Raspberry Pi Forums

Note: I'm extremely new to RPi, but I'm not a total idiot when it comes to programming, networking, etc. I have yet to buy my RPi yet, as I am waiting to find a good project for it. I'm not really interested in gaming consoles, media/smart home servers, drones, etc...I did find lots of interest in the Pi-Hole project, that seemed cool.

So I have this little device I bought from IOGear years ago which basically allows you to plug into it's ethernet port, log into it's web interface and then connect it to a wifi network. Once it's connected, you can connect it to any device's ethernet port to get wifi access on a device that may not have wireless capabilities.

This device works great for simple uses...but I find it to be very limiting when traveling. For example...if you are at a hotel, and the hotel wifi has a web page you have to click accept then you can't use it. But since the RPi is a full blown computer with a web browser, then this can be handled.

Anyone know what all would be involved to get this done? In my head it seems very simple...it's essentially just a proxy server that would route traffic from the ethernet port to the wireless adapter.

I have the tendency to over simplify so I'm interested in getting input about it. I considered expanding the project and adding a second wireless adapter to some how give it the ability to act as a wireless router (wifi to wifi rather than ethernet to wifi)...but I feel one of those small travel routers would be better suited to handle that job since it would probably have many more features for networking.

Thoughts?

Fow now I am trying to keep it as simple as possible so that it can be my first project. Eventually I want to create a web interface that I could use to do the configuration rather than having to remote to the device or hook up a screen and etc. That will be phase 2 of the project.

The IOGear thinggy is probably a client wifi bridge. This class of devices a) work with a single ethernet machine, b) perform some tricks to allow the PC to pass as the wifi client.
The applications of Pi you mention are routers: external interface over wifi, internal interface over ethernet or wifi. You could put multiple machines behind the Pi.
The difference between the 2 is that broadcasts within the main wifi network wouldn't reach the machines behind the Pi. But they would reach a PC connected to a client wifi bridge; these devices are often marketed as "gaming adapters".

The Pi, and most networking devices, run linux or BSD. They are mostly differenciated by their hardware. Pi 3 is quite powerful, but its networking performance lags somewhat behind.

The web interface looks like a big hurdle in this type of project. I had hopes with RaspAP but it seems a bit quiet by now. Maybe Pi-hole has more momentum as a platform?
Also I expect BSD will "soon" support Pi 3 enough, and at that moment capable router/firewall distributions should be available.

In case you are curious, this is the product:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UAKCS6

What I do find interesting, is when I have the adapter connected to something, the device that is connected to it still shows up on the network as if it were physically connected. It acts as a total pass-thru almost even on the physical layer.

For example, if the MAC address for the adapter is X and I have a network camera attached to it with MAC address Y, then I will see both X and Y mac addresses listed in my routers connected clients list.

However, that's sort of a side discussion because I want the Pi to act a little different anyways. I basically just want the Pi to connect to a wireless router to use as the "internet source", but the only MAC address it will ever see is the MAC address of the Pi. And then the Pi will provide internet to any device connected to it's ethernet port...that's where I would plug in a travel router to handle the more complicated parts like firewalls, routing, networking between devices, etc.

The best way to deal with Captive Portals is to put a PiTFT on the Pi and then you can log in and connect the Bridge device to the Public Hotspot without needing a tablet or such to log into the Captive Portal.