Share phone internet over lan - Mini HowTo

Technical Support for Routers
1

I wanted to share my Android phone’s internet over my LAN. Can be used as a backup internet connection if the normal connection is down or in a lan where internet is rarely needed, perhaps only for updates or new installation.

I searched for ways to do it and found a lot of confusing and unhelpful stuff about tethering and how to connect a single laptop over wifi to the mobile hotspot on the phone. No good.

But after some experimenting I figured out how to do it using a GL-AR300M. I think it would work just the same with a GL-AR150 and many other devices.

In the “Advanced settings:”

  1. Network: Wireless.

Configure the Wireless Network to connect to the phone wifi internet share as a normal client. Set ESSID and mode to client and the password.

  1. Network: Interfaces.

Configure/edit the lan interface as a standard lan router. I used IP: 192.168.8.1 as fixed IP. DHCP server activated serving out IPs between .150-.200 and gateway also 192.168.8.1. Under Physical Settings I made sure lan was connected to eth1 (lan cable) and nothing else.

Configure/edit the wan interface. Under Physical Setting I made sure it was connected to the Wireless Network (the phone internet share) and nothing else.

I deleted all other interfaces.

And it just worked!

The GL-AR300M serves IP-adresses to clients using DHCP and the lan works fine. If you start sharing internet on your phone, GL-AR300M immediately gives all clients internet access.

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You can use ‘VPN Hotspot’ on your rooted Android phone. (No, you do not need to use a VPN with it, it’s a heavy lifting connection sharing platform with the bonus of being able to share VPN connection.)

‘VPN Hotspot’ includes four different connection sharing strategies to connect with the AR300M.
A standard 3G/4G hotspot, a WiFi Repeater, USB tethering, or Bluetooth tethering. Therefore, your 3G/4G or WiFi connection can then be easily shared wirelessly, OR wired (via LAN) from the AR300M.

Again, you can connect with-or-without a VPN, however, VPNs are then much easier to manage directly on your Android phone. You can change settings, change locations, change providers, change to a proxy or even change different types of VPNs, ‘on the fly’, without having to utilize ANY of the AR300M VPN packages at all, (some of which are not even successfully included in the AR300M).

Android phone connection/encryption/proxy possibilities then include Shadowsocks, ShadowsocksR, OpenConnect, WireGuard, and OpenVPN. So, as the connection is then shared wirelessly or through the LAN, you can connect your AR300M wired LAN to a computer, another router or a switch, and share your phone’s Internet connection (again w/VPN or not) with your entire network.

At home I personally use an old broken-face Android phone connected to the AR300M via VPN Hotspot, “USB tethering”, then have a LAN cable from the AR300M to a 16 port switch. It works flawlessly, and the Wireguard/OpenConnect setups are so incredibly easy this way. No settings nonsense, no firewall headaches, etc. The VPN connection is shared wirelessly, AND wired.

On the road, including China, the office/hotel phone connection w/ VPN Hotspot to AR300M makes life much much easier.

VPN Hotspot is completely opensource and it is free.

I’ve tried this phone connection method with several other routers, meeting with little or no success, but with the AR300M the LAN connection just works all the time, every time, 24/7.

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Sounds nice and I am sure it works fine.

But my solution works perfectly without a rooted phone or any special apps.

You just need a perfectly normal phone with internet and a small gl-inet router configured right.

KISS!