Selfhosted @lemmy.world Adam @lemmy.adambowl.es 1 yr. ago

What WiFi relay system can I host at home?

I live in an apartment that provides WiFi that has MAC address whitelisting with a cost per MAC address slot.

What hardware/software can I use to connect to their network and rebroadcast in a new network so that all my devices can connect but the WiFi provider only sees one MAC address connecting?

I've tried a WiFi range extender but it appears to be forwarding the MAC address of the my devices

To be clear, the ISP broadcasts its own SSIDs throughout the apartment block and I don't have access to any physical network sockets

32 comments

You need a wifi router. Connect the wan to your network. One mac, wan doesn't know about your devices.
- And the WiFi router has to not be configured as a bridge device. It has to be it's own DHCP provider.
  
  Well, it has to be doing routing, at least. DHCP is a separate issue. OP could configure everything with static IP addresses, after all (although I don't know why he would).
- This ^. That way you have complete control over SSID, connected devices, passwords etc, and you apartment block only sees a single MAC address (WAN).
- Connect using 2.4GHz, create own network with the 5GHz antenna?
- Are there any routers that support this feature natively?
  
  You could install Fresh Tomato firmware on any supported router and do this using wireless client mode: https://wiki.freshtomato.org/doku.php/advanced_scenarios
I used a GL.iNet Opal to do exactly this while travelling.
- Looks promising, I'll get one and check it out. Thanks
  
  Came here to recommend the gl.inet range. Folks love em on cruise ships for the same purpose as what you want.
  
  I'm tempted to bring one with me to a hotel so I can bring a wifi enabled camera to watch my gear too, and not have to set it up with the wifi. If you need to authorise it with a web portal, often what you do is you connect with your phone (turn off random MAC), authorise on the phone, then connect to the gl.inet and have it spoof your phone's Mac.
  
  They can also support VPN too.
- Got one today and it's literally exactly what I wanted! Thank you!
  
  It can even spoof MAC address, so I don't use an extra spot on my client whitelist 👌
May I ask is that a new way of leeching $ from people? Or is there a good reason to charge for each MAC?
- Cheap, serviced housing is the residential situation I find myself in
I don't know if this applies to all phones, but my Android phone can act as hotspot while connected to a regular AP, and it does NAT so it appears as one device
Isn't "MAC NAT" you are after? I've seen Mikrotik has this feature to perform NAT for bridge devices. EDIT: no, since your ISP might check at DHCP leases and realise that you are cheating. Go with regular router instead.

Also regular router would be sufficient IMO. Also don't forget to set static TTL value so your "ISP" doesn't see that you have a router between your devices.

Also create MAC address and save it. Always change it before connecting - you will have less trouble.
@aboringdystopia
- Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
- Please don't bring politics into a tech discussion 🙂
Am I missing something here or can you just use any hotspot capable Smartphone for that?
- Signal's not good enough and I want something more permanent than hotspotting my phone every day
  
  A lot of phones can relay to wifi they are connected to, rather than just using phone signal. That is, instead of using mobile data to provide internet, it forwards connections through the wifi the phone is connected to, essentially acting as a mini router :)
  
  Get an old phone or a cheap one and let it sit in your flat all the time plugged into the wall. Some slightly oder phone with a worn out battery from ebay or something. You can even amplify the signal from that phone via repeater or something
I think openwrt can do that. You would just put one of the radios (2.4 or 5ghz) into WAN, and the other into LAN.

Obviously that limits you to 2.4ghz speeds, if you want faster two routers back to back could maybe work.
I would recommend getting a separate client radio device for several reasons:

You can position it better for reception

Get a device with directional antenna so you can point it at the best AP

You won't use up 1 band of a dual-band router

You won't be limited in your main router firmware choice to only those that support client mode on a radio

Personally I would get a nanostation loco 5ac (non-loco is bigger and probably isnt needed) and flash openwrt on it (that will free any airmax radio from the proprietary airmax limitation), configure the 5GHz radio to client mode with the apartment wifi details, and put in the desired mac into the mac field if you need a specific mac besides the device default. Make sure the radio is set to wan zone so that forwarding works and plug the lan cable from the radio to the WAN of whatever nice router you have.

I used to carry around a nanostation with this config set to xfinity access points with a small script that would pick a random MAC from a list I gathered from wardriving client MACs that I saw authenticated with xfinity hotspots. That way if I ever needed an ethernet connection for a non-wifi device I could just power up the radio and run the script to pick a new mac until I got one that was "remembered" in someone's xfinity account.

Edit: to clarify, I think the way I set it up was to run dhcp client on the radio's uplink and then hand out IPs via dhcp server on the lan port, so I think you'd be triple natted, but since you would need to double nat anyway to get around the MAC authorization it probably isn't hurting speeds any more than it already would be.
To my understanding, a network switch will relay your MAC address, so it’s sounding like that is what your range extender is. You would need an actual wireless router. You could get a wireless mesh router pair, so you have both a new wifi and range extending. I’d then disable the wifi on your main router. It sounds like they make you use your ISP’s router, but it’s also worth trying to disconnect that and plugging your new router direct into the modem instead to see if you need the ISP router at all. Also, you’d need to whitelist the new device with the ISP.
- To be clear, the ISP broadcasts its own SSIDs throughout the apartment block and I don't have access to any physical network sockets
  
  There are dirt cheap access point (one wifi one ethernet port) that can be used to convert your ISP wifi to ethernet. Use that ethernet as WAN to a router you can manage.

You've viewed 32 comments.