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[aynsof]

Hi folks, I would like to fire my ISP and set up a second phone line, and have all networking done through it's hotspot function. My question is: can Gizmo connect to my media server via a hotspot from my second phone line? I imagine the issue is answered here, but I can't find it, sorry! Any help would be much appreciated.

[JimH]

A Hotspot provides an Internet connection.  Gizmo can use it.  The wiki topic called Network Access will explain more.

[syndromeofadown]

I would like to fire my ISP and set up a second phone line, and have all networking done through it's hotspot function

This is probably possible but not necessarily a good idea. By "all networking" do you mean that the phone will act as your router for your entire network?

A more sensible way to proceed is to use a proper network with a real router, but use your hotspot as as the network's source of internet as apposed to an ISP's modem.

Note that you don't even need internet to run MC and use gizmo, though there are things you have to setup first in order for it to all run smoothly.

Please provide more information about your current network. I should be able to help out some as my only source of internet is a cell phone and I have MC running on a network without issue.

[aynsof]

Syndromeofadown:

Thanks very much for your reply and offer of help.

"This is probably possible but not necessarily a good idea. By "all networking" do you mean that the phone will act as your router for your entire network?"

Yes, this is what I mean. I would like a mobile phone to act as my sole connection to the internet (I have unlimited phone data, of course, and I would never be so active as to hit the throttling point). Right now, all in-house devices communicate with each other through the phone's internet connection. In the past I have successfully used Gizmo with both a standard (ethernet) LAN, and also WAN, but Gizmo does not connect when my phone, alone, acts as my router. Hope my use of terminology is accurate. I'm curious as to why you say it is not necessarily a good idea.

"A more sensible way to proceed is to use a proper network with a real router, but use your hotspot as as the network's source of internet as apposed to an ISP's modem."

Yes indeed, but I'd love to jettison the wired ISP and save lots of money.

"Note that you don't even need internet to run MC and use gizmo, though there are things you have to setup first in order for it to all run smoothly."

I'd love to know how to do this...

"Please provide more information about your current network. I should be able to help out some as my only source of internet is a cell phone and I have MC running on a network without issue."

Internet is not (yet) hooked up in my new place, and I am using solely my phone's hotspot function to connect to all my devices in the house (as I said, I'd like to jettison the wired ISP altogether). The issue is that I want access from out of the house (streaming jriver content while driving, e.g.). Gizmo is not connecting, however. I had hoped that setting up T-Mobile's "Digits" on a computer would allow the option of then using that machine as a hotspot, but they don't seem to offer that, and so I hope to buy a cheap second mobile phone (using my Digits number--a second phone number) and have that always running at the house, hence I can connect from the road. I hope this is clear, and I genuinely appreciate your offer to help. (https://www.tomsguide.com/us/tmobile-digits-faq,news-25200.html)

[JimH]

You don't need a phone.  There are devices that accept a SIM card, connect to the Internet with it, and are also a Wi-Fi Access Point.  I used one for a while many years ago.  I'm not sure what they are called. 

[syndromeofadown]

You don't need a phone.  There are devices that accept a SIM card, connect to the Internet with it, and are also a Wi-Fi Access Point.  I used one for a while many years ago.  I'm not sure what they are called.

Most cell service companies offer 2 options for mobile internet aside from phones.

Option 1: A little box with a sim card. It is a router that uses mobile data as the internet source.
Option 2: A USB stick with a sim card. It supplies internet to whatever it's plugged into.

I live in Ripp Off Land so if I want one of these options I need to pay a few hundred dollars or sign a 2 year contract for a data plan of a whopping 100MB per month of non-sharable data (oh, plus a 35 dollar connection fee). Note that I currently pay 70 dollars per GB if I go over my data limit. My whining aside, I think option 1 is a waste of money and option 2 may be a good if you get a fair price on the device and plan. I'm sure it depends on where you live.

My suggestions of how to proceed are these:

Option A - Buy your own router that accepts a sim card
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mifi/
I have never used this but it looks far better and cheaper than the routers I have seen provided by cell companies.
I don't know if you can shove any sim card in there or if you need a certain plan from your provider for it to work. Something you will have to look into yourself.

Option B - Buy your own router that accepts a USB stick with a sim card and can also act as a repeater for your cell phone's hotspot.
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar750s/
I have this router and it works great. It's very easy to set up. When I start my hotspot the router uses my phone's internet and broadcasts it through its own wifi and ethernet. I believe you can tether a phone too, and the router has a port to accept a USB stick with a sim card.

The benifits of using a router are:
- Speed
- Security
- Can use ethernet and wifi
- Can access network from outside. ie use Gizmo when away from home.
- Can use media network without internet.
- Can assign static IPs

To use MC and Gizmo without internet (while on your home network) you can use the router to assign static IP addresses to all of your devices. Then you can use the IP addresses to connect Gizmo to your server as apposed to using MC's access key. I am not very knowledgeable about networking stuff but I would be able to explain how to setup the gl-ar500 router. Some one else may be able to recommend other decent models of routers. I'm not sure if accepting sim cards and repeating wifi signals are standard features.

[JimH]

Nice answer, syndromeofdawn.  Thanks.

[aynsof]

Syndromeofadown, thank you very much. I'll share your response with a friend who possesses technical know-how than i do, and maybe I can implement your suggestion. Thanks again.

[RoderickGI]

Good advice syndromeofadown. But I can't help myself...

Clarification:
"- Can access network from outside. ie use Gizmo when away from home."
Because you need to use Port Forwarding on a Router to connect from outside your network to your MC Server using Gizmo. A phone acting as a hot spot and router probably wouldn't support port forwarding, although I haven't looked into that.

