Hey everyone. I finally got moved. Guess what mothing but crappy internet available currently in my rural area. Im thinking of doing a 5g hotspot until something better comes.
So the question and im sure its been answered somewhere.
Can i connect core to the network over wifi and get mybstuff going until something better comes along?
Can you not setup a 5g “modem” that you could connect the Core hub to via ethernet?
None of the wireless providers provide the 5g internet coverage to my area yet.
So leaves me with satellite options or adding another line to my cellular service and going that way for now.
Neither option is appealing.
If your rural then it sounds like a great candidate for Starlink here configured in bypass mode here so you can use your own router and of course ethernet ports.
Yes i was looking at this. $600 in equipment then a steep monthly cost. I might wind up going this way but wanted to explore some more frugal options.
I’ll discuss with @markus to see. He’d argue that wifi is a bad idea, but i can understand your need. No guarantees of an instant solution, though.
Although CORE does have a working wifi chip, it is disabled and drivers are not included on CORE for them at this time.
Long story short using the inbuilt wifi chip for running core can result in stability issues between the radios so it was reserved for future features that will come after CORE main is ready
True, but I suppose it depends on how long you are going to be there for and the other options available to you. Example, I have a friend here in Australia who lives in Stanthorpe (Apple farm rural region of Queensland) and when Starlink came out it was a game changer for him regardless of price as he just couldn’t get anything better.
Ethernet to wifi adapter. This will give you the best connection and less issues. As you know not every wifi dongle is created equal. Use something like this and you’ll be golden. That will allow you to connect to your hotspot. You might have a router that can be converted to run Open WRT, you might not need to purchase any equipment.
Markus reminded me that with a bridge you can usually only connect one per device, so keep that in mind when purchasing in case you have more things that you need wired. They run about $40 +|-
[EDIT]
Here is an example of what I mean.
Amazon.com: BrosTrend AC1200 WiFi to Ethernet Adapter, 1200Mbps Dual Band Universal Wireless Bridge for Printer, Smart TV, Blu-Ray Player, PlayStation, Xbox, etc, WPS Easy Setup, Connect a Wired Device to Wi-Fi : Electronics
Phew. So i managed to get tmobile to give me internet. Bad news they use cgnat which apparently does not allow for fixed ip addresses. Also the router functions are neutered. No bridge mode no port forwarding.
Does core stull have wireguard built in? If so is there a kind soul who can help me get it setup for use?
edit: Looks like it will not work without port forwarding either. does anyone have any other suggestions?
Might want to look into tailscale, similar to wireguard functionality wise but from my understanding more user friendly and no router adjustments needed (from what I heard, I just use PiVPN with router port forwarded)
Thank you! I actually found this on google shortly after my post. It does exactly what i need. I am able to remote into my pc and then have access to everything. It was simple and easy as well. With the added bonus it somehow works its magic for my plex server too allowing remote viewing.
All in im fairly pleased with the tmobile internet aside from the neutered router. It will serve me well until something more robust comes along. For the price it cant beat i dont think. $30 a month if you have a few lines with them.
@Cjkeenan appreciate the follow up. It has been rather quiet in these parts lately!
It has, indeed. I suppose @markus is busy working on a kick ass rules engine and/or dashboard.
Following up on this. Does anyone feel like helping me get tailscale running directly on core?
I assume it could be implemented quite quickly since there already is a docker container available (which I believe is compatible with the Podman that CORE uses).
https://hub.docker.com/r/tailscale/tailscale
I assume then you could just follow this guide, but I have never done it before, but a quick glance and it looks relatively straight forward.
https://docs.oh-lalabs.com/developers/create_user_integration
I’m going to advise AGAINST setting up tailscale on CORE until hearing from markus/april.
I feel like the way tailscale alters networks settings will cause havoc with CORE’s SSO and dns stuff.
That being said installing tailscale on another system configured as an exit node to the local network will still allow you to access core through another system
I didnt quite understand how the exit node stuff works. I was hoping this would be a way to use the home assistant app when away lol i always pick the hard way.
There are several ways to get this kind of functionality.
If you have your own web domain you can set up sub domains etc to point back to specific devices in your network. If you don’t have your own domain you can use a service like duckdns.
I know at one point Markus was supposed to be working on giving every core an optional domain through oh-la to make accessing CORE a bit easier but Im not sure if it ever went live.
@april.brandt @markus - Did the core dynamic DNS address stuff tied in with wire guard ever get finished and implemented for users to be able to have a oh-la.net domain?
If they have the core dns stuff working then I would follow the instructions they have/will provide, and if not I can probably find the time at some point today to write up a brief basic tutorial for accessing your core (or really any device in your home) from anywhere.
I could also give you a brief rundown of getting tailscale set up for accessing your lan from anywhere
@Cwwilson08
Wireguard | Collective-DOCS (oh-lalabs.com)
I think I did a write up on it a while back.