Forum Discussion

TNGW1500SE's avatar
TNGW1500SE
Explorer
Jun 24, 2019

Is this what a bidge does?

Background: I have two wifi devices on my windows 7 PC. One external and one internal so there's two wifi's. When we go to a campground, I hook the external one up to the campground wifi. It's hanging in the window so it gets better reception there.

Could I use the internal one as a "permanent" wifi access point for other stuff (Alexa, phones, etc) and broadcast a SSID (like "RV") with a password?

Can it be set it up so it stays the same no matter where we go and allow all my other devices to use the internet on the external one when it's connected to a network?

If that is possible, all I'd have to do is connect the external one to the campground wifi every time we moved.

The way it is now, I have to hook up all these devices and Alexa is a pain to change. If I could somehow link and share the internet between the two wifi's, all I'd have to do is hook up the external wifi on the PC each move.
  • I cannot know if your external wifi device can do as you want, but I do this all the time with my Pepwave Surf-On-The-Go WiFi device.

    Pepwave WiFi router
  • The SSID is broadcast by the Wifi access point. I don't think the wifi device on your computer is an access point, it's simply a wifi receiver. So both devices will pick up the same wifi access point.

    You'd need a router for what you're wanting to do. Wrong.

    You got me curious so I did some looking, and it looks like you can do that but you need an app/program to run to enable it.

    Look here:

    Use your pc as a hotspot
  • You want to set up the internal WiFi adapter as a hot spot, and the external one to access park WiFi.
    That should be possible, but I don’t do windows :)
  • UPDATE: I was able to do it with a program call "connectify". It's a free trial and "on sale" for as little as 14 bucks.

    Alexa was my main problem. When I wanted to change the wifi on it, I had to uninstall the app on my phone and re-install it. It's a Alexa app issue I guess.

    Now I've set it up so there's a wifi that travels with the PC in the RV. All I have to do is log on one of the the wifi's on the PC and everything else gets connected through it. Thanks for the help everyone!!! I can also log the PC into my phones hotspot and then the rest of the stuff in the RV has internet (if my phone does) Verizon sucks.

    NOTE: You may have to have two WiFi cards or maybe just a dual band card. I'm not sure since I had two cards I don't know if one would work. Both of my cards show they are connected to the campground and it works fine. I have two phones and Alexa connected to the new RV network and data is turned off on both phones.

    Here's what I used : https://www.connectify.me/
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    I have never been successful bridging but in theory it can be done.

    What I do
    I have an Ubiquiti NanoStation (loco M2 in my case I suggest the M) It is what I call a Wi-Fi modem.. that is it converts Wi-Fi to cable (Cat 5/6) IT feeds a home router Mine is currently a Belkin.. I am not all that pleased

    Takes a while to get used to the hoops you need to jump to set it up but works great PLUS height is often might and it's at the top of a 25' flag pole

    To set up
    Go to router setup Static IP and set the static WAN ip of 192.168.1.something other than 20. say 1

    Now go to 192.168.1.20 and do the router config. Where I am now I have to tick "Transparent mode" on the wireless page. other places I un-tick it.

    Select the SSID (Access point) you wish to lock to, lock to change and apply (You may need to add a PSK) before you change. You can also use the TOOLS aim antenna to peak the signal (just like peaking a TV signal)

    Now back to Router set up and "Dynamic"

    Job done

    Now your WAN IP will be something "else" liek 10.10.20.40 (I just made that up) but you can't access the Nano.

    The Nano station has amazing range.