Need A "wifi Gadget" That Will Connect To Apt Wifi Connection And Allow Sharing.

[bangkokburning]

Went to Fortune, had a look. Failed miserably.

I'm searching for a gadget that will allow us to share out multiple devices on our connection which is limited to one.

So, it would somehow establish connection (hardware initially set up with pc?) then allow us to share our phones and tablets...

For apartment wifi, not outside wifi or 3g.

No, I cannot use my rooted phone.

Thanks.

[HeavyDrinker]

Do you need a different subscription per device by any chance?

[NeverSure]

You simply need a switch. Link

Some routers can be put into switch mode. You don't want a router in router mode.

Edited May 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[lomatopo]

http://www.asus.com/Networking/WL330N3G/

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/607128-creating-a-wifi-hotspot-for-my-smartphone/?hl=%2Bwifi#entry5964078

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/618087-linking-2-laptops-to-access-the-internet-using-a-usb-wifi-adapter/?hl=%2Bshare+%2Bwifi#entry6101675

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/634081-condo-wifi-private-wifi-routing-everything-through-a-vpn/?hl=%2Bshare+%2Bwifi#entry6323691

[bangkokburning]

Not a subscription, any device can be online using our user/pw. I want to share that to use multiple devices at once. I can do it thru thr pc, but the pc is rarely on.

Appears a bunch of people in our building have their own "hotspots" set up.

Wireless switch or Wireless Access Point?

This will allow itself to be configured to our apt wifi (user/pw)

Multiple devices can connect

Circumventing the one device at a go issue

Can I get a cheap.one at Pantip for b500?

Only needs to transmit a few meters

[Jdietz]

What you will need is basically two wireless access points. One set to client mode, to connect to the building's WiFi, the other set to AP mode with your own SSID / channel. Connect the two together with a piece of network cable, and you'll be good to go.

The AP will NAT everything to the client, so it will look like everything comes from one IP address.

You will get the login screen once, as soon as one device has access, everything connected to the AP has.

[lomatopo]

Believe the Linksys WL330 I provided a link to can accomplish this in one of its 6 modes: Hotspot Mode.

[NeverSure]

Not a subscription, any device can be online using our user/pw. I want to share that to use multiple devices at once. I can do it thru thr pc, but the pc is rarely on.

Appears a bunch of people in our building have their own "hotspots" set up.

Wireless switch or Wireless Access Point?

This will allow itself to be configured to our apt wifi (user/pw)

Multiple devices can connect

Circumventing the one device at a go issue

Can I get a cheap.one at Pantip for b500?

Only needs to transmit a few meters

It's easy to get confused with new terminology. Old skool, what you need is a wireless switch. Most modern wireless routers have that mode.

You can't run two routers on the same lan, so you must set your device to "switch" or "hotspot" mode for it to work.

The word hotspot is over used. It all means the same thing, but it doesn't necessarily do all you want. For instance some phones in hotspot mode don't allow connecting very many nodes to them. You might eventually wind up with a wireless printer and a wireless backup device (maybe external HDD) and two or three actual PC's running from it. So you want something more than just any old hotspot.

A router at Starbucks might be generically called a hotspot but that's not at all what you want. A router works at the 3rd layer of the OSI model and you can't have two on a network. When the router is changed to run as a switch or a "hotspot" for your lan it backs off to layer 2 of the OSI model and just does the switching, ie NAT translation. It no longer attempts to access the internet by getting an IP from the ISP etc.

I would buy a good wireless router and change it to switching/hotspot mode. Then it would work great and if I later needed a good router I'd have it.

Just don't be confused by "hotspot." It is often used to mean anywhere you can connect wirelessly to the internet. It could be Starbucks router and the word itself is overbroad and vague.

Edited May 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[Dork]

If I have understood the Op correctly, he has WiFi provided by his apartment where the actual wireless connection is unsecured but which requires login with username & password through a webpage, much like that often used at hotels. And that login page will only allow one device at a time to connect.

