL cabinet was down for several days after a power outage from which it didn't recover automatically.
    I told the router to connect to the hotspot provided by my phone, and the rest of the network was none the wiser.

    Cheers
    Tony
    --
    Tony Mountifield
    Winchester, UK

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From SH@21:1/5 to Tony Mountifield on Mon May 13 21:43:41 2024
    On 13/05/2024 15:18, Tony Mountifield wrote:
    In article <laecdsF2ss4U1@mid.individual.net>,
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    Virgin Media seems to have a problem at the moment.
    It has been intermittent over the last few weeks but seems to have become
    a hard fault today.
    I can get individual PCs on line by linking them to a mobile phone hot
    spot (mainly - that is another issue to pursue) but any devices linked to
    WiFi routers which rely on the Ethernet to connect them to the Internet
    are banjaxed.

    My initial searches don't seem to catch this particular problem.

    I am thinking of a wireless router/AP which can be told to connect to
    another wireless device instead of Ethernet.
    Further this router should maintain its SSID so devices will not see any
    change (apart from speed).

    Does such a thing exist?

    Yes, my Draytek router can be configured to connect to another WiFi network as its WAN connection. It was very useful when our local DSL cabinet was down for several days after a power outage from which it didn't recover automatically.
    I told the router to connect to the hotspot provided by my phone, and the rest
    of the network was none the wiser.

    Cheers
    Tony


    you can in fact get 4g/5g routers where you insert a SIM card, teh
    router then connects to mobile phone network and then it will present
    usally 4 ethernet ports, a 2.4 GHz wifi network and sometimes also a 5
    GHz wifi network (depending on model)

    I have a Soyealink B535 from Amazon for £60.

    just make sure you put the right APN into the router for the SIM
    provider you use though!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Tony Mountifield@21:1/5 to i.love@spam.com on Tue May 14 22:15:16 2024
    In article <v1tu1u$3l16f$1@dont-email.me>, SH <i.love@spam.com> wrote:
    On 13/05/2024 15:18, Tony Mountifield wrote:
    In article <laecdsF2ss4U1@mid.individual.net>,
    David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
    Virgin Media seems to have a problem at the moment.
    It has been intermittent over the last few weeks but seems to have become >> a hard fault today.
    I can get individual PCs on line by linking them to a mobile phone hot
    spot (mainly - that is another issue to pursue) but any devices linked to >> WiFi routers which rely on the Ethernet to connect them to the Internet
    are banjaxed.

    My initial searches don't seem to catch this particular problem.

    I am thinking of a wireless router/AP which can be told to connect to
    another wireless device instead of Ethernet.
    Further this router should maintain its SSID so devices will not see any >> change (apart from speed).

    Does such a thing exist?

    Yes, my Draytek router can be configured to connect to another WiFi network as its WAN connection. It was very useful when our local DSL cabinet was down
    for several days after a power outage from which it didn't recover automatically.
    I told the router to connect to the hotspot provided by my phone, and the rest
    of the network was none the wiser.

    Cheers
    Tony

    you can in fact get 4g/5g routers where you insert a SIM card, teh
    router then connects to mobile phone network and then it will present
    usally 4 ethernet ports, a 2.4 GHz wifi network and sometimes also a 5
    GHz wifi network (depending on model)

    Yes, if you are looking for that as a permanent solution, it would work well.

    The OP is, and I was, looking for a temporary WAN solution that didn't involve changing the existing infrastructure. One could indeed use a device such as
    you mentioned, but as a stopgap, a phone was fine. Assuming the router can connect to it, which mine could.

    Cheers
    Tony
    --
    Tony Mountifield
    Winchester, UK

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