Opinion:
"- Can assign static IPs"
I, and others, think that using DCHP assigned IP Addresses from a router using IP Address Reservations is a better solution, and in some circumstances works better. For example, if you are using DLNA on your network.

Unfortunate fact:
Mobile Broadband, at least in Australia, can suffer quite a lot from congestion and hence slowdowns during peak periods. The download and upload speeds are typically faster than fixed line, when operating at full speed, but you may not always get full speed.

If you Google for "mobile broadband router with sim card" you will find many router brands that support Mobile Broadband. For example, in Australia at least, Netgear has a couple of models. https://www.netgear.com.au/home/products/mobile-broadband/default.aspx
Check they support Port Forwarding.
Check that IP Address Reservation is supported.
If they only have one Ethernet port you will need to add a Switch if you need multiple wired connections.

[syndromeofadown]

Thanks RoderickGI you have worded things more elegantly.

Opinion:
"- Can assign static IPs"
I, and others, think that using DCHP assigned IP Addresses from a router using IP Address Reservations is a better solution, and in some circumstances works better. For example, if you are using DLNA on your network.

I believe that's what I am currently doing but I'm calling it assigning a "Static IP". Incorrectly perhaps. Maybe DHCP reserved IP is better.

On my router there is a section called DHCP, in there I assign IP addresses to my devices for a duration of infinite, then they show up as Active DHCP Leases. After doing this the IP addresses no longer change. One might call these non-dynamic IPs static.

Please feel free to correct me or clarify the difference between DHCP leases, DHCP reservations, and static IPs. These things are pretty easy to set up but very difficult to talk about.

I have read this link from the wiki which helps but isn't crystal clear.
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,120146.msg830889.html#msg830889

Would it be correct to say that routers assign DHCP reserved addresses, but static IP addresses are assigned in the network settings of devices?

[RoderickGI]

Would it be correct to say that routers assign DHCP reserved addresses, but static IP addresses are assigned in the network settings of devices?

Yes.

Which means that the router has to discover the device and its IP Address, rather than having assigned it, and therefore having it in its ARP (address resolution protocol) table. So if discovery is slow, or fails, the router doesn't know about the device, and hence some network functions can fail.

No matter what a router calls it, the process is achieved by telling the router to assign a specific IP Address to a network device's MAC Address.

[adiebear]

Resurrecting this thread 'cos I am trying to use Gizmo over a mobile hotspot (just relocated to a farm and mulling over internet service options) and haven't found a way yet.

If I enter my access key I get "There was a problem connecting to the server, etc."
The HTPC that plays back JRiver is, of course, using the mobile hotspot as well. No router of course.
I have (and always have had) Eset Nod32 antivirus installed on all devices,Windows firewall off.

Has anyone had any success with this? If so please help- and please update Network Access accordingly.

[adiebear]

A Hotspot provides an Internet connection.  Gizmo can use it.  The wiki topic called [url=http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Network_Access]Network Access[/url] will explain more.

Resurrecting this thread 'cos I am trying to use Gizmo over a mobile hotspot (just relocated to a farm and mulling over internet service options) and haven't found a way yet.

If I enter my access key I get "There was a problem connecting to the server, etc."
The HTPC that plays back JRiver is, of course, using the mobile hotspot as well. No router of course.
I have (and always have had) Eset Nod32 antivirus installed on all devices,Windows firewall off.

Has anyone had any success with this? If so please help- and please update [url=http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Network_Access]Network Access[/url] accordingly.

[RoderickGI]

Re-read the whole thread carefully. It is correct, and Syndromeofadown's advice is excellent.

What the hotspot is capable of doing depends entirely on the phone. The Network Access Wiki article doesn't specifically address using hotspots, as it is beyond scope for JRiver. You need to understand and set up your network, as there are too many variables for JRiver to cover.

If your mobile phone hotspot assigns the LAN IP Address to the phone itself and the MC Server, then a connection is possible. Is it doing that?

A hotspot will give internet access to devices that connect to it. Sometimes there is a setting that controls whether two devices connected to a hotspot can see and talk to each other. Have you set that up?

[adiebear]

Thank you for the response.

I have checked my network configuration as well as I am able to. 3 devices all running MC25 on my hotspot.  I can see multiple devices and allow Wi-Fi sharing.

"If your mobile phone hotspot assigns the LAN IP Address to the phone itself and the MC Server, then a connection is possible. Is it doing that?"
I don't know. I already 'broke' my network connection to 1 PC (temporarily, but it took me hours to sort) so have not yet tried to set static ip addresses across my network.                                 
                                      
"A hotspot will give internet access to devices that connect to it. Sometimes there is a setting that controls whether two devices connected to a hotspot can see and talk to each other. Have you set that up?"
I haven't found that setting.

I will get a wireless router so that I can access the mobile Hotspot connection through it.

[RoderickGI]

I will get a wireless router so that I can access the mobile Hotspot connection through it.

That is a good idea, or you could get a Mobile Broadband (Router that accepts a SIM card) device as discussed above, and get a second SIM card linked to your mobile account so that you only need one account. That may be what you meant by "Wireless Router".

Investigate what your ISP/Mobile provider can do for you. Offerings have improved recently, at least in Australia, so they might provide an excellent solution.

[adiebear]

I have 50gb to use on my mobile before I setup anything else, but can grab a Huawei router in the meantime.
Here in South Africa data prices have tumbled and services improved,  but none of the ISPs can verify my (rural-ish) address and whether or not I can use fixed LTE . Hmpf...
And 5G cometh.