Connect LAN to WAN through PC

[wcndave]

I have a LAN but no wired internet connection.

I have a USB 3G dongle which is fine for wifi devices, however not for wired only devices.

Can I connect my PC to the internet using the dongle, and then have all devices on the LAN connect through the PC?

I have an asus AC87 router, however I can't get it to connect through the USB dongle for some reason.

It may be six months until I get a phone line in for a wired internet connection, so any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Dave

 

[azazel1024]

Yes, just go under network connection and under the properties, allow the 3G dongle to be bridged "Share this connection" or something along those lines. I don't recall the exact setting name.

Have you checked the list of supported USB dongles for the Asus?

 

[wcndave]

Bridging and sharing are two different things I think, I am never quite sure what the difference is.

I found an older 3G dongle which connects in the router (I can ping any website when logged into router via ssh), and I can connect to the router from PC, however I cannot connect to internet from PC... It's all very strange.

The problem perhaps with internet sharing is that my NASs and Linux boxes and various other devices may have trouble sharing it.

I really wish I could get to internet through the router, but it's just a mystery as to how I can get WAN ok and LAN ok, and not from LAN to WAN.

I looked for supported modems on Asus website, however they list none at all under Italy, so that was that. However it does connect...

 

[azazel1024]

You should be able to connect the router to your PC's ethernet port, setup connection sharing/briding on the 3G USB dongle and good to go. Only thing you have to do on the client side is set the IP address of the PC's ethernet port as the gateway IP address.

For a bit more security, you could connect the router to the PC using the routers WAN port. Also need to make sure everything is on the same local IP address range behind the 3G USB dongle.

 

[wcndave]

I might be starting to see a picture here...

So set up a "non secure", (ie no access to my NAS etc) pc with the 3g dongle. Set that up say as 192.168.1/24

Setup bridge to connect that pcs 3g + LAN together, then share that connection on network.

Then connect router to the LAN using router WAN, here I assume I set router connection type to static instead of pppoe or whatever.

Then make the LAN of router and everything behind router, ie, on " my network" 192.168.2/24.

Sound right?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[wcndave]

So I read up on Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), and it says you don't need bridging.

So I shared my 3G connection, and it was assigned 192.168.1.0/24 and I then checked the LAN port which was assigned 192.168.137.1

Connecting a laptop via a simple switch got me a laptop address of 192.168.137.199 and this could connect.

Connecting with LAN ports of router works IF one turns off DHCP on router.

Again I get 137.0/24 range

If I connect the ICS computer to the WAN of Router, and select DHCP connection type, it doesn't work. If I select static IP and choose 192.168.137.2 for the WAN IP and 137.1 for the gateway, it doesn't work.

So, it seems that my knowledge now will only let me use LAN ports, which I guess means my network is secured by the 3G dongle firewall and whatever might be enabled on the ICS computer.

 

[htismaqe]

For all intents and purposes, ICS is a "router". Therefore, you need to put your router in AP mode, turn off DHCP, and attach the ICS machine to a LAN port.

If you leave the router in router mode, you have several issues, including double NAT.

 

[wcndave]

Yes, that's how it seems to be playing out. I actually left router in same mode but wan port not used and router ip on same network as ics.

I was actually hoping to still go through router and set ics network as being the wan as I am not sure how good the protection is with ics

Still it's fantastic to finally have everything online!

Thanks everyone!


Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[wcndave]

I have tried this for a couple of days, and have the following findings - which may help others making similar choices.

I cannot move / unplug the computer running ICS, nor turn off the internet connection without everything internally dying, as they cannot find DHCP server.

So for example, when I disconnect ICS from internet, I cannot stream movies from my NAS to my TV. I don't need internet for that, however without DHCP it doesn't work. All my music streamers, laptops, tablets and whatnot are all the same, no DHCP = no go.

If I leave the connection on all the time, then overnight, even with everything in the house in standby mode bar my NAS, it used 2GB of data.

Given I have 10GB per month to use on my data plan, that's no good at all.

This would take me back to the original idea of connecting the ICS computer to internet, and then use that as the WAN of router, and the LAN of router is separate, meaning everything working on LAN when there is no ICS connection, however when there is the router can reach WAN and hence can everything else.

Then I could block devices from internet bar when they need to do something critical, turn off the 3G connection overnight without leaving media players unable to play music in the morning, and control the data usage reliably.

I am still uncertain as to why I can't make the ICS network be the WAN of the router, is this just simply not possible or would I need another approach?

Thanks

Dave

 

[chadster766]

Find an older laptop or desktop to be your dedicated ICS server.

 

[wcndave]

Thanks, but that's not really the point. I am doing that already.

My point is that my home network even when not installing updates, watching yourtube, or browsing used 20% of my monthly data allowance in a single night.

Therefore I need to turn off the USB 3G dongle when not in use, and I'd quite like to block internet access for certain devices at certain times.

