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Forum Discussion
Nighthawk M5 questions:
Hey guys,
I have a couple of questions regarding the M5 which I hope someone can help answer. To give you an idea of what I’m trying to achieve I owner a camper van that I built out and am working on giving it a smart home network which will work wherever I take it, including when parked outside my house. So I would use a SIM card in the M5 when on the road, and when it’s parked outside my house I’d like the M5 to get its internet wirelessly from my netgear ax8 modem router which is in my house.
The idea being that there’s always a network local to the camper van powered by the M5 but its internet source changes. I want to save on data costs when not travelling and the van is parked outside my house. I plan to have a camera and temp sensor in the van, among other things. Ok so questions:
Can I connect the M5 to my AX8 to get internet from my home network while using the M5 as a network in my van that I can connect to via the internet.
Can I use the M5 solely as a router with no internet which I can connect to from my home (wirelessly via local network)?
Thanks in advance for the help!
4 Replies
The M5 doesn't have an extender or wisp mode function.
You'd need that for minimum for the park you're at to connect to and rebroadcast your internet connection.
A option for you?
Pick up a cheap travel router (netgear hasn't made on in years).
I picked up a cheap Gl.inet travel router for this specific thing.
You can set them both with the same ssid.
When you're in an area needing the mobile router, you simply leave the M5 turned on and use its wireless.
Once you're in an area needing wisp mode (for campsites needing login credentials) you turn off the m5 and use the travel router.
And in your home you use its repeater mode.
You're caught a little bit because each setup needs different connections.
Campsites tend to need wisp mode because they have login credentials.
Your home needs repeater/extender mode to connect to the current network.
And traveling you need the M5 mobile part.
The travel router i have, you can set with a mobile sim to supply it over usb or a wan port but you can switch it to extender/wisp mode while setup in that mode. So again, you're a little caught for those.
That'd be the cheapest option for you but takes a bit of work.
M5 supports WiFi offloading. It will suit your needs.
When you are at home, enable WiFi offloading to connect M5 to your home router. Then all your clients will get the data from your home network via M5.
When you on the road, M5 will automatically switch to use Cellular data and all your clients will get data from M5's cellular connection.
When you come back home, M5 will automatically switch back to use your home network since WiFi offloading is enabled.
Thanks
John
