Sharing internet from my Desktop

[technerd02]

Hello. So I'm in a student dorm with a very good cabled internet connected to my desktop PC. I use the internet,its 100mbit dl and upload speed, low ping etc. But the problem is i need to share it from my PC to my and my gf's phones. 

My desktop motherboard is not a WiFi motherboard. I've been using the USB wifi adapter to share internet from my pc, but considering its not very designed to SHARE internet, i tend to lose connection on my phone very often.

 

Getting a router is not an option because its not allowed,but I can share a hotspot to my other devices. Would buying a wireless Network card improve the stability of the hotspot? If its even possible to share hotspot with it?

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, Dakiskendo said:

Getting a router is not an option because its not allowed,but I can share a hotspot to my other devices. Would buying a wireless Network card improve the stability of the hotspot? If its even possible to share hotspot with it?

Open the wifi network on your phone and check how many dozens of routers are there from people :p.

 

Just do what others do get an access point, put it in hidden mode and connect to it directly.

 

What you are doing via the usb is exactly the same as putting an access point just worse

[Biohazard777]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Open the wifi network on your phone and check how many dozens of routers are there from people :p.

 

Just do what others do get an access point, put it in hidden mode and connect to it directly.

 

What you are doing via the usb is exactly the same as putting an access point just worse

Was just about to say the same thing.

@Dakiskendoyou want the WiFi card to act as a router / AP... just get a router.
Either hide the SSID or heck just name it something stupid like AndroidAP_8457 ,
and IMO more importantly: get a router on which you can change the MAC address and change it something random!
The reason being most router manufacturers put their OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) in the MAC address, and the network admins can check the MAC addresses of the devices connected to their network.

[technerd02]

21 minutes ago, Biohazard777 said:

Was just about to say the same thing.

@Dakiskendoyou want the WiFi card to act as a router / AP... just get a router.
Either hide the SSID or heck just name it something stupid like AndroidAP_8457 ,
and IMO more importantly: get a router on which you can change the MAC address and change it something random!
The reason being most router manufacturers put their OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier) in the MAC address, and the network admins can check the MAC addresses of the devices connected to their network.

Problem is that the internet has a certain login account you need to sign in to (personal college account) and i dont think its possible to use the router to do that. Is it possible to just do it via a network card?

[technerd02]

46 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Open the wifi network on your phone and check how many dozens of routers are there from people :p.

 

Just do what others do get an access point, put it in hidden mode and connect to it directly.

 

What you are doing via the usb is exactly the same as putting an access point just worse

There aren't any. You are not allowed to do it.

[jaslion]

52 minutes ago, Dakiskendo said:

Problem is that the internet has a certain login account you need to sign in to (personal college account) and i dont think its possible to use the router to do that. Is it possible to just do it via a network card?

Routers can do that. But then the wifi card way can be a decent idea. However the disconnects can also be because of the school verification catching multiple adress on "one" device

[Biohazard777]

1 hour ago, Dakiskendo said:

Problem is that the internet has a certain login account you need to sign in to (personal college account) and i dont think its possible to use the router to do that.

So you are behind a "Captive Portal".
Security is typically so lax all you need to do is clone the mac address.
1) Get a dirt cheap used ~10 yo laptop , whatever as long as it runs and has a network card.

2) Write down the MAC address of the network card in the laptop.
3) You connect that laptop, open a browser, it will force you to enter your credentials before you can access the internet as usual, you do so.
4) You disconnect that laptop.
5) You use that mac address on your router and you are done.
6) From time to time it may stop working (ask you to log in again), disconnect the router -> repeat step #3 & #4 -> connect the router.
*Alternatively you don't have to get some cheap old laptop, you can use your own desktop and the network card you already have, but then you will have to change the mac address before you plug it into the router (otherwise you end up with two devices with same MAC on the same LAN).

Alternatively, there are routers that handle captive portals in a user-friendly way, though they are lot less common and people rarely know about them, like these ones:
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/tutorials/connect_to_a_hotspot_with_captive_portal/

https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/#travel-router

 

1 hour ago, Dakiskendo said:

Is it possible to just do it via a network card?

Sure, you can share it with a USB WiFi card -> you can share it with a PCIe wireless network card.
The biggest downside being your PC needs to be on constantly.

How often does it ask you enter credentials?
If it is quite often, go with the network card.
If it is very rarely I say try the mac cloning or travel router route .

[vmdyap2022]

if you can find and buy a raspberry pi you can turn it to a travel router. There are instructions on how to do it.

or you can buy a travel router, normally it will have option for you to input your login information, if you need to, then you will be allowed to share the net to multiple devices.

