Hail Bridge Mode
My wife and I have acquired a coach RV, parked it on our property, remodeled the interior, and done most of the work of listing it on Airbnb.
I was looking to allow guests that stay in the space to use wireless internet for free, but I am not interested in giving them credentials to just jump onto my network.
The solution, I knew, was a bridge - essentially two wireless devices that communicate between two different networks for you. I hadn't hooked up a bridge before, and I expected it was going to be hard. I expect most things to be hard and am seldom disappointed. Actually, that's not entirely true. I do expect most things to be hard, but I'm still quite often disappointed.
I talked with my colleague @KennySpade about it and I liked his answer - "I think this little device I have in my hand will do the trick. I'll send it to you. It was only $12."
The device Kenny was referring to is a TP-LINK WR702N Nano Router.
I was wrong in believing that a device like this would contain a single wireless NIC and would thus be capable of speaking to a single wireless device. In fact, when configured for "bridge mode" the device is able to be configured such that it communicates with my home network, but then itself broadcasts a second network with a new SSID and credentials.
The three primary reasons I wanted to go this route (rim shot) are...
- It feels right for the RV to have its own wireless network. I can't explain it. It just feels right.
- It provides the security of keeping guests on a separate physical network.
- It allows me at some point in the future to travel around with this rig all the time allowing all of its occupants to a) communicate with each other on a network and b) get internet access when we stop somewhere when I simply tell the TP-LINK what the SSID is. We stop at a coffee shop, I point the TP-LINK to the coffee shop's wifi, and voila all of the inhabitants of the RV instantly have internet access.
I'm quite tickled with this solution.