Raspberry Pi - save me from having to reinvent the wheel?

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maby

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Hi all,

I seem to remember reading a thread here some time ago which discussed configuring a Raspberry Pi to act as a sort of wifi concentrator to help share out a marina wifi connection. At the time, I didn't need it, but we have moved to a marina which limits the number of connected devices and something that would connect to the marina wifi and then implement a simple natting router to an access point running concurrently on the Pi would be very useful. I'll roll up my sleeves and do it myself if I have to, but I do have better things to be doing with my time so any pointers would be most welcome!
 
A sophisticated WiFi would prevent that unless you hide the NAT stuff through a VPN..

However, I expect you need 2*WiFi, a pi, power. There are cheaper ways! WiFi repeater...

If you have a Pi then does open plotter do it?
 
ShinyShoe said:
A sophisticated WiFi would prevent that unless you hide the NAT stuff through a VPN..

However, I expect you need 2*WiFi, a pi, power. There are cheaper ways! WiFi repeater...

If you have a Pi then does open plotter do it?
Click to expand...

I shall be needing a VPN - the marina wifi only passes a limited range of ports. I have successfully linked my laptop via the marina wifi to my work VPN and allowed that to onward route traffic to the internet and that gives me access to the full range of ports.

I was not aware of Open Plotter - just taken a look at it and there is no mention of the functionality I'm looking for, but the documentation is very sketchy.
 
maby said:
I was not aware of Open Plotter - just taken a look at it and there is no mention of the functionality I'm looking for, but the documentation is very sketchy.
Click to expand...

https://docs.sailoog.com/openplotter-v1-x-x/network

Openplotter does what it sounds like you are after - log on to a wifi network and share that web access with a network it creates.

It can even do both those just using the built in wifi adapter on a Pi 3 (not 3+) but download speeds might slow down a bit so might be worth a few quid on a usb dongle.

Bit like getting a Ferrari to pop to the shops though ;) Openplotter must be as good as there is for a computer based boat nav & logging system. Signalk built in which just gets better and better.
 
Open plotter is good and fun to play with. I had it running for a whole journey to and up the Medway and back. No faults to report.

Regards internet though, as mentioned... if the marina has any decent WiFi management, it should prevent you from connecting a “router”. Also sometimes a captive portal will stop access as the device may not be able to pass login information though.
 
ShinyShoe said:
A sophisticated WiFi would prevent that unless you hide the NAT stuff through a VPN..
Click to expand...

matthewriches said:
if the marina has any decent WiFi management, it should prevent you from connecting a “router”.
Click to expand...

hmm...how do you imagine that would work? If they're looking at ttl on ip packets and making assumptions about the starting ttl that shouldn't be too hard to fix. If people really have been finding this an issue I'll have a look at submitting a pull request to work around it.

If another magic mechanism please explain
 
A few marinas I’ve been in and the university WiFi at the time showed a message long the lines of “we’ve detected that you’re using a device that enables multiple devices” fook off sort of thing. Not sure how it detects it mind.
 
We're using a Ubiquiti Bullet M2 to connect to the marina wifi, plugged into a tiny low-power router (make sure you get the 128MB flash version). The router runs OpenWRT and lets you do just about anything with your internet connection. Setting it up to repeat to an internal Wifi network for as many devices as you need is one of the easier ones. Far better suited than a RPi.

Ours also runs Laika's kplex to make instrument data from a bunch of USB-Serial converters available to any device on the network, but you may not need that part.
 
ZigZaging said:
Hi, have you thought about using your laptop as a mobile hotspot?
Click to expand...

I have done that on occasion, but I really don't want to leave the laptop on all the time. The attraction of something like a Raspberry Pi is that it is small, low power consumption and no moving parts to wear out.

Having looked in more detail at Open Plotter, it does look like a possible solution. I have loaded it up on a spare Pi that I had laying around and it seems interesting. I am currently fighting the poor support for USB WiFi adaptors.
 
GHA said:
Found the button to install more drivers bottom left in the network tab?
Click to expand...

I had not noticed it, but I think my current issue is that the Pi does not comfortably support any readily available usb wifi adaptors!
 
GHA said:
Not had a problem yet , the handful I've tried just work when you plug them in - what adapter are you using?

https://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters
Click to expand...

TP-LINK Archer T2U - reported to work, but the suggested installation instructions do not seem to produce a working solution. I have not had time to trace it through - "lsusb" seems to indicate that the board is seeing the physical device, but the OS is not seeing it as a network adaptor.
 
GHA said:
Tried this script?
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=174784#p1227278
Click to expand...

No - that was on my list of things to try...

My problem is that I don't have easy access to a suitable screen and keyboard where I'm working, so I have been trying to get it working "headless" - but that rather interferes with running that script which assumes internet access - I only have one working network adaptor - the Pi's onboard wifi adaptor - and I'm using that to connect to the Pi from my laptop! This is why I am trying to get a second network adaptor working - currently without much success. I have been downloading driver packages to my laptop, then transferring them to the Pi via VNC file transfer.

I'll get off my ass and get it hooked up to a screen and keyboard...
 
maby said:
No - that was on my list of things to try...

My problem is that I don't have easy access to a suitable screen and keyboard where I'm working, so I have been trying to get it working "headless" - but that rather interferes with running that script which assumes internet access - I only have one working network adaptor - the Pi's onboard wifi adaptor - and I'm using that to connect to the Pi from my laptop! This is why I am trying to get a second network adaptor working - currently without much success. I have been downloading driver packages to my laptop, then transferring them to the Pi via VNC file transfer.

I'll get off my ass and get it hooked up to a screen and keyboard...
Click to expand...

Is it a Pi3 or Pi3+ ?

Pi3 can create a network and log on to a network with the internal wifi adapter, 3+ - out of luck :)
 
GHA said:
Is it a Pi3 or Pi3+ ?

Pi3 can create a network and log on to a network with the internal wifi adapter, 3+ - out of luck :)
Click to expand...

It claims to be a Pi3, but the OpenPlotter configuration to run as simultaneous AP and client does not work. When I select it, then reboot, the wifi client config menu tells me that there is no network adaptor available.
 
maby said:
It claims to be a Pi3, but the OpenPlotter configuration to run as simultaneous AP and client does not work. When I select it, then reboot, the wifi client config menu tells me that there is no network adaptor available.
Click to expand...

Hmm, works fine on this Pi3. You can check the Pi model by running 'pinout' in a terminal then checking the Revision here >
https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/09/checking-your-raspberry-pi-board-version/

6nF4rxZ.png
 
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