Doing this on the router is easy, however unless I can set up a two tier network, then I can't see how to do this and still have my LAN operate correctly.

 

[chadster766]

Thanks, but that's not really the point. I am doing that already.

My point is that my home network even when not installing updates, watching yourtube, or browsing used 20% of my monthly data allowance in a single night.

Therefore I need to turn off the USB 3G dongle when not in use, and I'd quite like to block internet access for certain devices at certain times.

Doing this on the router is easy, however unless I can set up a two tier network, then I can't see how to do this and still have my LAN operate correctly.

The simple solution is unplug the dongle or disable it in network adapters. Just don't turn off the ICS server to keep the network up.

This is just temporary until the phone line is in right?

 

[wcndave]

The simple solution is unplug the dongle or disable it in network adapters. Just don't turn off the ICS server to keep the network up.

This is just temporary until the phone line is in right?

I really hope it's temporary, however it could be 6 months plus until we get the phone line in!

I tried disabling the adaptor and because it's not shared, it looks like ICS turns off, and therefore DHCP goes away, and then the network stops working....

I will try just turning off the connection on the dongle, but not disabling the network adaptor itself.

 

[chadster766]

I really hope it's temporary, however it could be 6 months plus until we get the phone line in!

I tried disabling the adaptor and because it's not shared, it looks like ICS turns off, and therefore DHCP goes away, and then the network stops working....

I will try just turning off the connection on the dongle, but not disabling the network adaptor itself.

Yes I meant only the dongle adapter.

 

[wcndave]

to make matters worse, I went online today and after a couple of blank pages, and 10 different links sent by the ISP added 500MB to my data for $5

I then found I had used 200 after about 10 minutes!

I disconnected the cable from my laptop, and it was still using it at about 1MB per 2-4 seconds.

I turned off auto updates and all the Norton stuff, still doing it!

Something is really eating my data and I don't know what...

I then put the dongle in the old machine I set up, and (it being vista) did not recognise the device.

I cannot find anywhere driver details for E5251 Huawei device, so I cannot install it into an "old pc I have lying about"

so now I may have to buy another copy of win7/8 for $150 and then still find (like my win8.1 laptop) that it will just eat through my bandwidth in no time...

further I got an intel NUS computer to act as this gateway to save power, and found that it hangs on bios 5/10, hand on boot 3/10 and hangs on install any OS/disc (win7/8/obuntu/gparted) 2/10

so that's another £400 wasted....

I am really beginning to loathe technology, I am now getting my music from vinyl and have had no problems whatsoever...

sorry for rant but I am just getting so frustrated with tech, and as a developer I feel I know computers (although not really networking) pretty well, and nothing seems to freakin work!

 

[chadster766]

Cell data is costly and I found it prohibitive unless you can get an unlimited data cellular package.

The amounts of data you mention are not unusual.

 

[htismaqe]

If you're spending all this money patching together a solution, why not just bite the bullet and buy a proper router?

 

[wcndave]

I bought an Asus AC87 for £300

is there another router that is more "proper"?

The problem has twofold, things not working, and bandwidth utilisation.

Not working:

- USB 3G dongle in router
- USB 3G dongle in Vista

Bandwith:

I unplugged every device from network, and left the USB 3G dongle in my windows 8.1 machine actually connected via USB as "Ethernet" and not connected via wi-fi.

I then left task manager running and saw 0 traffic. (I have turned off java checks for updates, Norton updates, windows updates etc...)

I came back half an hour later and saw that task manager is still showing 0 data, totally completely and utterly void of any traffic on the "Huawei connection"

I logged into the 3G device and it said I had used 356MB
I logged into my ISP and it showed I had used 690MB since 1am when I purchased another GB and went to bed!


I have made another discovery this morning. I don't recall having bandwidth issues when I was using the dongle as a pure wifi connection. We had a mac-mini, 3 laptops (had guests) and I used it for a couple of weeks... 700MB a night would have run out in a few days.

I have plugged the dongle into a wall USB power supply, connected laptop as wifi connection, shared it, plugged into network, and now typing on old computer connected via LAN, and I have used 16MB in 45 mins, including a few web pages and downloading some chrome extensions. The meter on the connection is ticking over a few bits per minute when I am idle, not a few MB per second.

I have no idea why when connected as USB device it should suck all the juice out of the interweb, however seems that's what it does.

Now my bandwidth problem is solved (as much as it ever can be), I need to get a wifi card for this old computer so I can do the same, as I was planning to share via USB LAN and can't leave my laptop in place as the connection sharing ICS point.

I have a wifi card in my Intel NUS (micro computer) however it seems bricked on arrival, so that's not gonna work unless I get it replaced.

So although I am both stunned and perplexed that a dongle connected via USB uses a GB when doing nothing, and when connected via wifi uses nothing when doing nothing, I may be making some small progress...