Load balance many wireless networks

[tooandrew]

So here is my situation. I have two rt-ac66u's (currently running asuswrt merlin, but I've run dd-wrt on them previously), a nighthawk x8000 (currently on stock firmware, but supported by openwrt), an older wndr3400 modified to have external antennae (currently running openwrt), an old pc with no gpu I'm considering turning into a pfsense router(AMD Phenom II X4 945 Quad-Core @ 3.0ghz), and a lot of open hotspots within range.

I only have a 25mbps down link, and when people are streaming Netflix and what not its a real pain if I need to download a large file like a touchwiz based rom.

I was wondering if I could configure all these routers as wireless bridges to connect to starbucks and xfinitywifi etc and configure pfsense to distribute the connections my clients make between these networks leaving a relatively seamless experience at the os level.
And also how often I would have to connect the device who's mac I spoof to get through the portal

EDIT: or even just route all requests from certain clients to one network or the other

 

[tooandrew]

No advice? I'm talking open public hotspots here

 

[sfx2000]

You would need a wireless card for each connection - which can be done - but you need cards that are supported by FreeBSD 10.2/10.3, which is non-trivial...

But if you use some old routers, there's RIP issues that will need to be addressed - as basically you have a pfsense router behind a bunch of other routers.

Then you need to deal with the captive portal issue, many will time out after a short period of time...

One you get those going, then you need to deal with the carp interface on the WAN side - and this is a project in and of itself...

If one is not a networking expert, this is probably a 7 of 10 in skill level needs.

Ever consider just running pfSense on the main connection, and adjusting QoS accordingly - pfsense has excellent QoS capabilities..

One can set a Netflix QoS queue, giving them 1Mb/Sec (which is more than enough), and that'll keep things sane enough..

 

[tooandrew]

regarding the other routers, they can be configured as wireless bridges with no dhcp enabled - essentially wireless cards. you have successfully dissuaded me, though. thanks so much for the help

You would need a wireless card for each connection - which can be done - but you need cards that are supported by FreeBSD 10.2/10.3, which is non-trivial...

But if you use some old routers, there's RIP issues that will need to be addressed - as basically you have a pfsense router behind a bunch of other routers.

Then you need to deal with the captive portal issue, many will time out after a short period of time...

One you get those going, then you need to deal with the carp interface on the WAN side - and this is a project in and of itself...

If one is not a networking expert, this is probably a 7 of 10 in skill level needs.

Ever consider just running pfSense on the main connection, and adjusting QoS accordingly - pfsense has excellent QoS capabilities..

One can set a Netflix QoS queue, giving them 1Mb/Sec (which is more than enough), and that'll keep things sane enough..