Moto G4 Play cellphone on Sprint Free Year (actually it's been 2 years, with 90 days of Mint Mobile separating the 2 free years).
Phone is connected to a tired old laptop, via PdaNet+, since the Sprint plan doesn't include hotspot functionally. The laptop uses the "Connectify" app to share the PdaNet+ connection with the Ethernet port.
Laptop is connected to a tired old Linksys router whose WAN port is connected to the laptop.
FAQ:
Why use Connectify instead of configuring the sharing of the network connections, in Windows 10, manually?
Because Windows updates and other events occasionally mess with the manual configuration and then I end up having to troubleshoot the problem. Connectify is a "set and forget" solution.
Why use the Linksys router when you can use the laptop's WiFi to create a hotspot?
The router is strong enough to provide coverage for our entire house. The laptop's WiFi only reaches about halfway through the house.
Why not just pay for home internet like normal people do?
Because I'm a cheapskate and this setup meets all of our needs without us having to sacrifice anything. (If we cared about streaming 4k video that would obviously not be the case.)
Also, since we travel a lot (we're frequent campers) we like having an internet solution that travels with us.
How are you able to keep the laptop closed up?
I changed the power setting for the lid to "do nothing". Connectify and PdaNet+ are the only things that run on this laptop and they rarely require any attention.
(off-topic)
In an earlier day, I was a keyboard player. I always dreamed of owning a Hammond tonewheel organ.(IMHOP, only the older models with tone wheels are 'true' Hammonds.)
A few years ago, I found one for under $200 in our local electronics recycler shop with a Leslie, apparently donated by a church. I immediately called a good friend who is both an electronic tech and a Hammond owner/player, to ask for advice. He confirmed it would be a good choice and was an incredible price, but asked me if I really needed another hobby, since keeping one running in good condition is a considerable amount of work. I don't need another time-consuming hobby, and don't really have the space to set it up, let alone work on it. I told him where it was (to share with the local Hammond community), and sadly walked away.....
Very neat setup!
Question - does the phone get hot, being that it's constantly connected/charging? And is it bad for the phone's battery?
Your words "tired old laptop" and "tired old router" were very inspiring to the [strike]bumbling[/strike] aspiring DIYer in me! I have an old Windows-wiped-off-and-loaded-Linux laptop that gets hot and just shuts off after about an hour of operation. I should actually throw it away but have held on to it in the hope that some day, some how, I will be able to repair it. If I succeed, this will be perfect use for the resurrected laptop!
Count me in as another ex keyboard player..Some of my favorite memories are of playing the Hammond organ as a little kid at a rich kids home. Man you could make amazing sounds! Ellis Marsalis rocked!
Just resurrecting this thread as I recently had to set up some home internet with my phone data connection and this helped a lot. I have a similar setup now.
I was using a moto E6 with easytether pro connected to my gl.inet mango router (also with easytether installed) but it wasn't the most stable connection. I find pdanet a lot more stable than easytether but there isn't a way I know of directly linking the phone to the gl.inet router with pdanet. Was trying to bypass the laptop.
Here is a video explaining how to connect your hotspot phone to your router by changing some of your router settings, assuming your router has similar settings as the router in the video. Or if you have another router sitting around, you can set it to bridge mode and connect it to bridge your phone to your router.
Thanks I'll take a look. Will that setup bypass tethering restrictions? That is the part that causes the extra complication. My router lets me tether directly from my phone which is straightforward but tethering restrictions will still be there.
The US really needs to drop these oppressive tethering restrictions. If you buy Xgb of data it doesn't matter how you use it. No need to limit tethering. On a plan like visible which is truly unlimited then it becomes important to have restrictions but those plans are rare.
IDK, but the video assumes, I believe, no carrier tethering restrictions are in place. Perhaps there are other ways to get around the restrictions other than using Pda net, etc.
When using a Visible phone with no tethering restrictions I bridge directly to a Mango router.
When using my T-Mobile phone with only 14GB of LTE hotspot I have to use PdaNet to bypass the restriction. Since I don't know of any routers with built-in PdaNet clients I go through the laptop to "convert" back to regular wifi.
Connectify is the most troublefree way I've found to use a laptop as a WAN connection for a router.
I'm not sure because we never have a need for that much bandwidth. I have each of our video devices throttled in the router to 1.5 Mbps because that's all we need.
And the rest of our use is home office stuff and it's always been fast enough.
If it's throttled and I need more than 5Mbps then I'll use PdaNet and Connectify.
