Connect phone to router, not make phone the router?

nichol · #1 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 02:48 AM

So I have searched around and have had very little luck finding any info on actually connecting my phone to a wireless router to share the 3G connection though a home router. I currently run wmwifirouter and love it but would like to only have one wifi network that my computers connect to. (right now I swap back and forth so I can print or get to my network storage, and then back to the wmwifi to access the internet.) Is connecting the phone to a home router for it's internet source even possible? I have found spotty info that says it's possible but nothing certain.

ark123 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 04:59 AM

Sure it's possible.
Just turn on your phone wifi and wait for the network discovery. Then configure the connection - passkey if it's secured.

**arrrghhh** · #3 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 11:00 AM

Yea... it is one of the main selling points of the device for some!

nichol · #4 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 02:17 PM

Man I feel stupid, for years I've been using my the TP and mogul as the router thinking i couldn't connect it to a router.. So I can just turn on wmwifirouter, turn on 3g to wifi, then got to my ASUS router utility and see if I can find my wmwifirouter network? I would say terms like access point and bridge but I don't know if those are correct.

Or do I first connect to my phone to my home ASUS router then turn on wmwifirouter?

**arrrghhh** · #5 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nichol

Man I feel stupid, for years I've been using my the TP and mogul as the router thinking i couldn't connect it to a router.. So I can just turn on wmwifirouter, turn on 3g to wifi, then got to my ASUS router utility and see if I can find my wmwifirouter network? I would say terms like access point and bridge but I don't know if those are correct.

Or do I first connect to my phone to my home ASUS router then turn on wmwifirouter?

WMWifiRouter has nothing to do with it... That's only if you want to share your 3g internet with other computers, phones, etc.

Just go into Settings > Connections > Wifi - Turn it on, and you should be able to see available networks. Easy peasy, you're making it WAY too complicated!

nichol · #6 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 02:55 PM

Opps, yes key assumptions I made and wording left off. I would like to share my 3G connection through my home router. I probably should reword my first post! Sorry for the confusion!

**arrrghhh** · #7 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nichol

Opps, yes key assumptions I made and wording left off. I would like to share my 3G connection through my home router. I probably should reword my first post! Sorry for the confusion!

Ohhhhhh I see what you're saying...

Your router would need to be able to handle that. That's really a question for your router provider - if your router can operate as a repeater or a bridge (I forget the actual term) then yes, it's possible.

Most routers cannot do this out of the box, unless it's a fairly beefy (read: expensive) router. Mine can, but not with the factory firmware. Had to upgrade to DDWRT to be able to do advanced things like what you want.

Also, sharing my connection with just my computer is painful. I can't imagine how bad it would be with more than one machine on it...

nichol · #8 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 05:03 PM

Thanks for the info. I'll look into creating an access point a bit more, but if anyone here has networking experiance and don't mind helping, please speak up. 90% of the time we just have one computer on at a time. My main goal in doing this is the Home Router has a USB printer and hard drive connected to it. So if I am doing work on a doucment that i want to print I connect to my home network. Now lets say i want to find something on the internet. I have to disconnect from my home network, connect to the wmwifirouter. Now i have internet, and lets say i want to print something, disconnect from wmwifirouter, reconnect to home network. I was hoping to make life easier! Hope that clears some stuff up.

**arrrghhh** · #9 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 05:19 PM

Ah, most people have an internet connection at home

I'm actually a network engineer in my real life... I can try to help ya. What make/model router do you have?

nichol · #10 (**permalink**) 01-12-2011, 06:42 PM

This is what happens when you live out in the sticks. Cable doesn't run out this far. We don't have a phone line so no DSL. Suprisingly cell gets 1.7 m/s which is good enough to stream netflix! So for the last couple years I've had cell internet! Lets work this out via pm and if we getting it working you or I can post the results. Thanks once again for the help!