Network Gurus

[kaj 257]

Hi guys,

Looking for advice/help.....

Next month I go into jail Hotel Quarantine in Sydney. Two weeks locked in a room with my wife..... I will have my NAS with me, plus a laptop with a single ethernet port, a 16-port switch and a Wi-Fi-router....NAS does not have Wi-Fi, only ethernet ports.

I don't know in advance if my room will have Wi-Fi or an ethernet port...however, probably just Wi-Fi.

Is it possible, using what I have, to setup a local network so that both of us can connect to Emby on my NAS on our various Wi-Fi devices (another laptop, iPad and Android phones)? I'm not looking to expose my NAS to the outside world, just my room...

[Happy2Play 9140]

Moved topic.

But with your router providing DHCP to your devices this should not be a issue.  Only issues may be Emby Premiere if you do not have internet access.

[kaj 257]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

Moved topic.

But with your router providing DHCP to your devices this should not be a issue.  Only issues may be Emby Premiere if you do not have internet access.

If I run the router in AP mode, have the NAS connected via ethernet to the router, would that give me internet access and I can create a separate local wifi network? The router is actually an Orbi RBR50.

[Happy2Play 9140]

Another network guru will probably have to chime in here.

You shouldn't have to make your router a AP as that I believe kills the DHCP functions.  Now if the facility only has WIFI then I would think you would have to say share/bridge WIFI to Ethernet, so you would get internet via WIFI and the laptop shares that connection with the Ethernet (assuming laptop has WIFI and Ethernet).  But having a hard time picturing the overall setup.

 

[kaj 257]

5 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But having a hard time picturing the overall setup.

Yup, me too.

[rbjtech 4811]

@Happy2Play Has pretty much covered it.  You basically need a 'bridge' from the supplied Wifi to your 'local' LAN within your room.  If your current router does not have this mode, then something like a tp-link AC750 Travel Router (link below) does exactly this.

1. 3rd Party Wifi(internet) > TP AC750 in 'Client Mode' > Existing Router/AP WAN side (used as a Room DHCP server and Room Wifi-AP)

2. Existing Router/AP LAN side > Switch Port

3. NAS > Switch Port

In short, you will be using the provided Wifi as a 'WAN' and routing it via your Existing router onto your LAN - which provides both LAN switch ports and your own private Wifi.

ps - I use this Travel Router myself from my mobile hotspot Wifi (from 3G/4G) to my Router/Fw as an internet 'backup', so know it's good for this.

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-usb-adapter/tl-wr902ac/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by rbjtech

[kaj 257]

Thanks @rbjtech

I live in an extremely remote part of Indonesia, so buying additional equipment is tricky.. I'll see if I can use the stuff already have

[rbjtech 4811]

Understood - any wifi-extender with an ethernet port should do the job.  The key is feeding it's ethernet output into the WAN side of your router so it can NAT/route it onto your LAN.

To note - and probably to save you a lot of unnecessary config, For the 2 weeks in isolation, I don't think you NEED to have internet access for Emby as the license etc only periodically checks.    Also, unless you are using the Premier functions while you are there - then playback may well work just fine without it anyway ?  Worth testing. 

  

[kaj 257]

7 hours ago, rbjtech said:

any wifi-extender with an ethernet port should do the job

Thanks for the ideas and help. I actually have an old TP AV5000 wifi-extender hidden away. I'm sure I will be able to sort something out.

[mrfragger 39]

On 3/8/2021 at 6:06 AM, rbjtech said:

 For the 2 weeks in isolation, I don't think you NEED to have internet access for Emby as the license etc only periodically checks.    Also, unless you are using the Premier functions while you are there - then playback may well work just fine without it anyway ?  Worth testing. 

  

Yes just let Emby premiere connect once and should be good for 3 weeks or more. I plan on doing the same in the future. 
 

Also if you are without any internet whatsoever there is only one chat client that works for calling audio or video. Perhaps you wanna chat with a few friends within the router’s WiFi distance in neighboring rooms. That is kinda buggy but open source jami. It requires no server. I guess everyone would need to install the client via internet somehow. So perhaps they could burn a few megabytes on their 4G plan to initially get the app.  

[kaj 257]

12 hours ago, mrfragger said:

Yes just let Emby premiere connect once and should be good for 3 weeks or more. I plan on doing the same in the future. 
 

Also if you are without any internet whatsoever there is only one chat client that works for calling audio or video. Perhaps you wanna chat with a few friends within the router’s WiFi distance in neighboring rooms. That is kinda buggy but open source jami. It requires no server. I guess everyone would need to install the client via internet somehow. So perhaps they could burn a few megabytes on their 4G plan to initially get the app.  

I should definitely have at least WiFi. I'll actually take my system here down the day before I leave for jail. So I don't think there will be any problems for my Premier Sub. It's more setting up a local network that my wife and I log into and watch Emby locally

[kaj 257]

I'm now in hotel quarantine in Sydney. Carried my NAS as hand luggage and now all setup and ready in my room.

Ended up being very easy to setup a private wireless network in my room with Emby. I just used my router I brought with me, having made sure before leaving home that everything worked on the network when I unplugged the internet. Started the modem here, connected the NAS with Ethernet and all good. Obviously no internet for the NAS, but the private wifi network means all devices can connect to Emby. 

[Carlo 4478]

Are you out of quarantine now? Did watching Emby take up 50% of your stay in Q?

[kaj 257]

@cayarsYes, thank you Been out a week or so now. I'm not sure if I watched a lot more than usual, definitely a bit more though. The best thing was having the familiarity of having my own system, so Synology, Orbi, laptop and my Nvidia Shield. And finally had time to watch all 4 hours of Justice League!

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by kaj