Bridges, APs etc. and a recommendation?

[David]

I have ($DEITY help me) a Samsung Smart TV.
In the caravan.

I've tested some of the "smarts" in the house on the wired network and
whilst uninspiring they seem to work.

However there is no WiFi capability built in, just an Ethernet connection,
so to work from the MiFi or a caravan site WiFi it needs a WiFi Bridge.

Pause here to not that I'm old fashioned and a Bridge is something used to
connect two different segments of a LAN over a distance, instead of
hanging them both off the same router or wired LAN. Back in the day you
might have baseband modems or a leased line IIRC.

So I need something which can connect to a WiFi AP and also support a
strand of Ethernet.

This seems to be a commodity item, for example:

<https://www.amazon.co.uk/MobileFDL-VONETS-VAP11G-BRIDGE-Anytime/dp/
B006JV2H6O/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_lp_t_4?
_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7TBDKJSV7W3RA7Z2TNY5>

Which seems a neat solution as you can power it off USB and seems designed
for linking up a TV.

Or

<https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Extender-Broadband-UK-TL-WA850RE/dp/
B00AHXXJVW/ref=sr_1_2?
s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501595246&sr=1-2&keywords=wireless+bridge>

which is old technology and under £15

Or the more modern

<https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/B00KVD6CJY/
ref=sr_1_1?
m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501595432&sr=1-1&keywords=TP-LINK
+RE200>

at £27, also available from Argos.

Has anyone experience of this kind of thing, and any recommendations?


My current thoughts are:

USB powered may be too restrictive if I want to use it for other things as
well

AC750 is nice, but the N300 should be more than fast enough for hanging
off an AP. Unless you are trying to link Gigabit networks anything more
could be overkill. I doubt many caravan sites have a 700 Mb/sec WAN
connection.

Final thought is that these are cheap as chips commodity items so possibly
not worth agonising over.

Cheers



Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

[Paul G]

Might an alternative approach be to purchase a Wifi adapter for the TV ?

[David]

On Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:23:04 +0100, Paul G wrote:

> Might an alternative approach be to purchase a Wifi adapter for the TV ?
>
> On 8/1/2017 2:59 PM, David wrote:
>> I have ($DEITY help me) a Samsung Smart TV.
>> In the caravan.
>>
>> I've tested some of the "smarts" in the house on the wired network and
>> whilst uninspiring they seem to work.
>>
>> However there is no WiFi capability built in, just an Ethernet
>> connection, so to work from the MiFi or a caravan site WiFi it needs a
>> WiFi Bridge.

<snip>

As far as I can tell the TV doesn't support a WiFi USB adapter.

The connection diagram for WiFi shows an external WiFi box and an Ethernet
connection.

[Philip Herlihy]

In article <eubfql...@mid.individual.net>, wib...@btinternet.com
says...

I've timed-out trying to get your links to work. I copied the text into
Notepad, then edited out superfluous characters (and wrapping). Often
you can discard anything from the first '?' or '&' onward, as the
server-side parameters these introduce are often used for
tracking/marketing rather than pinning down the page itself. You're
asking a lot to get people to decipher this. Better to use bit.ly, like
this:

http://amzn.to/2wlcN4L

Anyway (lecture over). What might be useful for you is the knowledge
that a great many (possibly a majority) of bog-standard Wireless Access
Points (you know, mains-driven, Ethernet in, often with a four-way
Ethernet switch incorporated, and an antenna for WiFi) have an options
in the settings to convert them to "client" or "bridge" mode, so that
the antenna picks up WiFi from elsewhere, and delivers it to the
Ethernet. TP-Link WAPs often have this option, and provided you have
mains in the caravan, should sort you out. Unless you prefer to use
Powerline Adapters, of course.

--

Phil, London

[Philip Herlihy]

In article <MPG.33ebbc839...@news.eternal-september.org>,
thiswillb...@you.com says...

Without downloading the manual, it looks likely that this Netgear range
extender will do the same job.

http://amzn.to/2wlhmvI

--

Phil, London

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 02/08/17 11:40, Philip Herlihy wrote:

>
> I've timed-out trying to get your links to work. I copied the text into
> Notepad, then edited out superfluous characters (and wrapping). Often
> you can discard anything from the first '?' or '&' onward, as the
> server-side parameters these introduce are often used for
> tracking/marketing rather than pinning down the page itself. You're
> asking a lot to get people to decipher this. Better to use bit.ly, like
> this:

FWIW, IME for amazon links, the product ID quoted after /dp/ ...

