Bridge my USB tethered phone over Mint PC to Deco x60? Or connect phone directly to X60

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.

Bridge my USB tethered phone over Mint PC to Deco x60? Or connect phone directly to X60

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Bridge my USB tethered phone over Mint PC to Deco x60? Or connect phone directly to X60
Bridge my USB tethered phone over Mint PC to Deco x60? Or connect phone directly to X60
2021-02-22 22:15:38
Model: Deco X60  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version:

This is a shot in the dark but maybe someone can help...  I recently moved to a rural location and until my Starlink kit delivers in a few weeks, our family is relying on cellular 4G LTE for internet.  I bought one of those unlimited, unthrottled [presumably] plans (uses Verizon network/bands) and a cheap phone to host the sim card.

However, the phone/plan has a limitation of only one device connecting to the phone's hotspot at a time.  This makes for a major inconvenience when trying to connect multiple devices (even just sequentially as per the TOS); for example, to transfer my "connected device" from the family room Fire TV stick to the bedroom Fire TV, I have to unplug the family room Fire TV usb cable, so it releases its hold on the phone's hotspot, which I can then connect the bedroom TV to.  There are other inconveniences, such as not being able to connect a phone to the Roomba via the wifi to program it.

 

I have a TP-Link Deco X60 network (802.11ax mesh) that I brought over from the old place.  The mesh network works great, and I'd like to bridge my phone's cellular to the mesh devices.  I tried one of those USB-C to ethernet adapters (with a separate power pass-through) to connect the phone to one of the mesh devices, with no result.  I don't know if that was a phone issue, an adapter issue, or a Deco issue.

However, I can successfully USB tether my phone to my PC for an internet connection.  So my thought is to use my Mint PC as a bridge for the time being (see picture).  There's been at least one Mint community forum discussion on this (which I can't find now); I tried following those instructions but no result.  Note that I do not have any wifi capability on my PC (I tried an 802.11ax dongle a few months back but the support for those just isn't there yet on Linux - or at least wasn't when I tried it); previously I was connecting one of my mesh devices to the Fios modem, and using another mesh antenna as my internet gateway for the PC.  Now I want to go the other direction.

 

I suspect that there is some setting in the PC ethernet port connection settings that I'm not setting correctly to get this working.  Can anyone give me pointers?

I guess the other option is to purchase a cellular modem/router, and then connect my mesh network to that... but not sure if my SIM card will work in it?  I suppose I could always just try and return the modem/router if it doesn't work.  But it seems like there should be a solution bridging over my PC here, without buying something additional.

  0      
  0      
#1
Options
1 Reply
Re:Bridge my USB tethered phone over Mint PC to Deco x60? Or connect phone directly to X60
2021-02-23 23:05:38

@strangeintp 

 

Here is a thread (Stack Overflow) where users mention using sharing the connection rather than bridging: https://superuser.com/questions/1386649/bridge-from-wifi-to-ethernet-not-working-windows-10

 

The Deco will pull a connection automatically so if there is an internet connection from the LAN port of the computer that should be enough to set up the Deco. 

  0  
  0  
#2
Options

Information

Helpful: 0

Views: 543

Replies: 1

Related Articles