[Solved]Need help choosing hardware and how to connect to hotspots/2G/vpn[Solved]

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello Openwrt community,

I am looking to connect my wifi enabled tumble dryer and wasching maschine to my home network.

My challenges are:

  • Tumble Dryer and Wasching machine in the cellar, i am in 3rd level flat. No wifi routing possible, no repeater possible.
  • Powerlan works but undesired for various reasons (power consumption, security)
  • Cellar is somewhat protected for radio signals
  • low power, I don´t want to draw a lot more than 2 watts
  • I want to give internet access to the tumble dryer for HomeConnect service (Siemens/Bosch etc.)
  • The washing machine doesn´t have builtin wifi, I want to use a Tasmota Sonoff Power Plug and read power into my IObroker server via MQTT then programm IObroker to detect and signal when the washing cycle is done

In the cellar I do have signal at least to my phone as follows:

  • Telekom Fon Hotspot (have subscription but need to enter username/pw in html page)
  • Vodafone Homespot (should be able to get a login but also needs username/pw in html page)
  • 2G signal, yes only 2g but with 4 out of 5 bars, still getting trouble to ping using Ookla speed test but could be issue on the phone

My idea so far is to use a TP-Link TL-WR902AC and install openWRT onto it.
Questions:
Is it possible to connect to one of the hotspots without using a laptop/phone everytime I connect?

I would think these hotspots disconnect long term users once a day or so and openWRT should automatically reconnect in these cases.

Going the 2g route I could plug in a surf stick into the TL-WR902AC and (hopefully) get access to the 2g network using a telefonica IoT Sim card (~2 € a month).

I don´t think I need any real bandwidth but the connection should be somewhat reliable.

About the MQTT I am thinking of connecting openWRT via VPN to my openVPN server.
Is this a good idea if its only a 2g connection with say 64 kbits bandwitdh?

Could there be any security issues leaving the TL-WR902AC in a somewhat public space as the cellar is shared by all house owners/mailman has access etc.

Can I switch off the LAN port on the TL-WR902AC ?

Is there a better choice for hardware?

Lots of questions, but I hate going 4 flights of stars down to see the washing isnt complete yet and where´s all the fun without a connected home :slight_smile:

Cheers
David

2

First problem seems already solved :slight_smile:
Autologon script to FON

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I managed to get it work at least to the homeconnect dryer by extending my home network using the WR902AC with OpenWRT on it.
Aparently the signal gets through the closes metal doors!

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