[technerd02]

5 hours ago, Biohazard777 said:

So you are behind a "Captive Portal".
Security is typically so lax all you need to do is clone the mac address.
1) Get a dirt cheap used ~10 yo laptop , whatever as long as it runs and has a network card.

2) Write down the MAC address of the network card in the laptop.
3) You connect that laptop, open a browser, it will force you to enter your credentials before you can access the internet as usual, you do so.
4) You disconnect that laptop.
5) You use that mac address on your router and you are done.
6) From time to time it may stop working (ask you to log in again), disconnect the router -> repeat step #3 & #4 -> connect the router.
*Alternatively you don't have to get some cheap old laptop, you can use your own desktop and the network card you already have, but then you will have to change the mac address before you plug it into the router (otherwise you end up with two devices with same MAC on the same LAN).

Alternatively, there are routers that handle captive portals in a user-friendly way, though they are lot less common and people rarely know about them, like these ones:
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/tutorials/connect_to_a_hotspot_with_captive_portal/

https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/#travel-router

 

Sure, you can share it with a USB WiFi card -> you can share it with a PCIe wireless network card.
The biggest downside being your PC needs to be on constantly.

How often does it ask you enter credentials?
If it is quite often, go with the network card.
If it is very rarely I say try the mac cloning or travel router route .

I only logged in once through ethernet cable and never again,because its something you first install on your pc like a driver of some sort,and then you enter the national student stuff and then you get internet access. Doesnt matter if my PC would be on,because whenever Im in the room my pc will be on anyways as i use it frequently for college and gaming. So a PCIe network card would give me a stable hotspot wifi connection to my phones?

[Bdavis]

I believe PfSense supports certain wifi cards. You could run it in a VM and pass through a pci-e NIC and it might do what you want. The initial stetup could be a little complicated though.

[vmdyap2022]

if you plug an ethernet cable to your computer and it installs a "software" (dialer or portal software) before you can log in, the easiest way is to get a pcie wireless card or usb wireless card then in settings look for network then on the left menu, mobile hotspot. once you turn in on, scroll to the bottom and turn off power saving mode.

 

you can also edit the registry to increase the peerless timeout from 5 mins to 120 mins (max allowed), this is time when Mobile hotspot will automatically turn off if there are no device/s connected to it

also from the registry, you can adjust the connection timeout from 20 mins to 60 mins (max), this setting tells when to turn Mobile hotspot off if there are no internet connection.

 

you can try the resolution from the link below:

Mobile Hotspot keeps turning off

[technerd02]

1 hour ago, vmdyap2022 said:

if you plug an ethernet cable to your computer and it installs a "software" (dialer or portal software) before you can log in, the easiest way is to get a pcie wireless card or usb wireless card then in settings look for network then on the left menu, mobile hotspot. once you turn in on, scroll to the bottom and turn off power saving mode.

 

you can also edit the registry to increase the peerless timeout from 5 mins to 120 mins (max allowed), this is time when Mobile hotspot will automatically turn off if there are no device/s connected to it

also from the registry, you can adjust the connection timeout from 20 mins to 60 mins (max), this setting tells when to turn Mobile hotspot off if there are no internet connection.

 

you can try the resolution from the link below:

Mobile Hotspot keeps turning off

Exactly. I already have a usb wifi adapter but it's sharing signal SUCKS. I think a PCIe card should be much better for that. I'll buy a wireless pcie card and try this thing out. 

Thank you!

[vmdyap2022]

12 hours ago, Dakiskendo said:

Exactly. I already have a usb wifi adapter but it's sharing signal SUCKS. I think a PCIe card should be much better for that. I'll buy a wireless pcie card and try this thing out. 

Thank you!

Another thing, you might want to check the power management of your USB Wifi dongle (control panel - network and sharing center - change adapter settings), right click on the wifi adapter, properties, configure button, then power management, uncheck allow computer to turn this off. This might be worth checking before buying a PCIE card.

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 10/5/2022 at 2:18 PM, Dakiskendo said:

Getting a router is not an option because its not allowed,but I can share a hotspot to my other devices. Would buying a wireless Network card improve the stability of the hotspot? If its even possible to share hotspot with it?

Do bare in mind that doing this via a PC is technically the same as using a router, so they could see it as still in breach of their rules.

[technerd02]

On 10/5/2022 at 3:23 PM, jaslion said:

Open the wifi network on your phone and check how many dozens of routers are there from people :p.

 

Just do what others do get an access point, put it in hidden mode and connect to it directly.

