WiFi-to-WiFi Router for Condo Wireless

[Richard_138]

I've recently purchased a condo that has in building WiFi for all the units secured behind a basic captive portal (simple password changing weekly that registers the MAC address) - but that also prevents broadcast or local connections. This lack of broadcast/local connections is preventing devices in my unit from talking to each other - primarily for AV gear - e.g. Roku / AppleTV Remote Apps, AirPlay, etc...

I'm hoping to set up a basic WiFi-to-WiFi router so I can have a local WiFi network of my own that devices can always connect to (without regular re-authentication to the web portal), and that allows them to broadcast and communicate directly without routing up to the central building router.

So far the only unit I've found that explicitly does WiFi-to-WiFi routing (WiFi as WAN) is the Cradlepoint MBR1200B

https://cradlepoint.com/products/mbr1200b#!specs

But this seems like a little overkill with the option to add LTE dongles as WAN interfaces.

I don't think that a wireless bridge would do the trick since I couldn't guarantee that my devices were connecting to the bridge radio vs the in-building radio, unless the bridge acted in AP mode and broadcast a unique network SSID and allowed local comms.

Any suggestions, or am I overthinking the bridge and that if it's broadcasting a unique SSID the devices that connect to it can communicate locally?

 

[kanewolf]

The Engenius devices like the ENS202 can create a local WIFI network. Are all the WIFI channels in use?

 

[Richard_138]

I don't know about the channels yet (we take possession next week, but I've rented a unit before to experience the behavior).

But as I continued my research I was exploring travel routers and while most are either wired bridges or simple repeaters I found the TP-Link TL-WR810N supports hotspot mode which is more or less the WiFi-to-WiFi router feature I need.

http://www.tp-link.us/products/details/cat-5506_TL-WR810N.html

Plus it's got the integrated wall plu (like the old AirPort Express) so I can just plug it in the wall with no wall wart.

I'll feedback on it's effectiveness next week.