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#1 2009-01-07 8:07 pm
- MacIzCool
- Member
- From: Columbus, Ohio
- Registered: 2001-12-24
- Posts: 425
Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
Hi everyone! It's been almost a year since I've visted the forums...
I'm back with a complex internet issue that I am hoping you can help with.
At my parent's house, there are no broadband internet options. I purchased an AirPort a couple years ago that had a dialup modem so I could use my PowerBook wirelessly while visiting, and so my brother's and dad's computers could share a printer.
My brother got tired of the dialup and now has a tethering plan on his cell phone for EVDO high speed. This works great for him, but not so great for me or my dad's older iMac with only an ethernet connection.
I have been trying to research ways to get that USB cell phone connection onto the AirPort so we can have one wireless access to the internet, file sharing, and the printer.
Tonight, I finally found these:
http://www.connectworld.net/cgi-bin/hel … voPHkd;;14
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D5050-Ne … 000062R4P/
Any thoughts if this would work, connecting the phone's USB to one of these ethernet adapters, and then into the ethernet port of the AirPort?
I'm aware of the Wifi routers availlable for EVDO/HSDPA modems that accept USB, but they are pricey, and I would like to keep our printer/file sharing the way it is.
Thanks! 
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#2 2009-01-08 8:28 am
- mrreet2001
- Member
- From: NW Ohio
- Registered: 2005-05-25
- Posts: 4334
- Website
Re: Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
MacIzCool wrote:
Tonight, I finally found these:
http://www.connectworld.net/cgi-bin/hel … voPHkd;;14
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D5050-Ne … 000062R4P/
Any thoughts if this would work, connecting the phone's USB to one of these ethernet adapters, and then into the ethernet port of the AirPort?
Wont do what you want
MacIzCool wrote:
I'm aware of the Wifi routers availlable for EVDO/HSDPA modems that accept USB, but they are pricey, and I would like to keep our printer/file sharing the way it is.
Thanks!
you need one of those.
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#3 2009-01-08 9:30 am
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18092
Re: Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
Either that or take the computer with the USB connection, attach the Airport base station's WAN port to it's ethernet port, and use Internet Connection sharing to share the EVDO connection over Ethernet.
Upside: you won't have to reconfigure the client machines.
Downside: EVDO-connected computer becomes a very, very expensive router.
IMHO, it's better to get a new router and reorganize your network every now and then - keeps you from getting rusty.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#4 2009-01-08 1:08 pm
- MacIzCool
- Member
- From: Columbus, Ohio
- Registered: 2001-12-24
- Posts: 425
Re: Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
mrreet2001 wrote:
Wont do what you want
Would you mind clarifying?
Something I was thinking about earlier is that the computer dials the phone like a modem with a modem driver and that may not work via the ethernet.
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#5 2009-01-08 2:19 pm
- dv
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 18092
Re: Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
MacIzCool wrote:
mrreet2001 wrote:
Wont do what you want
Would you mind clarifying?
Those devices don't "adapt" ethernet to USB. It's an Ethernet NIC that happens to connect to a computer via a USB port (instead of, say, PCI or PCMCIA.)
Both it and the USB/EVDO device are USB devices that would need a computer to control them - they can't just talk peer to peer. They're too dumb.
Something I was thinking about earlier is that the computer dials the phone like a modem with a modem driver and that may not work via the ethernet.
Doesn't make too much of a difference - as far as the computer is concerned, a network connection is a network connection.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
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#6 2009-01-08 6:29 pm
- MacIzCool
- Member
- From: Columbus, Ohio
- Registered: 2001-12-24
- Posts: 425
Re: Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
dv wrote:
Doesn't make too much of a difference - as far as the computer is concerned, a network connection is a network connection.
What I meant was there would be no way for the phone to connect to the internet from the AirPort, because the way it's setup now, the computer has a modem script selected and a user name and password. I don't think the AirPort would have a way of getting the phone to connect to the internet.
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#7 2009-01-10 11:10 am
- MacIzCool
- Member
- From: Columbus, Ohio
- Registered: 2001-12-24
- Posts: 425
Re: Complex issue: USB internet to Airport
Would these routers work with a cell phone? It sounds like they only work with the USB modems, except a Kyocera that works with some Samsung phones. My brother has a Motorola k1m.
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