If that is the case then Neversure's suggestion above won't work. Sure, you will be able to share the LAN connection to multiple devices but as soon as a 2nd device tries to access the internet, it will be redirected to the same webpage login. And you can't login again because the accounting server knows that you are connecting a different device by it's MAC address.

The ASUS WL330 as suggested by Lomotopo will work because it is a travel router designed for exactly this purpose and as he said, it is referred to as "Hotspot Mode" by ASUS. I think that mode is more accurately referred to as "WiFi account sharing" but ASUS probably think that sounds a bit tricky.

The solution suggested by Jdietz is interesting. If the apartments accounting server could be made to believe that the MAC address from the 2nd AP/router is the client device, then I guess it would work. But I'm not convinced it would.

[NeverSure]

If I have understood the Op correctly, he has WiFi provided by his apartment where the actual wireless connection is unsecured but which requires login with username & password through a webpage, much like that often used at hotels. And that login page will only allow one device at a time to connect.

If that is the case then Neversure's suggestion above won't work. Sure, you will be able to share the LAN connection to multiple devices but as soon as a 2nd device tries to access the internet, it will be redirected to the same webpage login. And you can't login again because the accounting server knows that you are connecting a different device by it's MAC address.

The ASUS WL330 as suggested by Lomotopo will work because it is a travel router designed for exactly this purpose and as he said, it is referred to as "Hotspot Mode" by ASUS. I think that mode is more accurately referred to as "WiFi account sharing" but ASUS probably think that sounds a bit tricky.

The solution suggested by Jdietz is interesting. If the apartments accounting server could be made to believe that the MAC address from the 2nd AP/router is the client device, then I guess it would work. But I'm not convinced it would.

I'm not willing to take a 100% stance on this, but I think it can be done. Since I use "hotspots" only for my laptop when traveling and have never used anything other than the wired switch I happen to have in my office I won't bet big money on this, LOL.

But the reason for a switch, which some insist on calling a hotspot when wireless when used in a router is to create a subnet which the main (apartment's) router can't see. It sees only the switch.

If the signal coming into the apartment was wired, I'd simply get a switch. The switch would assign internal IP addresses to anything wired to it, and hide them from the router. The router would see only the switch.

If the signal was wireless, I'd get a wireless router with several wired ports. I'd change the router to whatever you want to call it, but from router to access point/switch whatever. Then It would be a switch and everything wired to it would be hidden.

I see the problem as being wireless. If the nodes on the network, other than the personal router turned into a switch, were wireless then the apartment's router would see them and try to assign IP's, perform NAT, DHCP etc. That's a problem. But if the Apartment's router saw the personal switch (router) as "the computer," and everything else was hidden behind it by being wired to that personal switch, then the Apartment's router couldn't see them. Nat and DHCP would be provided behind that firewall by the switch (router.) Everything would leave the switch as one, and the switch would assign internal IP's and direct internal traffic via NAT.

The personal router/switch would receive the external IP from the apartment's router and look like one. Everything else would be hidden behind it, exiting the router/switch as one.

If by any chance I'm right, it wouldn't be hard to set up. It's still a matter of logging onto the router and changing it from router mode to AP mode and then just wiring other nodes to it. It knows what its job is from there.

Any chance?

Edited May 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[Dork]

Well it really depends on exactly what the setup is at the Op's apartment. But if it is, as I suspect, like a hotel then they are designed to get extra money out of the customer by limiting connections to one device. So in those cases it isn't that simple.

The reason I can say this with some confidence is because I'm often stuck in different hotel rooms, usually by myself. My first choice would be to go out and get drunk but since there is normally work to be done the next morning, that's out. I could watch TV but after going through all 137 channels of game shows in Mandarin, that's out too. So my next choice of activity is to spend the whole evening trying to circumvent the hotels rip-off internet access charges.