B006JV2H6O, B00AHXXJVW and B00KVD6CJY

is directly searchable on the amazon site.

Alternatively, just use the following URLs ditching the fluff.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/MobileFDL-VONETS-VAP11G-BRIDGE-Anytime/dp/B006JV2H6O

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Extender-Broadband-UK-TL-WA850RE/dp/
B00AHXXJVW

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/B00KVD6CJY

or even ..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/dp/B00KVD6CJY

:)

--
Adrian C

[David]

I've just double checked and I copied the three lines as one chunk into
the URL bar which showed it as a single link, then knocked off the leading
and trailing chevrons (put in because some News Readers use them to
identify start and end of URL) and it worked fine.

It may be that your News Reader presents the links differently.

No requirement to use Notepad or anything as an intermediary.

I use PAN under Windows.

> What might be useful for you is the knowledge
> that a great many (possibly a majority) of bog-standard Wireless Access
> Points (you know, mains-driven, Ethernet in, often with a four-way
> Ethernet switch incorporated, and an antenna for WiFi) have an options
> in the settings to convert them to "client" or "bridge" mode, so that
> the antenna picks up WiFi from elsewhere, and delivers it to the
> Ethernet. TP-Link WAPs often have this option, and provided you have
> mains in the caravan, should sort you out. Unless you prefer to use
> Powerline Adapters, of course.

Not sure where you are going here.

When I last looked (which was a few years ago) you had to pay extra for
the AP capability over and above a standard cable router even though it
was the same hardware. My TP-Link TL-WDR3600 is a case in point. A WAP
could fit the bill but I have objections to being charged extra for
effectively nothing!

Anyway, in a caravan small is beautiful so the 4 port hub and WAN port
take up far too much real estate.

A small integrated device with only one Ethernet port is all I require at
the moment.

I am really puzzled over how a Powerline adapter would help. My
understanding is that it uses mains wiring to connect two Powerline
adapters together as if they were on wired Ethernet. I need a single
device which can roll a WiFi signal over to wired Ethernet.

[David]

Yes, that looks possible,

Any reason to use that instead of the equivalent WA850RE I linked to above?

I am asking for knowledge gained from experience.

[David]

As posted in a reply to Phil, copy and paste from my news reader Just
Works (TM).

Am I the only one who can do this (PAN).

[Rob Morley]

On 1 Aug 2017 13:59:49 GMT

David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:

> I have ($DEITY help me) a Samsung Smart TV.
> In the caravan.
>
> I've tested some of the "smarts" in the house on the wired network
> and whilst uninspiring they seem to work.
>
> However there is no WiFi capability built in, just an Ethernet
> connection, so to work from the MiFi or a caravan site WiFi it needs
> a WiFi Bridge.
>
> Pause here to not that I'm old fashioned and a Bridge is something
> used to connect two different segments of a LAN over a distance,
> instead of hanging them both off the same router or wired LAN. Back
> in the day you might have baseband modems or a leased line IIRC.
>
> So I need something which can connect to a WiFi AP and also support a
> strand of Ethernet.
>
> This seems to be a commodity item, for example:
>
> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/MobileFDL-VONETS-VAP11G-BRIDGE-Anytime/dp/
> B006JV2H6O/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_lp_t_4?
> _encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=7TBDKJSV7W3RA7Z2TNY5>
>
> Which seems a neat solution as you can power it off USB and seems
> designed for linking up a TV.
>
> Or
>
> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Extender-Broadband-UK-TL-WA850RE/dp/
> B00AHXXJVW/ref=sr_1_2?
> s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501595246&sr=1-2&keywords=wireless+bridge>

In case anyone is struggling with the URLs this one is
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MobileFDL-VONETS-VAP11G-BRIDGE-Anytime/dp/B006JV2H6O

>
> which is old technology and under £15
>
> Or the more modern
>
> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/B00KVD6CJY/
> ref=sr_1_1?
> m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501595432&sr=1-1&keywords=TP-LINK
> +RE200>

and that is
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Extender-Broadband-UK-TL-WA850RE/dp/B00AHXXJVW

[Rob Morley]

On Wed, 2 Aug 2017 11:40:41 +0100
Philip Herlihy <thiswillb...@you.com> wrote:

> I've timed-out trying to get your links to work. I copied the text
> into Notepad, then edited out superfluous characters (and wrapping).
> Often you can discard anything from the first '?' or '&' onward, as
> the server-side parameters these introduce are often used for
> tracking/marketing rather than pinning down the page itself. You're
> asking a lot to get people to decipher this. Better to use bit.ly,
> like this:
>
> http://amzn.to/2wlcN4L

I've replied to the OP providing usable URLs, because I like
tidiness. :-)

[Rob Morley]

On 2 Aug 2017 15:29:23 GMT

David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:

> Anyway, in a caravan small is beautiful so the 4 port hub and WAN
> port take up far too much real estate.

