For about the same price, and no learning curve, you can get a TP Link N150
Range extender and run it as a client.  I've used it to create a wired port
out of air and then an ALIX to secure and feed everyone else.

On Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 2:55 AM, Chris Buechler <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 7:59 PM, Ray <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I run pfSense on a few ALIX boxes, usually as tunnel end and as access
> > point. When I can plug one of these machines into any (wired) network, I
> > have easy access to my home network through the private WLAN the ALIX
> > provides.
> >
> > This works beautifully.
> >
> > I travel a lot and today hotels only provide WLAN access. Ethernet ports
> in
> > hotel rooms are relics of the past.
> >
> > I solved this problem by using a Mac to connect to the Hotel WLAN and
> then
> > select "Share my Intenet (WLAN) connection to Ethernet" in the "Sharing"
> > control panel. When I then connect the ALIX WAN interface to my Mac
> using a
> > cable, things again work nicely, but I effectively block a Mac as router
> > that I would rather carry around.
> >
> > My thought was "throw a second ALIX box at the problem and make that one
> > connect as client to the hotel's WLAN", then plug the two ALIX's together
> > with a short cable.
> >
> > I did try this, hacking the hotel's WLAN details into the WLAN interface
> > configuration of the second ALIX (configured to use "Infrastructure"
> mode,
> > of course), but the WLAN interface always stays down, no matter what I
> try.
> >
> > My hope was that the the hotel's captive portal mechanism could be
> fooled to
> > give access to my client ALIX from any client computer connected to AP
> > provided by ALIX number 1, but as the client ALIX's WLAN is always down,
> I
> > didn't even make it to this point.
> >
> >
> > Did anyone here successfully do this (and share some insights)?
> >
>
> Definitely doable. I've done it in about every combination imaginable.
> ALIX or similar hardware with a wifi card, a pfSense VM on a laptop
> with a LTE card via USB passthrough, same for wifi USB. Ethernet
> bridged to a VM on a laptop. Some ugly combinations of those where
> multiple layers of NAT were necessary before the traffic left my
> equipment, but was fine as a temporary hack.
>
> For connecting to captive portal networks, everything behind it will
> look like one device as far as their network is concerned, as you're
> NATing everything to the same source IP and MAC.
>
> How do you have the wireless interface configured for standard and
> channel? What wireless card are you using?
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