I always take with me a little bag of tricks including a travel router (or 2) & LAN cables. Actually even when the internet access is free and unrestricted the travel router comes in handy because sometimes either the room has cable only (no WiFi) or else the WiFi signal is too weak for a stable connection.

But if the hotel has paid access only, requiring a webpage login then it doesn't matter whether it is wired or wireless, even with a normal AP/router, you can only connect one device at a time per username/pw. Some hotels (esp in greedy HK) even take that a step further and only let you logon with one device per charging session (usually 24hrs) meaning that even if you disconnect the first device you still can't use a 2nd without paying again. They do this by recording the MAC address of the first device's network adaptor.

To get around this problem, I only know of 2 solutions that always work. One is a software based - a small application like "Connectify.me" that runs on a laptop and allows you to share to other devices/laptops. The other is a special router like the previously mentioned ASUS WL330 that supports "WiFi account sharing". You initially connect to that router with your laptop and then login to the hotels system. Sometimes you need to clone the MAC address of your laptop's adaptor to the router but it has a function to make that easy. After that, you can share to other devices even with the laptop off.

I've had 2 of those little ASUS routers and they are so compact that twice I have managed to forget them in hotel rooms. Now I am trying out a DLink http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/wireless-networking/d-link/all-in-one-mobile-companion-dir-505-p010674/ and so far I prefer it to the ASUS. It isn't quite as compact but it is more stable with a better interface than the ASUS. You can order one online at invadeit saving a nasty trip to Pantip or Fortune.

[NeverSure]

So far, I don't see how a wireless device can share the connection wirelessly. I would think that any wireless device would show to the hotel's router. Maybe I'm not thinking it through.

A wired switch, which is what a wireless router with wired ports would be if its router function was disabled, should absolutely hide any other devices on the network from the hotel's system. A router is a computer and will accept an IP address from the hotel's router. It will look like any other computer.

The devices wired to the local router-turned-switch will all transfer data through that switch, using the switch's IP. They in turn will have internal IP's which are hidden to all but the local router/switch which will assign internal IP's via its own dhcp and direct traffic via its own NAT.

My ISP in town can see only my router. It thinks my router is my computer. It doesn't know how many wired and wireless devices the router is routing. It sees only my router's IP and mac.

I have a cat 5 coming into my home office, but all other rooms in the house are wireless. That's using just the one wireless router and one of its wired ports.

Once in my office at the cat 5, I have a 6 port wired switch. Then the rest of my computers are wired to it. That creates a subnet in my office, and all traffic goes to the router through the switch. The router sees only the switch, and the switch has multiple wired ports. It then has a dhcp server and does nat translation, doing all communicating to the router through the one cat 5 coming into the office. The router thinks the switch is all there is, see only the switch's IP and mac, and the ISP thinks the router is my computer. That's what nat translation is all about.

I know that works here. What am I missing?

Edited May 21, 2013 by NeverSure

[lomatopo]

Believe the Linksys WL330 I provided a link to can accomplish this in one of its 6 modes: Hotspot Mode.

Sorry. Meant the Asus WL-330N3G. This supports the application which the OP requires. In a few of the buildings we support we have this very set-up.

This Asus WL-330N supports the same application - this unit does not accept a USB 3G aircard for fail-over/separate 3G operation.

There are many other similar models from other manufacturers Tenda, TP-Link, D-Link, etc.

Each manufacturer has different names for this, and other, applications.

[bangkokburning]

Dork - you have summed it up perfectly. Was hoping need not invest in pricey Asus equipment (altbough my netbook and tablet are Asus ☺), but fear this is what I do need. You have described the connection perfectly.

Do not want to use windoze based software because that machine isn't on so much anymore. It does work though.

NeverSure and everyone thanks - Ill look for the Asus product when we are back in US or find one here and then ask the shop if they have a cheap alternative.

All sorts of little networks can be seen in the building, they must be doing something similar.

Thank you all.

[lomatopo]

Was hoping need not invest in pricey Asus equipment

.