You don't get much smaller than a Raspberry Pi Zero W - runs off the TV
USB socket, has its own Wi-Fi so you can use it as the brains for your
TV, or you can easily add an Ethernet port and use the Pi as a
Wi-Fi/Ethernet bridge.


http://raspi.tv/2015/ethernet-on-pi-zero-how-to-put-an-ethernet-port-on-your-pi

https://rbnrpi.wordpress.com/project-list/wifi-to-ethernet-adapter-for-an-ethernet-ready-tv-new-version/

[David]

Might as well use a Pi 3 come to that.

Only thing in the way is a suitably rounded Tuit.

I have a Pi B+ and a Pi 2 sitting unused at the moment which could act as
WiFi routers and media centres.

However I am tempted to the short term fix of wandering down to Argos and
buying a fancy plug.

[David]

>> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/
B00KVD6CJY/
>> ref=sr_1_1?
>> m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501595432&sr=1-1&keywords=TP-
LINK

>> +RE200>
>
> and that is
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Extender-Broadband-UK-TL-WA850RE/dp/
B00AHXXJVW
>>
>> at £27, also available from Argos.
>>
>> Has anyone experience of this kind of thing, and any recommendations?
>>
>>
>> My current thoughts are:
>>
>> USB powered may be too restrictive if I want to use it for other things
>> as well
>>
>> AC750 is nice, but the N300 should be more than fast enough for hanging
>> off an AP. Unless you are trying to link Gigabit networks anything more
>> could be overkill. I doubt many caravan sites have a 700 Mb/sec WAN
>> connection.
>>
>> Final thought is that these are cheap as chips commodity items so
>> possibly not worth agonising over.

You missed

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/B00KVD6CJY

Cheers


Dave R

P.S. I do know how to shorten URLs and use 3rd party sites to produce tiny
URLs. Just hadn't realised that others couldn't just copy and paste the
whole messy thing and have it work.

[Rob Morley]

On 2 Aug 2017 17:26:26 GMT

David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 02 Aug 2017 18:13:02 +0100, Rob Morley wrote:

> > You don't get much smaller than a Raspberry Pi Zero W - runs off
> > the TV USB socket, has its own Wi-Fi so you can use it as the
> > brains for your TV, or you can easily add an Ethernet port and use
> > the Pi as a Wi-Fi/Ethernet bridge.
> >
> >
> > http://raspi.tv/2015/ethernet-on-pi-zero-how-to-put-an-ethernet-port-on-
> your-pi
> >
> > https://rbnrpi.wordpress.com/project-list/wifi-to-ethernet-adapter-for-
> an-ethernet-ready-tv-new-version/
>
> Might as well use a Pi 3 come to that.

But that's so big and power-hungry. :-)

>
> Only thing in the way is a suitably rounded Tuit.

I wish you could get those on eBay.

[Rob Morley]

On 2 Aug 2017 17:30:37 GMT

David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 02 Aug 2017 17:49:56 +0100, Rob Morley wrote:
> >
> > In case anyone is struggling with the URLs this one is
> > https://www.amazon.co.uk/MobileFDL-VONETS-VAP11G-BRIDGE-Anytime/dp/
> B006JV2H6O

> [...]
> B00KVD6CJY/
> [...]
> LINK
> [...]

> >
> > and that is
> > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Extender-Broadband-UK-TL-WA850RE/dp/
> B00AHXXJVW

> [...]
>
>
> You missed
>
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/B00KVD6CJY

Whoops. :-)

>
> P.S. I do know how to shorten URLs and use 3rd party sites to produce
> tiny URLs. Just hadn't realised that others couldn't just copy and
> paste the whole messy thing and have it work.
>

I don't know if there's something that they should comply with and
don't, in terms of allowing longer-than-max-char lines to post a
working URL without inserting CR/LF, or allowing the copying of
split-over-multiple-line URLs without breaking them when you paste them
into a browser, but I've used such news clients in the past and found
them most annoying. Claws Mail seems to cope with them pretty well.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Knock yr self out :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/222529245053

--
Adrian C

[Rob Morley]

Ah, I remember those (although they weren't LASER engraved) in the
novelty gift shops back when I lived somewhere touristy. Sadly that
sort doesn't seem to have the property that it claims - I need one that
really works.

