Share an internet connection via USB

ezzetabi · 2013-10-17 08:16:48

I got an interesting problem. A friend is converting an old building in few offices, and he does not want to use wireless for some reason (he said something about the thick walls) so I suggested to simply put a network hub (or switch) on the desks so people can connect with the cable.
Unfortunately it is not so easy since many new laptops have no ethernet adapter, so my question is: it is possible to use a usb hub for this? I know there are external network USB card, but I am not aware of a way to share that connection with more than one computer. Is that possible?

mich41 · 2013-10-17 16:14:29

There exist so-called "USB-USB cables" that have two USB-A plugs and a chip in the middle which pretends to be an ethernet adapter on both sides and forwards packets from one side to another. No idea about Linux compatibility. You can try connecting a bunch of such cables to one computer with Internet access, possibly through some hub if it doesn't have enough USB ports.

However, at this point I'd prefer to use good old Ethernet and get USB-Ethernet dongles for those who don't have network cards.

ewaller · 2013-10-17 17:19:24

USB has very limited cable lengths. (on the order of a couple meters)

Here is what I would do. Put wireless routers in each room. They are cheep -- ebay has routers for a few US$.
Connect the upstream ports to a central wired router. Set the central router up to provide DHCP services. Configure the wireless routers to use DHCP connections upstream. Connect the wired router to the Internet.

The only problem with this setup is, if they all use NAT, the machines on different wireless routers won't be able to route to each other. Cheep ebay routers could be reconfigured with DD-WRT, OPEN-WRT, or some other custom solution. This would require a pretty good IT guy to configure correctly, but could be used to implement a fully routable network.

ezzetabi · 2013-10-18 07:59:03

At the end the guy went for a normal 7 port usb hub on each desk with a ethernet to USB already plugged to it. I think it is quite nice, but while it works perfectly with NetworkManager it does not work with wicd

R00KIE · 2013-10-18 16:09:15

ezzetabi wrote:

At the end the guy went for a normal 7 port usb hub on each desk with a ethernet to USB already plugged to it. I think it is quite nice, but while it works perfectly with NetworkManager it does not work with wicd

Try connecting manually and use the same programs wicd uses, it may be that some program being used is different between NetworkManager and wicd (and I'd say it is the dhcp client, dhclient vs dhcpcd most probably).

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-17 08:16:48

Share an internet connection via USB

#2 2013-10-17 16:14:29

Re: Share an internet connection via USB

#3 2013-10-17 17:19:24

Re: Share an internet connection via USB

#4 2013-10-18 07:59:03

Re: Share an internet connection via USB

#5 2013-10-18 16:09:15

Re: Share an internet connection via USB

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