We use some Tenda units for this app. they cost ~ 1,000 baht or slightly less.

I haven't seen the Asus WL-330 N(G) units here, but then haven't looked for them either.

[NeverSure]

OK, I can't stand to leave you happy. I hope you realize that using slightly different terminology, Dork and I are doing the same thing.

There is another option. A windows computer can be a router. The trick is that you need two network cards, or Network Interface Cards or NICs.

Ever since at least Windows 98 SE, there has been software in Windows called ICS or Internet Connection Sharing. Here's someone who will back me up on this. Windows ICS has a limit and I forget what it is. It might be 9 nodes (network devices) that can share.

So, if you wanted to run the windows computer, and put an external USB NIC on it, you could run a cable from that to a switch and then connect all of your devices to the switch. Let's see if you find a cheap USB wired NIC here as an example.

Then you'd need that ethernet switch, so let's see if you can find an example of one here. Remember that one port in the switch is coming in from the source be it a router or a computer or whatever, so you have one less port for your LAN. Some switches call themselves 6 port and clearly have a 7th in, and some call themselves 6 port and one is used for in. Most modern switches can use any port for in, because they auto detect the signal in and automatically adjust for that. Then all other ports can be used going out to your other nodes.

So you have the original NIC receiving the main signal from the hotel or apartment. Then you have ICS providing all of the services of a router through the second NIC. Then you have an ethernet switch which will automatically manage all nodes connected to it.

You set up any of these systems once and then you get it. Reading and doing aren't the same of course, but it's really easy because the intelligence it in the devices. You main jobs are to either log into and change the router from routing to switching (or whatever you want to call it) and then managing what's called the connectivity which is geek for hooking up the wires and other hardware. OR enabling ICS in a computer and connecting everything from there.

Have fun. It works. I'm sitting here using it. Just remember that you can't have two routers on a network and the hotel has one you're using. You must disable that feature in your router or you'll mess up other people too. Your router will see all of the other wireless devices and do its job - try to assign all of them IP addresses, perform NAT etc. and temporarily knock out the system. Read the manual on the router if you get one, and do that first.

With ICS, a USB NIC and a switch, that's not an issue.

[wprime]

If I have understood the Op correctly, he has WiFi provided by his apartment where the actual wireless connection is unsecured but which requires login with username & password through a webpage, much like that often used at hotels. And that login page will only allow one device at a time to connect.

If that is the case then Neversure's suggestion above won't work. Sure, you will be able to share the LAN connection to multiple devices but as soon as a 2nd device tries to access the internet, it will be redirected to the same webpage login. And you can't login again because the accounting server knows that you are connecting a different device by it's MAC address.

The ASUS WL330 as suggested by Lomotopo will work because it is a travel router designed for exactly this purpose and as he said, it is referred to as "Hotspot Mode" by ASUS. I think that mode is more accurately referred to as "WiFi account sharing" but ASUS probably think that sounds a bit tricky.

The solution suggested by Jdietz is interesting. If the apartments accounting server could be made to believe that the MAC address from the 2nd AP/router is the client device, then I guess it would work. But I'm not convinced it would.

Most do not differentiate clients by MAC address, for the ones which do, most routers support MAC address cloning.

[bangkokburning]

OK, I can't stand to leave you happy. I hope you realize that using slightly different terminology, Dork and I are doing the same thing.

There is another option. A windows computer can be a router. The trick is that you need two network cards, or Network Interface Cards or NICs.

Ever since at least Windows 98 SE, there has been software in Windows called ICS or Internet Connection Sharing. Here's someone who will back me up on this. W

indows ICS has a limit and I forget what it is. It might be 9 nodes (network devices) that can share.

So, if you wanted to run the windows computer, and put an external USB NIC on it, you could run a cable from that to a switch and then connect all of your devices to the switch. Let's see if you find a cheap USB wired NIC here as an example.

