Looking for solutions...

[flyboynm]

I have just been "volunteered" by my Mom to fly back to the US and help solve a network issue for a mobile veterinary clinic and I really do not have a great solution in mind. I am turning to you all to see if there is any possible way that you can think of doing something other than the kludged together solution I am thinking. I am not being paid for this work and the budget is "tight" (the less spent the better).

Needs:

• T-Mobile Hotspot
• 2 printers shared wirelessly (cannot be shared via sharing from a laptop) - 1 via USB and the other be connected via CAT-5. Printers are Dymo Labelwriter (for prescription bottles) and a HP Officejet that is used to print invoices, etc
  
• 3 or more laptops connected on a network
• 2 or more tablets used to process credit card payments
  
• wireless router without antennas (previous routers with antennas have had them broken off due to accidents)

What I am thinking:

• Get a wireless router that has 1 or 2 USB ports that supports WDS and/or some form of "client" mode so that it can connect to the Hotspot (does the Linksys EA6300 support this?)
  
• Have the printers connected via USB and/or CAT-5 on the router and shared on wireless network. Dymo printer is USB only.
  
• Whichever laptops the vet clinic brings connect via the router and print to the Dymo Label printer or the HP Officejet.
  
• Use "Square" to process credit card payments via 2 (or more) android tablets that are connected directly to the Hotspot. https://squareup.com/reader

Would this fly? Is there an easier way to do this? I will have 2 days to be able to accomplish this work (including rebuilding 4 or 5 laptops) so time is tight too. At least we have Amazon Prime to buy whatever we need to get and get it before I arrive in the US on the 23rd.

Please, let me know if you know of a better solution or better process for this mess that my Mom volunteered me for.....

 

[Easy Rhino]

wow your mom must think highly of your skills to fly you back instead of hiring a stranger

so their tmobile hotspot is something like this?
https://www.t-mobile.com/internet-device/alcatel-linkzone-4g-lte-mobile-hotspot

does the wifi from the hotspot work okay for them? Can all of the wifi clients connect okay?

Would they ever need to operate without the tmobile/internet connectivity?

If not, then you can have all the wifi clients connect to the hostspot for internet.

Get a router and use it as a bridge, connect to the hotspot via wifi, but only to let the Ethernet and USB device onto the network.

and then you could get a basic 802.11N router (the hotspot probably doesn't support AC) that doesn't have antennas.

If they need to be able to operate without hotspot/internet, then switch it so that all clients connect to the router you buy. And the router connects to the hotspot via wifi, and works as more of a wireless repeater.

WDS wont be necessary in either case.

the EA6300 seems fine hardware wise, but I don't know what options the firmware gives you to work as a bridge or repeater.