Sharing Hotel wifi.

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17 Oct 2002
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I'm looking for a wifi IN - ethernet OUT solution. Any fool can do it the other way around - including this fool.

I'm using a macbook and I want to receive a paid-for hotel wifi and pump it out via ethernet to a mifi so I can serve four devices. Without having to pay the hotel four times over.

I know about Internet Sharing - Share connection from Airport - To computers using Ethernet.

But somethings missing. A setting or three that I've got wrong. Devices can see and connect to the mifi but there's no internet service.

Any help will be most gratefully received.

John
 
A mifi as in a three mifi? Is that connected via USB?

Surely you'd need a switch/router with the DHCP turned off, to bridge the ethernet connection to your own private wireless network?
 
A mifi as in a three mifi? Is that connected via USB?
Yes, it can take a 3G dongle then distributes that connect by wifi. It can also take ethernet in as an alternative source. Both work well and are frequently used.


Surely you'd need a switch/router with the DHCP turned off, to bridge the ethernet connection to your own private wireless network?
I guess that's what I'm asking. I've switched off DHCP on the mifi. I suspect there's other gubbins that I need to tweak.

Assuming one of those 4 devices is a Win 7 laptop, all you need is this free software - http://www.connectify.me/

Edit: seems to be a similar app for Mac - http://wlanbook.com/personal-hotspot-for-mac-os-download/
That app will require ethernet in to provide wifi out. I need wifi in - ethernet out.
 
You need to turn DHCP on on the mifi, other wise the hotel will see 4 seperate devices.

You need to connect to the network via 1 laptop, then use network sharing to share that connection with your ethernet connection. Plug your mifi in to that laptop with dhcp on. I assume that the hotel requires login. You might need to have that laptop active for the internet connection to work.
 
That app will require ethernet in to provide wifi out. I need wifi in - ethernet out.
If your Wifi chipset is one of these (I think Macbooks use Broadcom chipsets) Then you can share a Wi-Fi connection from the same Wi-Fi card that you are using to access the Wi-Fi network. No idea if the Mac port supports this though so you'd have to bootcamp to Windows 7.

Anyway, since the mifi has ethernet in, you should be able to set up your macbook as a NAT router easily: go to the sharing pane of your system preferences pane, select the internet tab and it should be obvious from there.
Set the Mifi up to act as a straight access point with no routing and your other devices should be able to connect to the AP and recieve a DHCP address from the Macbook.
 
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I did what GaryH suggested when at Uni ... my wifi failed in my mac so simply got a WRT54Gs, set it up as a 'bridge/client' which connected to the wireless network then I used ethernet.
 
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