[David]

In the interests of science I've just conducted a short test using Wordpad.

www.
bbc.
co.
uk

pastes into Chrome as a single URL.

Please note the URL should be spread over 4 consecutive lines. PAN has a
habit of sometimes combining lines on posting.

Tentative conclusion; Chrome browser strips out CR and LF from pasted
strings.

Double check shows Firefox does the same.

Pasting the same selection into Notepad preservesthe line feeds subsequent
copy and paste shows the same behaviour in the browsers.

www.
google.
co.
uk

entered directly into Notepad shows the same behaviour.

So I would be interested to know the News Reader/Browser combination which
required massive editing of the URL just to get it to work.

I note that Phil used Notepad to remove the "wrapping" which my quick
tests suggest isn't necessary for Chrome and Firefox under Windows.

Cheers


Dave R

[David]

> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-RE200-AC750-Wi-Fi-Extender/dp/
B00KVD6CJY/
> ref=sr_1_1?
> m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1501595432&sr=1-1&keywords=TP-
LINK

> +RE200>
>
> at £27, also available from Argos.
>
> Has anyone experience of this kind of thing, and any recommendations?
>
>
> My current thoughts are:
>
> USB powered may be too restrictive if I want to use it for other things
> as well
>
> AC750 is nice, but the N300 should be more than fast enough for hanging
> off an AP. Unless you are trying to link Gigabit networks anything more
> could be overkill. I doubt many caravan sites have a 700 Mb/sec WAN
> connection.
>
> Final thought is that these are cheap as chips commodity items so
> possibly not worth agonising over.

Just found this.
<https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-3g-n150-wi-fi-router-and-hotspot-a26lw>
If you ignore the 3G stuff it also acts as a router and a bridge
(apparently)
So I will give it a test and see if it does the job, then report back.

[Philip Herlihy]

In article <eudpu8...@mid.individual.net>, em...@here.invalid
says...

That last one's neat. Made me think - surely there's an option to copy
a concise link on the page? So there is: on the right-hand-side, near
the top, a "link" icon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KVD6CJY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1
_LyBGzbR2M0Y3T


And, as is often the case, it works without the "ref=...." stuff:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KVD6CJY/
--

Phil, London

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 03/08/17 16:51, Philip Herlihy wrote:
>
> That last one's neat. Made me think - surely there's an option to copy
> a concise link on the page? So there is: on the right-hand-side, near
> the top, a "link" icon:
>
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KVD6CJY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T1
> _LyBGzbR2M0Y3T
>
>
> And, as is often the case, it works without the "ref=...." stuff:
>
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KVD6CJY/
>

Even better :)

--
Adrian C

[David]

Oh, gawd.

Despite the fact that the paper manual and the quick start guide both show
the WiFi connection via an external AP there is WiFi built in.

Found this by searching for a WiFi dongle then going back to the Samsung
site to double check the specifications.

Read WiFi dongle support N/A. Oh bugger, I thought. Then read "Wireless
LAN Built-in Yes".

Just managed to get it talking to the home LAN.

Only blown a small amount of money on the Maplin dongle and it is an
interesting if infuriating bit of kit.

It does really well at running a private LAN off a public WiFi hotspot.
If you have to pay per device then this presents as one device but is a NAT
router for all your wireless kit.
However configuration is non-intuitive and I think it has too many clever
features all rolled in.

One major issue is that it starts up with no security (apart from an admin
password of "admin") so it is open to the world.

I went back to looking for other solutions when I configured up WPA/PSK
and it then allowed me to connect securely to the local LAN but wouldn't
route to the WAN side (which worked fine without the wireless security
turned on).

Anyway, TV is now netted up.

I need to check out a wireless keyboard, though, if I plan to do anything
which requires typing.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On 18 Aug 2017 17:00:06 GMT, David <wib...@btinternet.com> wrote:

>Despite the fact that the paper manual and the quick start guide both show
>the WiFi connection via an external AP there is WiFi built in.

Ha. Had the same happen here, Samsung 6000 series TV, wired ethernet
only. I'd had to mess with the wiring, gone away for the weekend, and
mrs had found iPlayer not working so she'd got it on the wifi. Uh. Ok!

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"People don't buy Microsoft for quality, they buy it for compatibility
with what Bob in accounting bought last year. Trace it back - they buy
Microsoft because the IBM Selectric didn't suck much" - P Seebach, afc