Straighttalk phone with netshare app to wifi router or extender possible?

[junkymagi]

I'm wanting to setup my cell to provide wifi in my taxi but the way the netshare app works is you have to already have wifi to download the app to allow mobile devices to connect to it (android or iOS).
Regular computers which connect to netshare wifi have to set a default gateway WITH port to get internet.

I'm looking for a repeater or router that will allow me to set it to connect to phone's netshare, set the default gateway manually with specific port so that people who connect to that repeater or router just need to connect and browse without having to do a lot of configuring to allow it to go through that specific port to access the internet...

 

[bill001g]

That is the problem when you are "hacking" to get past the restriction on your cell phone plan. It is much simpler to just use the hotspot function on the phone but I suspect you goal is to get the hotspot feature and not pay the ISP for the extra data use

I suppose you could use a small laptop with 2 wifi nic cards. I would load pfsense which is a fancy firewall but it is also very simple to get installed. You would only use the very basic route function between the 2 nic cards. You could set the gateway and port you needed in the server.

It is surprising the trouble people go to try to get stuff for "free". Just remember the ISP is not stupid and most admit the monitor all traffic. They can generally from the traffic you are doing this they just choose to not enforce their rules....until they do.

 

[junkymagi]

Bill, that's what I was going to do if I couldn't get a smaller solution in there, a cheap older laptop with built in wifi and a usb wifi...
I'm paying for the highest data plan they offer so I'm not really cheating straighttalk out of anything even though they disable the hotspot feature by removing the function altogether from the phone's OS (they hacked the phone first ^_^)
They don't even offer a hotspot product or I would pay for it... and I'm not going to sign up for a regular phone service plan with hotspot when there's no way to know ahead of time if it will allow me to use it as I want and not still cripple it.

This is besides the fact that going through that gateway port breaks most other internet connected programs by not allowing them to connect (examples would be gaming clients like WOW or card game clients like poker stars .net). I'd also use whatever method works to connect my computer through so I can play poker online or kill a few orcs while mining and gathering herbs in WOW....

 

[bill001g]

If you are really ambitious the raspberry pi should be able to do this.

It does not take much of a computer. You could likely even used one with a busted display. You could use a external monitor and once it is setup you do not actually need a display since this is just a way to get a router. You will not find a consumer router that can do what you need.

I can't say how the app actually works without a lot of study. If it is acting only as a web proxy you may be restricted. You likely could get even more ambitious and run a vpn from the computer over this app. Since vpn traffic looks like web traffic it might pass over the app.

You may be better off trying to root the phone and then look for another app that can do the hotspot feature.

Many cell phone providers offer mobile hotspot. Many sell actual devices to do it without the cellphone part. The problem is the cost of the service. You pay some fixed amount for some bundle of data and when you hit that cap it stops or you pay per gigabyte at some higher rate.

The phone companies know if they actually offer a unlimited plan for hotspot/tethered for a fixed cost someone will massively abuse it.