USB tethering question

A little background:

I have a share in a second home in France, and the Internet connection is woeful (about 256k on a good day)

However we are fortunate enough to have a stonkingly good 5g signal on one side of the house. I am currently hotspotting from my phone, but the WiFi signal is limited, and the phone has to be in a particular room to get good signal.

I was wondering if it's possible to USB tether a phone to a WiFi router. Is there such a thing as a USB to Ethernet adaptor that you can use for this purpose?

Look into getting a router with built in 4G / 5G modem, or one which can take a 4G / 5G USB dongle. There are plenty of options e.g. https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/5g-4g-router/archer-nx500/

Agreed, get a 4/5G lte router and a cheap data sim. That’s what a lot of friends here have done. £10 a month for all my internet and tbh I could get it cheaper if I tried.

Depending on your router's abilities, you may be able to do that without a USB tether, by using the router to pick up the phone's WiFi signal and use it to get its network service. This is the relevant UI in my router:



in which I'd simply choose my phone's network in the (empty in this shot) list of nearby wireless devices.

Personally I'd be asking the other people in the "share" if they would consider sharing the cost of a proper internet connection.

But many third party routers (I think including the Fritzbox shown above) will accept the phone as an internet connection just by plugging it into a USB port, you don't need to use any adapters for that. For example - https://uk.fritz.com/service/knowle...ccess-via-an-Android-smartphone-USB-tethering

Not only can the FRITZ!Box establish internet connections using a mobile network dongle, it can also use the existing mobile internet connection of an Android smartphone (USB tethering).

This way all devices in the FRITZ!Box home network can use the Android smartphone's internet connection to access the internet should your conventional internet connection ever be down and you do not have a mobile network dongle.

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If you are using a UK SIM over there, you may want to check how much data allowance you are given for EU roaming.

You could also look into Starlink depending on your needs.

You'll need to look for Repeater or Range Extension mode on your router. Then (per @Harpers Tate's screenshot) you'll get what you need without resorting to wired USB. Added bonus of not having to toddle off to another room to check your phone.

A dedicated router should have significantly greater range than a phone acting as a hotspot.

sor said:

Personally I'd be asking the other people in the "share" if they would consider sharing the cost of a proper internet connection.

But many third party routers (I think including the Fritzbox shown above) will accept the phone as an internet connection just by plugging it into a USB port, you don't need to use any adapters for that. For example - https://uk.fritz.com/service/knowle...ccess-via-an-Android-smartphone-USB-tethering




If you are using a UK SIM over there, you may want to check how much data allowance you are given for EU roaming.

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The landline based Internet isn't worth having. Half the village has fibre, but not us, due to "difficulties".

I'm using an all you can eat data French SIM from free.fr, so no worries about allowances.

MalaiseForever said:

You could also look into Starlink depending on your needs.

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I won't on principal due to Musk's involvement

Harpers Tate said:

Depending on your router's abilities, you may be able to do that without a USB tether, by using the router to pick up the phone's WiFi signal and use it to get its network service. This is the relevant UI in my router:

View attachment 209314

in which I'd simply choose my phone's network in the (empty in this shot) list of nearby wireless devices.

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Interesting thought. The only reason I wanted to tether was so that I can keep the phone battery topped up as well, hotspotting really drains it fast.

adc82140 said:

Interesting thought. The only reason I wanted to tether was so that I can keep the phone battery topped up as well, hotspotting really drains it fast.

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You can always power it by a separate connection. It would allow you to separate (within the phone's WiFi range) the phone (for good 5g) and the router (for best property coverage).

MalaiseForever said:

You could also look into Starlink depending on your needs.

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Only if your needs include supporting an insanely rich fascist who is trying all he can to promote inter-racial civil war across Europe, including in Britain, and supporting Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's line that his criminal prosecutions are entirely for political reasons. (I see that the OP has ruled out the option for related reasons).

DelW said:

Only if your needs include supporting an insanely rich fascist who is trying all he can to promote inter-racial civil war across Europe, including in Britain, and supporting Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's line that his criminal prosecutions are entirely for political reasons. (I see that the OP has ruled out the option for related reasons).

