After spending a lot of hours trying to find the solution I have now decided to ask for help here.
I have only a mobile hotspot as a source of internet. I would like to use that to get my Xbox One online. The Xbox does not accept the mobile hotspot directly so I want to use my TP Link router between them. Receive the WiFi, send out Ethernet, no other function needed.
All the different types of bridges have got me completely lost. It seems the WDS bridge is not accepted by the Xbox because of a DNS servername issue? I have no idea what that means so I am actually just hoping for someone to tell me: get this package, set up that bridge and go for it!
Does it have to be a bridge? It will be easier to setup the wifi as client to your phone, then connect your Xbox to the lan port and route between the two interfaces. In general bridging client mode in wifi is problematic.
@trendy's opinion is better...but you need no package to bridge.
You simply (if you can call it that) bridge the network on the switch ports to the SSID connecting to the hotspot...I'll try to give some pointers (not a complete list of steps, I don't do it often):
Make a new VLAN interface (e.g. eth0.3) - make it a bridge...let's call it lan2 - set to unmanaged or static
add to new lan2 firewall zone
Go to Switch
Add a line, number it 3
change CPU on Line 3 to tagged
turn off Ports 1, 2 and 3 on Line 3
make 4 untagged on Line 3
Go to Wireless and add your hotspot
add to network lan2
Plug in your game console to Port 4 (some ports are numbered in reverse - e.g. it may be Port #1).
It does not have to be a bridge if it provides the desired result. My reason for mentioning a bridge is because I kept finding information on that while looking for answers on the internet.
..setup the wifi as client to your phone.. -> that means use scan option on Wireless Overview (in luci) to find my mobile hotspot, select mode client and save it?
..then connect your Xbox to the lan port and route between the two interfaces.
Does it automatically provide the connection to the lan ports after the previous step, or should I set that up somewhere?
To make this work, WDS is required on both the TP Link router and the mobile hotspot. The router should support it (ath9k WiFi driver), but I have doubts about the hotspot.
With this tip I went into my router which has the LuCI interface, using 192.168.1.1.
I went to Wireless Overview, radio0 and pressed the SCAN button. There I was able to select the mobile hotspot, give it a new network name (to distinguish both signals), input the password and left Create / Assign firewall-zone to wan which was default. After adding it I checked and saw that mode was set to Client by itself.
It had not taken my new network name but instead it sticked with my mobile hotspot name. I let that be.
This let me to believe that step one was complete. “ setup the wifi as client to your phone. ”
I then went to https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/routedclient as tipped by @mpa
Because I got stuck at putting the wifi interface into station mode I skipped the Using MASQUERADE part and went straight for the Using routing part.
I went to the Firewall - Zone Settings and followed the instructions. Below is a screenshot of what it looks like. It felt a little weird but I did check the steps 3 times and could not figure out a different way.
Step 2: Configure the Access Point got me looking through all the menus of LuCI and only now I realize it says Access Point, so not my TP Link router. Facepalm.
OK so I should use the MASQUERADE steps because there is no administrative access to the target Access Point, right? Since a mobile hotspot is so very limited to configuring and there are no apps to take care of that?
So I got stuck at “wifi interface must be enabled and put into station mode in order to be able to scan for networks in the vicinity.” Can I find this in the LuCI interface or is there a command option available where I can enter the commands from the guide?
Go to Network--Wireless and click Add on the right side. Scroll down to the bottom half of the page and choose Mode : Client. Enter the phone hotspot's network name as ESSID. (This is the name that the phone advertises over the air, often also known as the SSID. The name here has to match what is configured in the phone). Leave BSSID blank. Choose Network : WAN. Click the Security tab and select Encryption : WPA2-PSK. Enter the phone hotspot's password as Key. Save these changes.
Go to Network--Interfaces and click the Edit button next to WAN. Click the Physical Settings tab. Uncheck the "Bridge Interfaces" box. Be sure that Network is set to your Wireless Interface:Client for the phone.
Save and apply this and it should be online.
