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Routers with a wireless WAN side?

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Dr. Strangelove

Dr. Strangelove

Occasional Visitor
Greetings,

I have access to a wireless net in an apartment complex.

I want to use a router to connect to this wireless network (192.), and allow me to create a local net (10.) on my side of the router firewall that will allow me to configure my own wireless net/ssid, and also use the local ports on the router.

Is there a router which will allow this? I know I can use two routers, or a router and a PC, to accomplish this, but a single router with a wireless WAN side would be great.

Also, if this is possible, any compliance issues for Australia should be noted.

And, if this post is not in the appropriate forum, please move it or let me know where to move it.

Doc
 
any wireless router is capable of this, it just depends on the firmware. If unsure about stock firmware get one that works with a 3rd party firmware.
 
Cradlepoint and other vendors have routers that have a config. option often called "WiFi as WAN". It can be setup as primary, or as the fail-over if the wired WAN connection fails.

I've used Cradlepoint's lower cost products and they are super reliable (sold into the unattended point of sale/Kiosk markets).
 
Personally I would use two devices. If not then you will be stuck with only using one radio frequency range for each side. Like if your apartment complex transmits its signal on 2.4ghz (which is very likely) then you will have to use 5ghz for your LAN (which might be okay as long as all your devices can do 5ghz), if it is even possible to get the router to put a firewall in between the two. It gets tricky when you want to receive a signal, put a firewall in between, and then transmit a signal in one device.
 
stevech said:
Cradlepoint and other vendors have routers that have a config. option often called "WiFi as WAN". It can be setup as primary, or as the fail-over if the wired WAN connection fails.

I've used Cradlepoint's lower cost products and they are super reliable (sold into the unattended point of sale/Kiosk markets).
Click to expand...

For WISP/WiFi as WLAN, and 3G/4G/LTE - Cradlepoint is a very good choice - this is their niche in the business, and they do it better than anyone else...
 
Dr. Strangelove said:
I have access to a wireless net in an apartment complex.

I want to use a router to connect to this wireless network (192.), and allow me to create a local net (10.) on my side of the router firewall that will allow me to configure my own wireless net/ssid, and also use the local ports on the router.

Is there a router which will allow this? I know I can use two routers, or a router and a PC, to accomplish this, but a single router with a wireless WAN side would be great.
Click to expand...

Your use-case is similar to what many of us in the US have to work with on holiday - the hotel provides the WiFi, but we bring so many devices with us these days... and we want to use them in a secure manner...

There's a lot of travel routers out there - and generally they'll work for a short stay, but Cradlepoint is a very good choice here.
 
I have not looked at Cradlepoint products in quite a while but I thought they only had 3G/4G on the wan side as far as wireless goes. I did not realize they made a wifi on the wan and lan side.
 
Yes, this is in Cradlep0oint's big firmware baseline change made about 2 years ago.
The MBR1200 is on eBay at reasonable prices.
I changed my old Cradlepoint consumer-like router (which I got so I could use my Verizon 4G USB modem) - to an ASUS dual-band router. What a step backwards in terms of features. I do have 5GHz on it enabled, but most of the time, our 5GHz handheld devices in this house wander back to 2.4GHz. So I wouldn't miss 5GHz and its price premium.
I'm going to renew my search for a used Cradlepoint (their 2+ yr old products can't run the new firmware).

Cradlepoint maintains a single firmware baseline for most all their WiFi routers and bridges. That leads to more stability than consumer routers that seem to do the opposite and thus are more buggy.
 
and...
I used to use a Cradlepoint travel router (CBRxxx, CTRxxx) and plug my Verizon USB modem into it. But now, Verizon (et al?) have no-added cost tethering from their Android phones (mine's an HTC). So in a hotel room, my wife's non-cellular iPad connects to the HTC phone. Gotta watch the data volume costs though.
Hotel WIFi is increasingly bad and not free.
 
stevech said:
Hotel WIFi is increasingly bad and not free.
Click to expand...

Free and bad - since the hotels aren't charging, they're working to monetize it in other ways...

Ad-Injection is a big problem these days, and if it's free, then your traffic is the product...

I still find a few hotels that offer Ethernet into the room, which is preferred, IMHO, as then I can drop a Router/AP in place and protect my devices, but it's becoming more of a challenge...

Cradlepoint works... better than most "travel routers"...

In my house, I run Airports, they're pretty awesome, but on the road..
 
I bought the HooToo for US$22 and tested it on a recent trip. It works well but as sfx2000 says Wifi in hotels is bad. Using it HooToo I could achieve download speeds of 5 - 8 Mbps which was approximately the same as I could get it I connected to the hotel's WiFi network directly with my Iphone.

Tested the HooToo on my home network when using 2.4 Ghz and my Iphone got 79/11. If I then connect my HooToo to the same SSID and then connect to to the HooToo's SSID my speeds droped to 21/11.

The point being that many travel routers have low powered processors and single stream radios which limits the speeds that they can deliver.

If you need speed then repurpose a router as a WiFi bridge and then connect an AP to it to provide the WiFi for those devices you can't connect by Ethernet to the bridge. If you need/want VPN run it on the device not the router.
 
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Reactions: EJE
I have a RAVPower FileHub Plus, model RP-WD03 (bought US$40 Dec/2017) with 6000mAH battery built-in.
Tested its performance as wireless WAN Bridged AP and ~ 20-30/10 Download/Upload figures - which are somewhat of similar to those reported for HooToo.
However, it provides also a Media (USB and SD card reader) server, and battery operation - both feature are very nice.
 
I also have converted a Tp-Link TL-WA850RE To Gargoyle, as it's original function as wireless repeater had been frustrating and was compromising the WiFi connectivity of whole apartment. After Gargoyle, and used as a Wireless Wan Bridged AP, connectivity issues from other devices to the main router were ”solved”, performance with 1-2 devices is about 20D/10U, but seems to clog if more devices or heavy loads are sustained.
 
EJE said:
I also have converted a Tp-Link TL-WA850RE To Gargoyle...
... performance with 1-2 devices is about 20D/10U, but seems to clog if more devices or heavy loads are sustained.
Click to expand...

Could be a problem related to lack of heatsinks, or lower RAM, who knows.
The point on this is that I just use to create occasional isolated Guest WiFi @ 2.4GHz band, disconnecting from the wall after those visits.
 
EJE said:
I have a RAVPower FileHub Plus, model RP-WD03 (bought US$40 Dec/2017) with 6000mAH battery built-in.
Tested its performance as wireless WAN Bridged AP and ~ 20-30/10 Download/Upload figures - which are somewhat of similar to those reported for HooToo.
However, it provides also a Media (USB and SD card reader) server, and battery operation - both feature are very nice.
Click to expand...

FYI The HooToo has a full size USB port and can be setup as a file server/ media server. I have powered the HooToo using small 2,800 mAh. battery bank. This would allow you to entertain passengers on a car/boat/train trip by using the HooToo as a wireless media server.
 
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