I have a T-Mobile dedicated hotspot.  I have this for backup to main home internet since I work from home.

When hurricanes have taken out internet before I knew I would have to individually connect computers and other items to the hotspot.

I knew it would be kludgy.

Now I think I have found a solution, in the form of this mythical "wireless ethernet bridge", and looking for input on what equipment to use with the following:

- Apple Airport Extreme providing the home network, both wired and wireless.  Service comes into the house on fiberoptic.
- T-Mobile hotspot device (also have iPhone hotspot available)

I have another Apple Extreme laying around but apparently only an Apple EXPRESS will do this wireless ethernet bridge function.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

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UPDATE:

Success.  The Apple Express will 'Join Network' (ie: the hotspot) and output that hotspot signal over ethernet to another router.  

Primary mission achieved.

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Challenge:  

I have to run that second router in Bridge Mode.  This means (I THINK .....) that devices that connect to the second router over wifi are getting their [MYSTERY] from the hotspot.  Are they getting DHCP?  NAT?  What are they getting?

What I would like to do is:

- Hotspot provides internet, nothing else, no router function, nothing
- Airport Express wirelessly bridges that internet to ethernet (LAN out)
- Have the second router (WAN in) do all the assignments out to the network.  When I set this second router to bridge mode everything is ok.  When I set it to DHCP/NAT then a double-NAT error comes up.

Here are some of the available fields in the hotspot:

Attached File


Attached File

A $25 Airport Express from ebay has tempted me to try it with that unit lol.

Plus I can see it easily in Airport Utility.

Does the T-mobile hotspot support mesh networking?  I've read mesh devices can work like relays or repeaters and extend coverage from AP to AP.

Although I don't use Apple products (so I can't comment on your specific questions), I am going to say this is not an easy thing to get setup. IME this takes commercial hardware and a great deal of networking knowledge. Think of it as "if you have to ask", this isn't something you're likely to succeed setting up. I think your current manual option is the best solution in your situation. In order to get this to function automatically, your hardware has to have the ability to have multiple WANs setup as well as the ability to test the connections. The following is a guide for setting up a similar thing with a capable Fortigate firewall.

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.0/administration-guide/360563/dual-internet-connections

Apple gear does not Work And Play Well With Others.  

No, your Apple networking devices will not repeat a signal from a non-Apple device, including that hotspot.  

Go to your local big-box store and buy a $40 router.  It will do what you ask.  

Replace it every two-three years and you'll still be money and capability ahead as compared to buying Apple stuff.

OP updated

They sell different models.  The cheap one was $30.  They tried to sell my wife the $50 one that supported mesh networking.  I told her just get the cheap one.

It has 2 ethernet ports on the back of it.  I plugged 1 of those into my home network setup like you would with any old modem, and magically my whole home network has internet again.  A buddy here in town who's also work-from-home did the same thing.

No need to dive into any configuration pages or alter the settings on any of your client devices.  Just turn on the hotspot, install their app on your phone so you can do the basic setup, then plug in a cable from the hotspot to your existing network like it was your modem.

OP - you need to draw out how your network is connected and how you want traffic to flow through it.

It seems you want to hook your network up to 2 different WANs: 1) fiber optic and 2) cellular hotspot.

Your devices aren't going to be able to connect to both, so your network either has to do automatic switching (highly complicated setup and likely different more expensive hardware) or you can manually switch as needed.

A wireless bridge isn't going to do that. A wireless bridge is used to connect 2 wired LANs together as one network.

No automatic switching.  I just want to be able to take the ethernet off the wall, leaving the home network intact, and connect to the wireless bridge for the home network to draw internet from the hotspot.

The functional setup:

Attached File

First since it's not shown I'm going to assume the "router for home network" is setup to get a WAN IP from dhcp normally from the fiber optic source from your provider.

If so then you need to setup your hotspot bridge to hand out an IP with dhcp.

If you can connect a computer to the black ethernet cable in place of the "router for home network" and it can communicate through the bridge and hotspot, then your setup is good and you can get it to work.

In order for the router to switch from the fiber optic connection to the bridge connection, it will need a restart so it can grab a new IP from the bridge setup.

Ok, I factory reset the Express, connected to the hotspot wirelessly with the 'Join Wireless' function

When I plug ethernet cable from the Express WAN direct to the Mac ethernet all is well.

But when I move that ethernet cable from the Mac to a router the router gets double-NAT.

I haven't yet tried 'Extend a wireless network'.


EDIT:

Extend didn't work though I want to revisit this as it provides a dropdown for ‘Off - Bridge Mode’

Went back to Join Network.

This time I set the router (second router) to DCHP Only and set a static IP, grabbing the IP from the Express.

Working ok over wifi.  I've got three items connected to this test network, each grabbing their own DHCP as normal.

My established network is yet another Extreme, which is set up as 'DHCP+NAT'.  Do I need NAT?  Or will DHCP-Only require a Static IP from my provider?

You will be double NATed, there isn't anyway around that. It shouldn't be an issue unless you are hosting something and accessing your network from outside your network. If this is the case, I'm afraid you don't have the network knowledge to work through port forwarding a double NATed environment.

Everything on your local network should connect to the home network router. The only thing you want to connect to the hotspot is the bridge, and the only thing you want to connect to the bridge is the home network router.

I think I'll leave my network alone but also leave the hotspot network ON lol

This way everything can be flipped to the alternate network which has the much better coverage in pushing out the hotspot signal.

Whenever I need the hotspot I'll just turn it on and let the blinky yellow Express turn green and provide internet to the router ethernet-ed to that Express.