Public wifi with login change to personal access point?

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chrk623

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#199140 6-Aug-2016 04:12

Hi,

I currently live in a apartment and i use the public wifi, it has a login/password. Is it possible to use a router or some sort of equipment which creates a personal access point for me and auto logins for me?

Thanks

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#1605321 6-Aug-2016 10:20

No.

But if you do configure a wireless client and then stick a router behind it all NAT traffic will originate from the single MAC address so you can get around any device limitations that may exist. You will then have (at minimum) double NAT which will break some things.

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richms

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#1605333 6-Aug-2016 11:04

Look for a router with wisp mode, it will not automate the login, but once one device connnected thru it has logged in then all devices will be able to go thru it to access the internet.

Keep in mind that if the public wifi is not secure that anything you do will be wide open for anyone else to see what you are doing and interfere with, going via your own router to get into it does not fix the gaping security holes of public wifi.

Richard rich.ms

fe31nz

1207 posts

Uber Geek

#1605715 7-Aug-2016 00:09

chrk623:

Hi,

I currently live in a apartment and i use the public wifi, it has a login/password. Is it possible to use a router or some sort of equipment which creates a personal access point for me and auto logins for me?

Thanks

You probably can not easily get a router to do the login for you, but getting the WiFi connected through to an access point is definitely possible. I have a Spark (ZTE) MF910 hotspot that does this. I bought it to give me a 4G data connection when away from home (my phone is only 3G), but I discovered that as well as creating a hotspot for me from a mobile data connection, it will also do it from another WiFi connection. Once it has made the WiFi connection, I can log in to the WiFi provider and after that, the connection to the Internet works well from my devices via the MF910. On some WiFi providers, as soon as no data is being used, I get logged out again after only a short timeout, which is annoying, but would happen if I was directly connected to them without the MF910. The MF910 provides a basic NAT firewall, which is also useful.

I am sure you could do the same thing if you used a general purpose dual-band WiFi router that was sufficiently configurable. My Linksys WRT1900ac (running OpenWRT) would do it, by connecting its 2.4 GHz radio to the WiFi provider and making a hotspot on its 5 GHz radio. And it would certainly be possible with two good WiFi routers cabled together.

chrk623

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1605716 7-Aug-2016 00:43

I do have a dual band router i used to use as a extender when i lived somewhere else. I tried to use that to create a hotspot but no luck. I guess i have to dig into the settings more.

Thanks

fe31nz

1207 posts

Uber Geek

#1605719 7-Aug-2016 01:03

You may need to see if you can install DD-WRT or OpenWRT on it, in order to get firmware which will allow you to do what you want.