On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 10:00:57AM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote:
In my office I have a Draytek router, connected to ADSL (was O2, now Sky), with it's WAN port connected to another ADSL router, itself connected to PlusNet, and load balancing between the two. I have it set up this way due to the pretty useless speeds we get here (I just ran a speed test and got 3Mbps up, 0.5Mpbs down). No prospect of it changing much either in the short term.
I have an identical arrangement at home, excpet that both my telephone lines are Plusnet now. My Draytek is a 2820n.
On the other hand, the same speed test on my phone shows 20Mbps down, 8Mpbs up (4G on Three). And I have free unlimited data including tethering.
So I want to find a way to tether my office network onto my phone when I'm in the office.
Is this just as simple as replacing the second ADSL router with an access point, or do I need to be more clever than that? (Also: the Draytek has a USB port for (eg) a USB 4G dongle, but could I use a USB wifi dongle to tether to my phone instead?)
The "right" solution is to get a 4G dongle for the Draytek, but data plans on data SIMs don't seem all that great - and even phone contracts aren't as good as they were (I get unlimited tethering, but new contracts limit to 5GB while tethering). So I'd like to find a way to use my existing phone connection if I can, albeit that it's going to kill my battery when I use it. Although if anyone can point at decent 4G data plans instead I'd be happy to switch (I am already paying for two ADSL lines so I can ditch one of those if I get this working).
I think you have outlined the possibilites quite well, as I see it you can:-
Get a 4G dongle and put it in the Draytek's USB port, the obvious 'easy' solution.
Get a dedicated 4G modem/router which accepts a 4G SIM and connect that to the Draytek's ethernet WAN2 port, in the same way as your current second router on Plusnet). No real advantage over using a dongle in the USB really.
Get a WiFi 'router' that can act as a WiFi client to the tethered phone (I assume the phone provides WiFi for its tethered clients). Then connect the LAN side of this router to the ethernet WAN2 port on the Draytek.
That last possibility is what you are after I think. I don't think all WiFi router boxes can do it, I have some TP-Link ones that can do it. One very cheap one is the TL-WR743ND, can be bought for around £20. TP-Link call the ability to do this WISP Client mode.