possible to use Evo as temporary internet substitute source for router?

[Marty1781]

Sorry if this topic has been covered before but I wasn't able to find any threads on it. Sometimes my internet service goes down and I was wondering, during those times, if it is possible to use the Evo as a substitute internet source for the router (Linksys WRT-600N)? I have Wireless Tether working but that's only good for getting internet to my laptop. It doesn't do anything for my two desktops or the other internet connected gear I have networked over CAT5 around the house. Basically, whenever my ISP goes down, I would like to share the Evo's 4G connection with my router so that all the internet-dependent devices/PCs on my home network can continue to function normally (just with a slower internet connection). Is this possible?

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Interesting concept. I am assuming most of the other devices are routed.

The only solution I can think of is to get wireless adapters for the PCs, and pre-pair them with the EVO.

 

[2CupsWithString]

Yes this is possible but you might need another router to read the wifi hotspot and then share it ota with the router that all your PCs are plugged in to. This will probably require that you use ww-drt software on both routers (a firmware upgrade of custom software).

You can also get a 3g router that can do this automatically and work with a 3g hotspot, as well Sprint has a 4G modem that has an ethernet output you might want to consider.

 

[illwood]

You could probably connect the EVO to one of the wired PCs by a USB cable and then use Windows "Internet Connection Sharing" and connect it to the "internet" side of your wireless router.

 

[2CupsWithString]

You could probably connect the EVO to one of the wired PCs by a USB cable and then use Windows "Internet Connection Sharing" and connect it to the "internet" side of your wireless router.

That will def. work as well.

Since RJ45 only uses 2 pairs if you have Ethernet throughout the whole house you can split the jack by your computer, add another network card and then just bridge the connections in Network under control panel.

 

[npark]

You could probably connect the EVO to one of the wired PCs by a USB cable and then use Windows "Internet Connection Sharing" and connect it to the "internet" side of your wireless router.

Yeah, this is the best way... but you'll have some trouble with your router...

Here's why, your router does several things:
- DHCP server (assigns IP addresses)
- Serves as internet gateway
- Sometimes functions as DNS

If you have a total of 4 computers on the network, and they're all connected to the router, simply setting up Internet Connection Sharing will not work for the other computers on the network unless you do the following:

- Have the router stop routing traffic through the WAN port, and instead route traffic to the address/information on the laptop to which is tethered to the phone. Even after doing this, you have to ensure that DNS is working right for all of the hosts--some ISP's DNS servers will not serve up addresses unless the request comes from its own network. In this case, you'll need to use a generic DNS server.
- Or, manually assign IPs/default gateway/DNS to all hosts on the network and manually assign the gateway information on each host to the laptop, which will serve as the gateway

Lastly, the "BEST" option is to use the wifi hotspot/router feature on the phone. =) It may just be simpler (assuming physical locations / range limits can accommodate this) to grab $10 PCI wifi cards for the desktops and connect all the computers to the phone.

I use my phone as a backup ISP... but it's perhaps only once a year or so that this becomes necessary. During that time we just tether off the phone only using laptops for one night.

 

[Marty1781]

Thanks for the ideas guys, I'll give them a shot.