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
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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.
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
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.
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
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 🙂
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.
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.
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
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
Doesn’t fix the poor signal I get in my region 🙁
Aaah, I get where the misunderstanding is coming from. Smartphones can often relay Wifi as well. Mine (Xiaomi, had the same thing with Samsung and Huawei though) will stay connected to the wifi it’s on and open up a hotspot.
I used a GL.iNet Opal to do exactly this while travelling.
Looks promising, I’ll get one and check it out. Thanks
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 👌
