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Share internet via LAN on RT-AX86U?

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wirelessart

New Around Here
Is there a way that I can share an internet connection from Windows 10 to my RT-AX86U LAN port, while also connecting to other devices on the LAN internally? Is LAN Client Routing the right tool for the job? Sorry I'm a noob when it comes to VPNs and intermediate routing setups like this.

Background info:
I could use some advice for my network setup with a brand new (still returnable) RT-AX86U. Here are my devices and goals:
  • Win 10 PC
  • iPad w/ Wifi 6
  • Couple iPhones
  • Couple other Wifi devices

  • Internet can only come from sharing iPhone data (live in the country)
  • Win 10 PC, other devices need internet
  • iPad needs to remote connect to Win 10 PC wirelessly
    • Is one floor above PC & router, about 25ft away, 2-3 walls including floor
    • Needs as little network latency as possible, hopefully <8ms, ideally ~4ms
    • Needs ~50Mbps LAN connection to PC
Up until now, I've just used the wireless hotspot of the phones to both share internet and connect the devices via LAN. Our devices are older than iPhone 12, so the hotspot is 2.4Ghz. With the iPad, latency was too high, and bandwidth was too inconsistent. Tho it worked better than I expected sometimes.

That led me to buying a RT-AX86U and the current setup:
  • USB tether an iPhone to Win 10 PC, use Internet Connection sharing, share that with ethernet going to router WAN
  • connect a SECOND ethernet from Win 10 PC to router for the LAN
Ideally I'd just tether from the iPhone directly to the router, but they're iOS, and iOS 14 on top of that. My Android fallback couldn't get LTE and was way slower. Assuming I have to keep the Win 10 tethering, I'd love to get rid of the 2nd ethernet connection to the router. I also notice I'm getting an internet connection through the LAN as well, instead of only the USB tether, which is annoying.
 
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Have you tried using the phone as the router's WAN?
 
The devices I'd do that with are iPhones, running iOS 14. It's my understanding there's currently no software I can use with this router to USB tether them, and even if there was, the upstream fix for iOS 14's adding two bits or whatever has not trickled down anywhere yet.

As a fallback test, I removed the SIM from one and stuck it in an Android device I have. Tethering to the router was way too slow, about 8-12Mbps down vs 80-90Mbps down when USB tethering the iPhone to the Win 10 PC. For some reason it wasn't getting an LTE signal, either, despite a good hour on the phone diagnosing with tech support.
 
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The router either supports it or not. There is no software that is used.
 
I'm referring to add-ons, like Entware and the like, that can add additional USB device support. Alternate firmware could be another option, but AFAIK other firmware don't really support AX routers in general, let alone this one.
 
Thanks for the suggestion! How can I set up DHCP for my LAN (presumably on the Windows side)? Do I just use a 3rd party server? And that doesn't conflict with Internet Connection Sharing, right?
 
Use it in router mode.
 
Thanks for the suggestion! How can I set up DHCP for my LAN (presumably on the Windows side)? Do I just use a 3rd party server? And that doesn't conflict with Internet Connection Sharing, right?
ICS on the PC automatically creates it's own DHCP server for the clients to use. IIRC the default address range is 192.168.137.x.
 
I just wanted to chime in and say that yall's advice was correct! I did try this setup before, but I messed something up at some point. I just needed to factory reset and start clean. Simply leaving the default router mode, plugged into WAN, and then share from my phone to the ethernet is all I needed.

That's one of the first things I tried with this, but not before experimenting with 2.5GbE, dual WAN and other settings to see what they do. It seems that experimentation caused the trouble, I did not undo quite everything.

I appreciate your help and am happy this works just how I wanted ^_^
 

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