I go to a school that only has wireless internet. My desktop doesn't have a wireless card. I do have a wireless router (netgear wgt624 v3). I was wondering if I could use the router to receive the wifi and distribute it though ethernet somehow. Is this posisble?
3 Answers
Sorry, no. The Wifi specification makes bridging through a client connection an illegal configuration and the factory firmware slavishly adheres to the specification. You'd need to run aftermarket firmware to get around that restriction using a "client bridge" or "WAN on Wifi" mode. I don't believe the version 3 hardware is supported by any aftermarket firmware.
If you can find aftermarket firmware (Tomato, OpenWRT, DD-WRT, and so on) that works on your hardware, you should be able to make it work. Just use a client bridge or WAN on Wifi mode.
Most likely, the best solution is just to get a cheap USB Wifi adapter. You can also use a Wifi station adapter that adapts Wifi to Ethernet -- however that's best for things like gaming systems or embedded systems, it's an inferior solution for a PC.
There are wireless adapters that can plug into your desktop. Most suppliers of network adapters, such as Netgear and D-Link, have these. Here are some examples:
This one plugs directly into a PCI slot:
And this one plugs into a USB port:
Yes, but it depends on the capabilities of the WiFi router.
It needs to have WDS bridging and be hardwired to the LAN IP settings. Some are just bridges and don't connect to the ethernet ports but my TL-WR841N does.
There are some issues thought. WDS bridging allows to query for available hotspots, it offers basic connectivity settings SSID, BSSID (MAC), WPA types, modes, password, but doesn't apply the channel properly. If the Hotspot/supplying WiFi router resets, the wireless channel needs to be manually set again based on a fresh query. This might be different on vanilla firmware, but not on basic factory firmware.
Also take into consideration IP limitations, mine for instance won't get an IP automatically from the Hotspot since the WDS is linked to the static IP settings of the ethernet, unlike WAN which also has a DHCP settings, hence it has to get a free IP manually set and rebooted as if you'd make a static small LAN. Another aspect is the Gateway. Usually routers supply to the ethernet their own IP, as it's in the case of a WiFi router which gets its internet through a WAN cable from the ISP, and on that subnet the subsequent IP for each port. But now you have to find out the IP of the Hotspot and use that as Gateway IP.
Typically, it's good if you have an additional device like a colleague's laptop of a smartphone which can show you all of these IP's and based on them do the adjustments on the router.
I did the same thing with my router, connecting it to a 4G Hotspot of my phone when the hardline would fail, but it did take a lot of tinkering and router restarts to get it right and not even the support staff helped.
On a direct example, the phone's Hotspot sets its IP as 192.168.1.1 and on this subnet (192.168.1) all the other IP's need to be based on. The phone has a DHCP server which supplies IP's starting with 192.168.1.10. If the router has a lower IP it won't work. Luckily the phone and WiFi router use the same specs and I found no incompatibility with non-alphanumeric chars in the phone's SSID's name nor in the WPK2 security settings, as some people did have. A good enough cheapo wifi router like mine should have a status page and if all is fine the WDS bridging should have a connected status.
Once the router is connected to the Hotspot all you need to do is to supply the PC with a valid IP, as I've said for my example, above 192.168.1.10 and excluding the IP of the router. The trick on my cheapo wifi router was that when setting the static IP of the router, 192.168.1.10, the DHCP would fill in the same IP for Gateway. But to get internet access it had to be the IP of the Hotspot, 192.168.1.1. Another change, another reboot. A lot a details to work with factory firmware.
A neat trick, the Hotspot did not immediately accept the connection, it took a minute for the status to change from No internet access to Internet on my PC's LAN adapter, I suspect it's due to the smartphone's energy consumption limitations so it checks for new devices on its subnet less frequent than wall mounted WiFi Hotspots.
Recap: Hotspot IP 192.168.1.1, accepts ranges from 192.168.1.10 and up. Router should have WDS bridging capabilities, and successfully connect to the Hotspot. Router should have a static IP from 192.168.1.10 and up, based on Hotspot rules, or if firmware allows it dynamically obtained through DHCP. Router DHCP settings to the computers connected to it should give IP's above 192.168.1.10 and as gateway the IP of the hotspot. Mind the little details like firmare wanting to autofill wrong gateway IP etc. Or get a vanilla firmware and have a go at it.
