[Discuss] Use Linux laptop as wifi router? Is that even the right solution?

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

Authenticating from my Linux laptop through my browser works flawlessly;
the problem is connecting the Roku device to the wifi, since it doesn't
have a web browser, and it certainly doesn't have a command line.

On 12/31/2014 01:48 AM, John Abreau wrote:
> Another option would be to figure out how to fake the browser
> authentication with curl or wget, so you can script it. I did this a
> few months ago for a phpbb forum. 
>
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 1:16 AM, David Kramer <david at thekramers.net
> <mailto:david at thekramers.net>> wrote:
>
>     I recently became the proud owner of a Roku 3 box.  Very happy with it
>     minus one or two small details.  For grins, I brought it with me on
>     vacation, and immediately ran into the problem that the hotel wifi
>     requires an authentication page be filled out, which the Roku can't do
>     since it doesn't have a browser.
>
>     Googling around on my laptop for a while, I've seen the following
>     solutions for this problem, some of which involve doing things with my
>     Linux laptop (Kubuntu 13.10 currently):
>
>     1) Change my laptop's MAC address temporarily to that of the Roku,
>     authenticate, then try to connect with the Roku.  Sounds reasonable,
>     except that it didn't work.  Not sure if I didn't change the mac
>     address
>     right.  Might have to retry this, as it's the option that doesn't
>     require more hardware.  I found conflicting instructions on how to do
>     this on the command line, and every single page that talks about
>     Network
>     Manager shows different options, since it changes so much and is
>     different betweek KDE and Gnome, etc.
>
>     2) Add a USB WiFi stick onto my laptop and set it up as a
>     router/repeater/whatever: I already have one, so nothing to buy but I
>     would have to bring it with me.  Don't have it right now so I couldn't
>     try it out, but here too I found lots of incomplete or unclear
>     info.  If
>     there's a straightforward way to do this, please let me know.  If
>     I need
>     to upgrade to the latest Kubuntu I'll do that.
>
>     3) Pick up a travel router and use it to NAT.  I see differing
>     information on whether the hotel network will see one MAC address or
>     each device's MAC address. This option really only works if the hotel
>     has wired internet (the hotel I stay at the most does).  But
>     apparently
>     you have to run it in a specific mode that not all support, but I
>     couldn't find a consistent name for that mode, other than "Bridged
>     isn't
>     what you want".  Some pages mentioned that some units can go "wifi to
>     wifi" with half the bandwidth.  I'll have to find that link.  Maybe it
>     does sending and receiving on different channels or something like
>     that.  I would be OK with spending money on this if need be, and I
>     knew
>     it would work.  I also have a WRT54G I'm not using that I could
>     test it
>     out with before buying something smaller.
>
>     Did I miss any options?
>
>     Does anyone have recent info on how to do any of these?
>
>     Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
>
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> -- 
> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
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