 

What you are doing via the usb is exactly the same as putting an access point just worse

I got an access point, but its impossible to set it up for the WPA2-Enterprise connection. Theres no option to type in the credentials.

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Dakiskendo said:

I got an access point, but its impossible to set it up for the WPA2-Enterprise connection. Theres no option to type in the credentials.

What access point? Only specific ones will do this and I havent recommended those yet.

[technerd02]

20 minutes ago, jaslion said:

What access point? Only specific ones will do this and I havent recommended those yet.

I got a TP-Link TL-WA855RE

[jaslion]

10 minutes ago, Dakiskendo said:

TP-Link TL-WA855RE

Thats a range extender and does not support web portal login

[technerd02]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Thats a range extender and does not support web portal login

It's also an access point  I think i'll return it,but i will try what Biohazard told me about the captive portal.

[jaslion]

12 minutes ago, Dakiskendo said:

It's also an access point  I think i'll return it,but i will try what Biohazard told me about the captive portal.

It can be one but it's a locked down version of one and doesn't support what you need.

 

What biohazard said will work. BUT there are acces points and other means (raspberry pi and clones of it) that can do this in a dedicated way. Since you need an ap/router/... anyway you might as well look for one.

 

Doesn't even need to be expensive plenty of old used linksys equipment online for like 10 pounds that will do the job.

[technerd02]

9 minutes ago, jaslion said:

It can be one but it's a locked down version of one and doesn't support what you need.

 

What biohazard said will work. BUT there are acces points and other means (raspberry pi and clones of it) that can do this in a dedicated way. Since you need an ap/router/... anyway you might as well look for one.

 

Doesn't even need to be expensive plenty of old used linksys equipment online for like 10 pounds that will do the job.

Problem is I already bought this from retail,and im not sure if i can refund it at this point... Do you maybe know how I'm supposed to change the MAC address of this Repeater?

[technerd02]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

It can be one but it's a locked down version of one and doesn't support what you need.

 

What biohazard said will work. BUT there are acces points and other means (raspberry pi and clones of it) that can do this in a dedicated way. Since you need an ap/router/... anyway you might as well look for one.

 

Doesn't even need to be expensive plenty of old used linksys equipment online for like 10 pounds that will do the job.

What if I bought a 1x Ethernet into 2x Ethernet adapter, connected it to my PC,and then plugged the ethernet cable coming from the wall into the PC,and then another ethernet cable into the Repeater (Range Extender)? Would that make any sense? Using my computer as a bridge if possible?

[technerd02]

On 10/5/2022 at 5:25 PM, Biohazard777 said:

So you are behind a "Captive Portal".
Security is typically so lax all you need to do is clone the mac address.
1) Get a dirt cheap used ~10 yo laptop , whatever as long as it runs and has a network card.

2) Write down the MAC address of the network card in the laptop.
3) You connect that laptop, open a browser, it will force you to enter your credentials before you can access the internet as usual, you do so.
4) You disconnect that laptop.
5) You use that mac address on your router and you are done.
6) From time to time it may stop working (ask you to log in again), disconnect the router -> repeat step #3 & #4 -> connect the router.
*Alternatively you don't have to get some cheap old laptop, you can use your own desktop and the network card you already have, but then you will have to change the mac address before you plug it into the router (otherwise you end up with two devices with same MAC on the same LAN).

Alternatively, there are routers that handle captive portals in a user-friendly way, though they are lot less common and people rarely know about them, like these ones:
https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/tutorials/connect_to_a_hotspot_with_captive_portal/

https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/#travel-router

 

Sure, you can share it with a USB WiFi card -> you can share it with a PCIe wireless network card.
The biggest downside being your PC needs to be on constantly.

How often does it ask you enter credentials?
If it is quite often, go with the network card.
If it is very rarely I say try the mac cloning or travel router route .

Can I use any router to clone the laptop's MAC address?

[Alex Atkin UK]

20 minutes ago, Dakiskendo said:

Can I use any router to clone the laptop's MAC address?

There's a lot of things you can do and they all risk getting you banned for bypassing their restrictions.

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Dakiskendo said:

What if I bought a 1x Ethernet into 2x Ethernet adapter, connected it to my PC,and then plugged the ethernet cable coming from the wall into the PC,and then another ethernet cable into the Repeater (Range Extender)? Would that make any sense? Using my computer as a bridge if possible?

What you can do is add a second ethernet card to your pc and pass internet through it. That works well and has been a stablr feature off windows for decades.

 

Then hook it up to whatever.