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Help Wireless Hotspot + Router?

Coronach

Coronach

Well-Known Member
OK, query:

My family and I live out in the country so we use the wifi tether feature on our Bionics as our internet. This is fine for connecting multiple devices to the net, and we have a LAN that is not connected to the internet for internal filesharing, etc. Now our TV provider has a service that we want to use, but it requires that we have internet connection through our LAN (plus it would be nice not to have to switch networks constantly), so we want to be able to connect the Bionic up as the ISP and bridge it to the router.

The router in question is a Linksys/Cisco E4200. I'm willing to redo the firmware (Tomato, DD-WRT) if I need to do so, or even buy a new router if I must. Has anyone done this with their Bionic? Will it work?

Alternately, can it be done via USB tether? The chief point is that, at the end of the process, devices accessing the wireless LAN must be able to see the internet.

Thanks,

Mike

PS And no, there is no other viable ISP out here. Satellite, dialup and cellular. That's all there is.

PPS No, just getting a Mobile Hotspot won't work, either, since then all you have is multiple devices connecting to the internet, not the internet and a LAN
 
I am in the EXACT same situation as you are. All you need to do Is add a wifi card (usb or internal) and set up ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) and it works perfectly!!!

I use this setup to get my DirectV connected to the Internet. Because of the slow speed, downloading HD movies does not always work.

The only thing you may need to spend a little time with is setting up your IP addresses.

I hope you have the unlimited data plan as I do. On an average I use 20-25 gigs per month via ICS and a rooted phone. Good Luck!
 
Oh?

Walk me through this process. I get the wifi card, plug it in to my computer, and plug the Bionic into it? Or something else?
 
Ok, on your ICS PC you need two network cards, one wifi and one wired. Go into Control Panel->Network Sharing->Adapter settings and open the wifi card. Click the sharing tab then click allow sharing. You will need to pick the connection to share with (the wired card).

When you do this, ICS will tell you what the new IP address is for you wired card. If you want, you can change this manually by opening up the wired card and making the changes.

Next, set all of your other systems on the same IP network as the wired card. Be sure to set the Default Gateway IP address to that of the wired card on the ICS PC.

ICS PC wired card
IP 192.168.1.1
Mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway (leave blank)

Direct TV (other PC's etc)
IP 192.168.1.100
Mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.1

If you want other wireless devices like a laptop, be sure that your wifi router puts out its DHCP address on the same IP network.
 
OK, I'm kindasorta following you. I must be missing something, though.

So, you're plugging your Bionic into the computer via USB and using the USB tether feature? Is that plugged into a standard USB port, or into the wired card? Or are you using the wireless tether feature to connect the bionic to the wireless card?

From there you're using ICS to push the connection out to the other card, and using that to set up the LAN? So, essentially, your computer is acting as the router?

How does my existing router work with this setup, or doesn't it?

Finally, what OS would you recommend having on this central computer? Fortunately for me, I was just pondering a new desktop computer, so this is actually a really good time to consider this option. I have used Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows (XP and 7). I don't have any MacOS experience.

Mike

PS what DirecTV service are you using? Nomad?
 
Another way is configuring your router or another device as an access point. Essentially WDS where the router becomes a gateway and connects to the bionic over wifi serving wired lan devices at the same time.
 
I have done that on a construction job site where I had to span long distances with outside access points. They were pricey at $1000 each. Basically I had a DSL connection in a sales office with an outside access point that connected to another AP at a construction trailer about 1000 ft away where pc's were hardwired. In addition, roaming laptops on the site could use the wifi signal. To use WDS as a bridge, the secondary AP's need to have the MAC address of the primary
AP (connected to the DSL gateway) programmed in. This way they know where to route non lan traffic.
With every AP hop you lose roughly half your bandwidth. At those ranges the connection was only 4Mbps effective. Still faster than the DSL line but lots of latency.
 
Can you tell me any more about the process? Would my router support this? Or, would my router support this with a change in firmware (Tomato or DD-WRT)? Or, would I need another router?

Thanks,

Mike
 
Most routers have a simple access point mode you can set. In that case, the Bionic would be the DHCP server and you would be limited by the number of devices in the hotspot app.

DDWRT can also do AP mode and likely can act as a DHCP server and hence an intermediate gateway with NAT. I'd bone up on this if the stock firmware doesn't do WDS: Linking Routers - DD-WRT Wiki

WHOOPS I REREAD YOUR POST. YOU HAVE A E4200. DD-WRT MAY NOT WORK WITH THAT ROUTER AS I RECALL. THE E4000 WORKS.

I don't think you'll get it done easily without WDS capability.

For the heck of it I'd try ICS in Windows. Though it requires a pc to be on, it is simpler and would charge the phone at the same time. Certain hardware devices may not proxy to a pc though.
 
Ok. Can you either walk me through the process or show me a link or tutorial that talks about it? I've never done anything with ICS. What OS would you recommend, and what kind of specs should the host computer have?

Thanks!

ETA or would it be better to just get a different router? I'd have to spend money on the network cards, right? That would probably put me most of the way to a Linksys wrt router ...
 
Coronach said:
Bump?
Click to expand...

ICS ( Internet Connection Sharing ) information and how to setup are all over the internet... in short Google it and you will find what you need for that end.

I seriously doubt that you'll find something talking about or explaining how to use it along with an android device but anything is possible. Still since the android portion is just a wireless connection that you are using in conjunction with ICS in Windows... it should take much thought to figure that part of it out.
 
I am in the same situation as well.

One question wheelman6969, using that much data...no problems from Verizon? I also have the grandfathered unlimited plan, $30/mo, but have been wary of using it for too much bandwith. I would assume they have to see this and know you must be tethered or using wifi access..but maybe not? Anyway good to know. Especially now that 4G is here.

I will look into the same solution, thanks for all the tips in here.

telstar.
 
Unlimited means unlimited data to/from the phone. The expectation is that you would use their mobile hotspot to connect a computer.

I have read reports of Verizon "throttling back" the transfer rate on users with high data usage and no mobile hotspot.

I do not have firsthand experience with that. I have grandfathered unlimited and mobile hotspot.

... Thom
 
I've not experienced this, but I also don't really use it for really data -intensive stuff. I don't stream video (beyond the usual viral video BS from youtube) and I don't DL massive media files. Email and web browsing is my usual use.

For instance, I'm almost never anywhere close to the supposed 6gb limit on 'unlimited' data. I may have been above 5 one time.

Mike
 
Hmmn...I may have to try this network setup. Since I just got 4G in my area, and we have had no fast internet at our house until now, I figured rather than upgrading my wifes phone to 4g I would just get the 4G mifi and use that for her when I am at work with my Bionic. But that is not unlimited, and really has a lot of issues, frequent disconnects, needing to be reset, etc. So the main reason to get it, which is that I thought it would be "always on" is no longer true. Since both of our phones have the unlimited data maybe it makes more sense to just upgrade her phone to a bionic (although I think I would have to pay full price) and use the phones as access points and save the $50/mo for the quirky Mifi. I still have a few days to return it. Anyone see any positive reason to keep the Mifi I may be missing? Does the Mifi make what is discussed above any easier or better? I need to decide soon before I'm locked in for 2 years.
 
I considered doing mifi, but elected not to do so, for the reasons you have pretty much identified.

My original reason to not do it was annoyance with the idea that they had designed it with no provision for sending the connection to the WAN port on a router. Sure, there are ways around that, but if I'm going to do a workaround on it, I'm going to do a workaround on something that doesn't cost me an extra $50/month.

Mike
 
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