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Enjoy your night pal.

A WiFi extender should do the job, worked for me using my phone as the Internet connection.

Another option if the phone can share the Internet connection to a USB to Ethernet adaptor would be to use a powerline setup, with an Ethernet to powerline adaptor connected to the USB to Ethernet dongle attached to the phone and as many powerline WI-FI adaptors as needed, handy if the hotspot is required far enough away from the phone that receiving its WiFi signal is difficult.

DelW said:

Only if your needs include supporting an insanely rich fascist who is trying all he can to promote inter-racial civil war across Europe, including in Britain, and supporting Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's line that his criminal prosecutions are entirely for political reasons. (I see that the OP has ruled out the option for related reasons).

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Best avoid LSL railtours too in that case (apologies for the off-topic intrusion)

DelW said:

Only if your needs include supporting an insanely rich fascist who is trying all he can to promote inter-racial civil war across Europe, including in Britain, and supporting Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's line that his criminal prosecutions are entirely for political reasons. (I see that the OP has ruled out the option for related reasons).

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Best completely disconnect from the Internet then... the impressive technology behind Starlink was not engineered by Musk and has nothing to do with him personally.

In all honesty to OP though, if the cell tower signal is good enough Starlink is probably unnecessary.

rmHawk765 said:

the impressive technology behind Starlink was not engineered by Musk and has nothing to do with him personally

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Musk has never engineered anything*, he is a financier and a salesman, and megalomaniac. He wants as much control over the the worlds' information and money as possible using x[dot]com as everyone's everything app, with Starlink for its delivery. Starlink does have a lot to do with him personally because (perhaps surprisingly) it is the only one of his numerous enterprises that is actually making a profit and is therefore a very significant aid to his army of influencers being paid to pump up the share price of SpaceX (which owns Starlink). Despite the recent public share offering of SpaceX, Musk remains in total control including control of the Starlink division which now seems to be his favourite interest. Most of Musk's colossal wealth only exists on paper as the value of his shares in SpaceX and Tesla, even though he cannot sell most of those shares for reasons too complex to go into here.

Irrespective of his politics (he used to be a Democrat supporter) it is relevant to this forum, and a less known fact about how his brain works, that he loathes railways and has an agenda to destroy them. That is what his Hyperloop was about, to replace inter-city rail, and his Loop (the tunnels for Tesla taxis under Las Vegas) together with his proposed Robotaxis are his replacement for urban buses and metro systems. "Happily" the Loop tunnels' 12 ft diameter is the same as that of the London Tube system, and in his Las Vegas Loop opening speech he stated that he hopes to create Loop systems in London and other cities, so it is not hard to imagine what he would do with with the London Underground if he bought it. It would be pocket change for a man with more wealth than the GDP of nations like Canada and Poland.

* Except that he wrote some software for his original x[dot]com which was a copy of PayPal. It didn't work.

rmHawk765 said:

Best completely disconnect from the Internet then... the impressive technology behind Starlink was not engineered by Musk and has nothing to do with him personally.

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That's true. However Starlink is currently the only truly profitable part of SpaceX whose share price is a significant proportion of his wealth (the message platform formerly known as Twitter and xAI are hugely loss making, and the space launch business makes a profit on operations but is also spending a lot on Starship development). So I can entirely understand why someone wouldn't want to help prop up the company.

Ediswan said:

A dedicated router should have significantly greater range than a phone acting as a hotspot.

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I would second this. A dedicated mobile router (sometimes known as a MiFi) is going to give the best performance and you won’t have to worry about leaving your phone around.

adc82140 said:

The landline based Internet isn't worth having. Half the village has fibre, but not us, due to "difficulties".

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Are there any neighbours with fibre nearby? If there’s line of sight then an outdoor wireless bridge could work to let you get to their network.

JamesT said:

If there’s line of sight then an outdoor wireless bridge could work to let you get to their network.

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That does require you to be on very good terms with the neighbours though - if only because what you do online is traceable to them, rather than you.