Using Merlin router to access public Wi-Fi and create a private Wi-Fi in an RV

[ceephis]

Okay all you geniuses.

It's looking like I may need to use an RV as a place to live. And I was wondering if there was a way to set up my ASUS router to access a public Wi-Fi but still create a private Wi-Fi network that's routed.

I currently still have a home that I could even VPN into if that could be a part of it as well

I hope my request makes sense. Just to reiterate I would like to have the router in my RV accessing a public Wi-Fi at Starbucks or someplace else and creating a private Wi-Fi for me to access

Thanks again for your wisdom and insight

 

[Tech9]

No, you need a router with Wireless ISP or WISP. Not available on Asus routers.

 

[ColinTaylor]

You can't do that without additional hardware. Look for previous discussions on the forum regarding "travel routers" and "hotel wifi" from the likes of GL.iNet.

 

[doczenith1]

As others have mentioned a travel router will do what you are looking for. I've had good experiences with the GL-iNet brand.

Another option is to use an old Android phone USB tethered to your Asus router. Make sure the phone has at least Android 10 (I think) which enabled the ability to repeat the wifi signal via the tether.

 

[Tech9]

Travel routers have WISP, but also issues with captive portals. Phone tethering actually works better.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Just forget about the router, and just turn on your phone's wifi hotspot...

 

[CaptainSTX]

Travel routers have WISP, but also issues with captive portals. Phone tethering actually works better.

I have no problem using my GL-inet travel router with captive portals. It is an extra step but not insurmountable.

 

[elorimer]

Just forget about the router, and just turn on your phone's wifi hotspot...

Not exactly what the OP is looking for. Sure, you can do that using your phone's cell data at whatever speed or cost applies. And it sounds like the OP isn't worried about the RV not having a connection when he's out and about...

He could go all out using stuff like this: https://store-eu.gl-inet.com/products/puli-ax-xe3000-wi-fi-6-5g-cellular-router-with-battery; https://store-eu.gl-inet.com/collections/spitz-ax-gl-x3000

 

[ceephis]

Yeah I'm not against using my phone but the reason I bought an RV is we lost our house because of my disability and so I can't say that I have oodles of phone data available.

So thank you all for your great input and your help with this because I do think stopping occasionally in a town too update internet stuff isn't beyond the scope of what I could do

 

[js28194]

I have successfully (in the past) "Bridged" DD-WRT capable router to MiFi to over come 5 client limitation on MiFi device. This is built into DD-WRT, where it can act like a WiFi bridge and server WiFi at the same time with the same SSID if needed. In fact this occurred on a Linksys ACM3200, when "bridged" to my internal Merlin main network, it was still spitting out a WiFi SSID (DD-WRT) until I turned that off. I did take an opportunity to test it and it worked. My main SSID is something different. This was mostly used to connect my PS3 / PS4 via Ethernet to Linksys, then Wifi to Wifi bridge since the Wifi in PS3 in PS4 is horrible. I can forsee the same use case for you, however, YMMV since this is not a DD-WRT forum

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I have successfully (in the past) "Bridged" DD-WRT capable router to MiFi to over come 5 client limitation on MiFi device. This is built into DD-WRT, where it can act like a WiFi bridge and server WiFi at the same time with the same SSID if needed. In fact this occurred on a Linksys ACM3200, when "bridged" to my internal Merlin main network, it was still spitting out a WiFi SSID (DD-WRT) until I turned that off. I did take an opportunity to test it and it worked. My main SSID is something different. This was mostly used to connect my PS3 / PS4 via Ethernet to Linksys, then Wifi to Wifi bridge since the Wifi in PS3 in PS4 is horrible. I can forsee the same use case for you, however, YMMV since this is not a DD-WRT forum

I do miss that feature...

 

[ceephis]

I have successfully (in the past) "Bridged" DD-WRT capable router to MiFi to over come 5 client limitation on MiFi device. This is built into DD-WRT, where it can act like a WiFi bridge and server WiFi at the same time with the same SSID if needed. In fact this occurred on a Linksys ACM3200, when "bridged" to my internal Merlin main network, it was still spitting out a WiFi SSID (DD-WRT) until I turned that off. I did take an opportunity to test it and it worked. My main SSID is something different. This was mostly used to connect my PS3 / PS4 via Ethernet to Linksys, then Wifi to Wifi bridge since the Wifi in PS3 in PS4 is horrible. I can forsee the same use case for you, however, YMMV since this is not a DD-WRT forum

This is sounding like waht I wanted to do

From the replies below it seems like this is no longer an option Am I right?

 

[Viktor Jaep]

From the replies below it seems like this is no longer an option Am I right?

I don't think it ever has been a feature on the Asus/Merlin FW... I was simply reminiscing to the days of DD-WRT when I was able to use this feature. I had posted about this in the recent past... https://www.snbforums.com/threads/wifi-as-wan-wisp.82685/

Would certainly be cool to develop this out as a feature down the road.

 

[js28194]

This is sounding like waht I wanted to do

From the replies below it seems like this is no longer an option Am I right?

From my testing, this is not possible on Merlin. I have an RT-AC3200 upstairs, connecting as a Wireless Bridge to my GT-AX11000 downstairs. Even this is flaky at times since something happens when I reboot my main router downstairs. Different problem for a different thread. The RT-AC3200 does NOT have a separate DHCP server in this mode (which is what you are looking for). What you also must consider is in a home setting with a "main router" or a "Mifi" device, there is no Captive Portal and the RV park Wifi may have captive portal, which can be overcome.

Now if you have the time and the patience to experiment with DD-WRT, I would be happy to send you some links via PM to keep this main thread clean. I can tell you that it will take quite a bit of patience and experimenting as I the information is scattered in multiple threads and you have the piece it all together.