EE4G MiFi > iMac > Airport Extreme

Question

EE4G MiFi > iMac > Airport Extreme

Hi,

I have the following setup that I have been going round in circles with trying to get right:

EE 4G MiFi device as my internet connection, connected via USB to..

iMac, sharing internet connection via Ethernet to...

Airport Extreme in bridge mode, creating a WiFi network that is extended with a number of Airport Express devices.

EE 4G MiFi

|

iMac (USB connection)

|

Airport Extreme (bridge mode, ethernet port connection, not WAN)

|

Airport Express x 4 (WiFi connection)

I have had the system up and running fine, but there appears to be an issue with DHCP, DNS or some other setting and it keeps failing, and I just can't work out what setting I've got wrong.

With the system set up currently, the Airport Extreme is reporting no internet connection (although the iMac is sharing the connection to it via ethernet). The Internet setting for it are:

Essentially my question boils down to, how can my Airport Extreme use my iMac's internet connection?

Many thanks

OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 16, 2014 5:25 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

lewisjspencer Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 19, 2014 9:29 AM in response to lewisjspencer

I fixed it!

Just bought one of these and put it between the MiFi and the iMac, Ethernet cable out to the WAN port of the Airport Extreme and the network works flawlessly - a £22 solution to a major pain!

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Answer 2

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Apr 19, 2014 9:37 AM in response to lewisjspencer

Why do you need that

Think you could use the extreme you already had in the same spot

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Answer 3

Apr 19, 2014 11:21 AM in response to turbostar

As I said in my original post, I did have it working for a period of time, but for some reason it would fail after a while and refuse to redistribute the internet connection.

From various articles I read, I believe it's related to the Airport Extreme not playing well with non-Apple wireless hardware (i.e. the MiFi unit) - by including the TP-Link router (which therefore gives the MiFi an ethernet output) as the WAN, whatever the issue was is resolved. I still don't know whether it was a DHCP, DNS, IP or other misconfiguration, but to be honest for twenty quid I'm not going to spend too much more time worrying about it! As an extra bonus, as the mini router accepts the clients, I'm not limited to the 10 devices my MiFi supports concurently.

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Answer 4

Apr 19, 2014 11:24 AM in response to lewisjspencer

By the way, just in case it helps anyone, I'm using a Huawei E5776 MiFi on EE in the UK; It's not listed as a compatible device on the TP-Link site, but worked for me straight out of the box without any firmware updates or any other configuration.

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