Hi All, I live in an area with numerous power outages, enough to justify buying a whole-home generator. All our critical electronics are on a UPS that only needs to last ~ 15 seconds before the genny takes over. The problem is, whenever power goes out, Spectrum is also out for the duration. Guess their terminal is on our power loop... I can use my phone as a wifi hotspot for my laptop, but that doesn't go through the router (Netgear R7000) so everything else on it (18 items?) remains in the dark. I did once try, and succeed, in putting the router in bridge mode. Very difficult and time consuming, especially switching back. Second time was so bad I had to default the router and reload from a b/u. Another issue is firewall permissions, Malware-Bytes, etc all throwing up flags. Shouldn't have anything to do with the router, but my laptop is it's only access. I have a second (older) modem and was wondering if I could, or should, attempt to use that as my primary internet router then feed it's wifi output into my R7000. I'm thinking it may be easier to NOT mess up the '7000. Putting the old modem into bridge could be undone by reloading a saved file. Of course, it would be great if there was some way to automate my '7000 into bridge mode whenever the Spectrum goes off, then back when it comes back up. Thoughts please! Russ
well you can tether your computer to your mobile device for a connection....sense your power outages are frequent in your area no matter how many modems or routers you bridge once you lose power your ISP is down
I've lived for decades in a rural setting where outages aren't uncommon, and since I also rely on IP security cameras, want them to continue to function during a loss of power (and to stop any intruder being able to shutoff my homes power at the post outside). So I bought a small UPS to run my modem and router. I placed another at each camera. These devices don't draw much power so these small UPS last for quite some time.
Sorry for the delay, I never get thread notifications... Anyhow, the issue is keeping my current R7000 modem as the "sole distributor" of all things connected, whether Spectrum is working or not. Everything's fine with Spectrum up, but when it's not, I need to figure out a way to use my phone for the wifi hotspot feeding my R7000 as a replacement for the temporarily non-existent Spectrum. As stated, I can do this by putting the R7000 into bridge mode but it is rife with problems and, ahem, my own human error. Looking for an easier, more stable way to do this. My hopes are to keep the R7000 doing what it's doing, while be able to swap the internet input between Spectrum (ethernet plug) and my phone (wifi). Russ
Bringing this back up with some new info. Well, new to me anyways. Hopefully someone will benefit... I have since found there is a protocol called USB tethering that allows (properly equipped) modems to use a cell phone plugged into it's USB port, these are mostly ASUS modems. Unfortunately my Netgear is not on the list. On top of that, some of these modems with the tethering option have automatic rollover switching that selects your WAN provider depending on availability. There is one I'd never heard of, "Pepwave Surf SOHO MK3", that has multiple WAN inputs, all with auto rollover. My 'droid phone has the USB tethering option, so I'm now looking at ASUS modems for this capability. Seems much saner than going into and out of bridge mode with the benefit of not losing any features while in it... Russ
OK, hurricane season is here, time to move on this. Here is the "map" of what I want to do: From reading other 'net articles, I can do this but they all state the first (new) router must be the one that assigns IP's. As you can see, it has built-in phone tethering with auto rollover. My Existing router is set up and working fine. I do not want to loose or remove any of it's settings, all 25+ IPs are hard-coded and took forever to get right. Aside from this particular oddity, one site says to run the e'net cable as shown above, another site says from router #1 LAN to router #2 WAN. Not sure what's up with that. I'm hoping I can run the wiring as shown, put my existing router in bridge or repeater mode, and have it work. Essentially, I want nothing to change on my existing router except the source of the internet, which needs to come from new router. I have used my phone as a hotspot, but each individual IP connection needs to be refigured. I have also used bridge mode on existing which negates a lot of features on existing router, plus being difficult to "undo". Looking for assistance! Russ
Thanks for the link, that does look pretty simple ... but, old age and lack of patience with new stuff is the problem. After perusing the online manual, I'm not sure it'll even work for me. Sadly, unknown to me until now, my phone's USB tethering requires an additional rate adjustment plus only being workable on Windows Vista+. This would be cool, however, if I could pipe my phone's hotspot into i it. I have a thread on Tom's Hardware where this issue may be about to be resolved. Thanks! Russ
OK, I'ma dunce! After spending a week trying to get my Pi up and working, I. Give. Up. OpenWrt installs fine, then the problems start and multiply as my patience level decreases. I finally gave up and ordered a GLi.Net AX 1800 to replace my existing router, new set up be damned! Russ
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. I asked on the OpenWrt forum and could never gain any traction there, so... The new router is great, except the radio has waaay less range than the Netgear, so now I'm stuck trying to convert the Netgear into a extender/repeater so all my stuff can talk again... Russ
Be sure the power transmit level is set to Maximum in the wifi preferences. Whatever that's why I prefer the virtual machine way, so I can use the (cheap) wifi card I prefer, w/o caring if it's well managed inside linux The same is applicable to a rasPI setup or similar. If a WIFI card is subpar or is not supported well in Linux just replace it, no need to replace the whole router or to wait for an improved kernel/driver You can just turn off the WIFI on the new router and use the old one as access point. Simpler and more robust setup than a repeater, and no unneeded radiation spreads across your home.
Yup, that's what I ended up with. The Netgear is now the WiFi access point, cabled LAN to LAN from the Flint. The Flint doles out IP's and internet. I also have the ability to "hotspot" my phone, or tether it to the Flint in case the Spectrum goes out. All working good for close to a week now... Thanks! Russ