Hasta La Gadget!

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is from Zoe, who needs to help out her mum (she’s in the UK) with a tricky WiFi problem. If you’re looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“My mum’s retirement community offers a municipal WiFi service for £130 per year, but only provides a login that can be used on a single device at a time. More annoyingly, that device has to use a web browser, which means that you can’t access it using an Apple TV at all. To get around that, I’ve leant her my Mac Mini, and then I share the WiFi connection over Ethernet to an Airport Extreme. Unfortunately, this only works for short bursts at a time before the DHCP or connection sharing goes screwy and needs to be reset. My question, therefore, is what can I buy that will connect to this crappy WiFi and share that connection to the other wireless devices around the home? Would it be possible to use Raspberry Pi or some other small device to do the job? All it has to do is be stable and have an uptime longer than 2 hours. Thanks!”

This is the sort of question that most geeks love getting their hands on, because it’s a good old-fashioned problem. You’ll just have to ignore all of the people who tell your mom to move house instead of coming up with a useful solution. Either way, we did think that perhaps there was a way to share this connection using a hotspot device, but they primarily use Ethernet. As such, we’re going to turn this question open to our community for some sage advice. Surely there must be a simple way to do this without depriving Zoe of her Mac Mini?

Comments

Are you one who loves or loathes airports? The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has a certain charm about it, and this time around, it intends to make life easier and more convenient for the millions of travelers who go through its terminals every single year by completing the comprehensive upgrade of the airport’s free Wi-Fi network. In fact, hooking up to the Internet at SFO is so easy now, all you need to do is accept the terms and conditions (who reads those, anyways?) with a single click, and you are good to go. Not only that, SFO’s Wi-Fi network will deliver ad-free connectivity so that you can get more productive and keep in touch without having any pesky windows pop up to distract you.

Apart from that, the new Wi-Fi network will also boast of faster speeds in comparison to the previous network system, not to mention allowing you a far longer connect session of up to 2 hours instead of its predecessor. You can also move between terminals seamlessly without requiring to reconnect at a different terminal, and just in case you run into issues, there is a support number on the splash page to help you out of a tight spot. There will be further upgrades down the road to deliver additional increases in network capacity as well as the addition of wireless access points throughout the airport.

SFO Free Airport Wi-Fi Gets A Speed Boost original content from Ubergizmo.

Amped Wireless will be releasing a new product tomorrow, the REA20 High Power 700mW Dual Band AC Wi-Fi Range Extender. It’s the first to come to market that features 802.11ac tech, expanding the reach of wireless communication further for both home and office applications while offering speeds previously unseen in range extenders of this type. […]

If your property stretches out more than 10,000 square feet, then you’ve probably already invested in one or more of Amped Wireless’ long-range WiFi gear. If you haven’t, however, then the company is hoping to lure you in with its latest unit, the REA20 range extender. The new hardware comes with Amped’s trademark dual-band 802.11ac tech and promises to add another 10,000 square feet of your sprawling compound with reliable wireless internet. It’s available to pre-order for $199 from the company’s website and will begin shipping on August 21st before making its way out to traditional retail stores by the end of the month.

Filed under: Wireless

Comments

Source: Amped Wireless

MiFi creator Novatel Wireless is developing a new home hub, dubbed the “MiFi Tower”, not only cutting the cord on traditional voice and data, but integrating smart home functionality as well. The LTE device, already in testing and outlined during the company’s recent financial results call, is billed as “MiFi Powered” and blurring the distinction […]