Then you'd need that ethernet switch, so let's see if you can find an example of one here. Remember that one port in the switch is coming in from the source be it a router or a computer or whatever, so you have one less port for your LAN. Some switches call themselves 6 port and clearly have a 7th in, and some call themselves 6 port and one is used for in. Most modern switches can use any port for in, because they auto detect the signal in and automatically adjust for that. Then all other ports can be used going out to your other nodes.

So you have the original NIC receiving the main signal from the hotel or apartment. Then you have ICS providing all of the services of a router through the second NIC. Then you have an ethernet switch which will automatically manage all nodes connected to it.

You set up any of these systems once and then you get it. Reading and doing aren't the same of course, but it's really easy because the intelligence it in the devices. You main jobs are to either log into and change the router from routing to switching (or whatever you want to call it) and then managing what's called the connectivity which is geek for hooking up the wires and other hardware. OR enabling ICS in a computer and connecting everything from there.

Have fun. It works. I'm sitting here using it. Just remember that you can't have two routers on a network and the hotel has one you're using. You must disable that feature in your router or you'll mess up other people too. Your router will see all of the other wireless devices and do its job - try to assign all of them IP addresses, perform NAT etc. and temporarily knock out the system. Read the manual on the router if you get one, and do that first.

With ICS, a USB NIC and a switch, that's not an issue.

Oh jeez, so much went into this, Im feeling guility.

And if I had to crank up my netbook why again would I not just run Connectify?

Thanks bro. Well done. +3 for effort.

[NeverSure]

If I have understood the Op correctly, he has WiFi provided by his apartment where the actual wireless connection is unsecured but which requires login with username & password through a webpage, much like that often used at hotels. And that login page will only allow one device at a time to connect.

If that is the case then Neversure's suggestion above won't work. Sure, you will be able to share the LAN connection to multiple devices but as soon as a 2nd device tries to access the internet, it will be redirected to the same webpage login. And you can't login again because the accounting server knows that you are connecting a different device by it's MAC address.

The ASUS WL330 as suggested by Lomotopo will work because it is a travel router designed for exactly this purpose and as he said, it is referred to as "Hotspot Mode" by ASUS. I think that mode is more accurately referred to as "WiFi account sharing" but ASUS probably think that sounds a bit tricky.

The solution suggested by Jdietz is interesting. If the apartments accounting server could be made to believe that the MAC address from the 2nd AP/router is the client device, then I guess it would work. But I'm not convinced it would.

You don't need to clone a mac address, and the 2nd login won't be necessary. When you hide devices behind a wired switch, which the router becomes if its routing capability is disabled, the hotel's router can't see any other device behind that. They see only the mac and IP of the device that's directing traffic on the subnet.

My ISP thinks my router is my computer (it is a computer) and can't see or tell how many devices are behind it. The internal IP addresses aren't internet routable, (192.168.x.x) they are only usable on the subnet. They all go onto the internet using the same IP and mac - that of the switch/router.

A router has two IP addresses - internal and external. The external is the one that the ISP assigns and in the instant case will be the one the hotel's router supplies, and the internal is 192.168.x.x. My router supplies internal IP's to all other nodes including my switch but excepting the ones behind the switch which the switch provides.

OP, eventually we make this confusing. I'd just go back to the idea that I need a router with it's routing function disabled, and devices wired to its cat 5 ports. My wireless router has 4 wired ports and you might watch for one that does. You can always add more devices with a switch wired to one of them. Switches are intelligent and need no setup other than wiring it up. The router needs no setup other than wiring, after you log into it and disable its routing function.

Edited May 22, 2013 by NeverSure

[sfokevin]

https://www.asus.com/Networking/WL330NUL/

[phazey]

Install a web proxy/pptpd daemon with NAT on the machine that is authorized to connect, then each other device connects to that machine. Without being behind a captive portal, i cant test, but should/would work. I'd probably also add a second usb wifi connection to the authorised machine and set that in ad-hoc mode.