WiFi question - easiest way to connect non-WiFi hardware to WiFi?

[Chris G]

On Mon, Oct 03, 2011 at 12:56:06PM -0400, Nathan Bahn wrote:
>    On Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 1:40 PM, Chris G <[1]cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> 
>      While this is not a specifically Ubuntu/Linux question I suspect the
>      answers may be subtly different according to the OS one has on computers
>      in the same place.
> 
>      I want to connect a device (a VOIP phone base station) to a WiFi
>      service. The WiFi isn't mine, it's a service provided for customers (of
>      which I am one) at a marina.  I want to get my VOIP phone to talk to the
>      WiFi service.
> 
>      I *think* a WiFi router/access point should be able to do this but it's
>      not really very clear in the Web set-up how this can/should be done. Can
>      anyone offer me some help please.
> 
>      I have the following that I *could* use to connect to the WiFi:-
> 
>         Speedtouch 716WL wireless router (quite old)
>         Tenda Wireless-N router model W311R+
>         Solwise 434T 3G router
> 
>      Of these it feels as if the Tenda W311R+ is the most likely to be able
>      to be configured the way I want.  What I want is to configure the router
>      to be a WiFi 'client' and provide access to the internet from its
>      ethernet LAN connections.
> 
>      --
>      Chris Green
> 
>    Chris Green--
> 
>    I lack the expertise required to provide the level of detail that you may
>    require; hopefully someone else on this listserve will provide such
>    detail.  I do not know how much you know about configuring routers; you
>    will need from the marina's management the SSID of their WiFi router and
>    its password.

Well I know them of course or I wouldn't be able to use the WiFi in the
'normal' way of connecting my laptop to it.


>                     For your sake, I hope that that port forwarding is not
>    required (if it is, then buy some aspirin -- you will need it).
> 
>    A word of caution:  It is my understanding -- and I freely admit that I
>    could be wrong about this -- that WiFi is not an ideal medium for VOIP. 

You could well be right, however we did have it working via a much
flakier and slower 3G+ router which was actually only getting a 2G
connection.  It dropped out a lot but on good days we got a usable
connection which, given the low cost, was well worth having.


>    In addition to that (and depending upon the kind of service that the
>    marina is receiving from its ISP), it may well be that that the inbound
>    (to you) UDP frames will all come in (thus, allowing you to hear what is
>    being spoken to you), while the outbound (from you) UDP frames will have a
>    greater chance of being dropped by the marina's ISP modem -- with the
>    result that that the person that you are speaking with will be unable to
>    understand what you are saying.  For whatever it may be worth, I will also
>    say that that in my experience that unthrottled peer-to-peer programs
>    accessing the same ISP modem (even if configured as part of an [2]ADSL
>    service[1]) will render VOIP unusable -- although that may be an
>    unwarranted concern in your circumstance.
> 
Yes, all very true, I would guess there's not much traffic most of the
time at the marina though (only a dozen or so boats, most of which are a
hire company's fleet) so we may well be OK.

-- 
Chris Green