Cord Cutting!!!

[G+_David Keeler]

Cord Cutting!!!

I am a true cord cutter in that I even got rid of my cable! Instead I 'borrowed' a friends old Samsung SIII and joined Freedom Pop's 25 dollar everything unlimited plan.  They allow tethering as part of the plan so I can legally use it is a hotspot.  I then used an old WRT54G and hacked it with DD-WRT to act as a 'receiver' of the phone and route it to all my wired devices.  I have 1 CAT5 cable running to the front room so put another 'donated' WRT54G to act as a bridge.  

 

And so for 25 dollars a month I get unlimited data access and an emergency/2nd phone number to boot!!!  And this lets me 'stick it' to the cable overlords!!!!!

 

Now I grant you its 3G speeds so barely enough to stream but its certainly enough to download my podcasts, emails, web browsing etc..

 

I do have one question!  If I were to try and set up a VPN or such, how can I find/access/manipulate my IP address? I watched the episode on KH but that all assumes you can get into the router interface to type in the particular IP address and ports you need.  The trick is that technically my phone is acting as my initial portal so not sure how or if there is a way I can access that address.

 

Any thoughts???

[G+_Paul Miller]

Although your method of connection to the internet is somewhat unusual I don't see how that should affect your ability to use a VPN. Your public IP is assigned by your ISP, in your case Freedom Pop, not your phone or router. As long as your phone, router or another device like a PC is running a VPN it will encrypt your traffic and tunnel through your ISP to your selected exit point for your VPN which will then become your defacto public IP. In your case you should be able to use/install open VPN on your router or your tethered phone. I use Private Internet Access???? on my phone, tablet and router at home. In your case you should be able to set up Open VPN on your router or install an App on your tethered phone. Either way all the devices behind your phone and/or router will share the same VPN assigned public IP as long as you're connected to the VPN. If you like to change your exit points frequently (to watch location restricted content from the UK for example) it might be better to use an App on the tethered phone since it will be set up to be able to select from among all of the VPN provider's exit points. I agree with Wayne Hobbins???? if you wanna know what your IP address is just use a site like http://www.whatismyip.com to tell you your public IP address and what region it is associated with. I hope that helps.?

[G+_David Keeler]

Ha! I never thought to type in "whats my ip address".... Its so simple I never thought of it!  Generally I don't need to worry about spoofing my location for UK content etc... but would like to be able to open up a remote access port to view webcams, remote desktop etc.....  I will give ProXPN a look, check to see my phone options and see what PIA has to offer... thanks for the feedback!

[G+_Ben Reese]

David Keeler? - are you trying to setup a VPN server or a connection to someone else's VPN server? There's a different process for both. If you want to create your own server, you'll have to have a way to do port forwarding on the S3.

[G+_David Keeler]

Yes, I was hoping to set up my own VPN server, and yes, by way of port forwarding.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Hmmm. If it's possible to port forward on mobile it will probably require root and shell - even then I'm not sure it would be possible. An easier solution might be to use a router that accepts a USB modem then plug in which should give your router the public IP. If you want to go more DIY and keep the router you have, a Raspberry Pi could act as a USB router on the WAN port.

[G+_Paul Miller]

I may be missing something here but it seems to me that since the router is assigning the IP addresses on the local network the port forwarding would be set up there not on the phone. The only thing that would prevent it would be if the ISP, Freedom Pop, prevents you from opening incoming ports.

[G+_David Keeler]

From what I've seen and tried I think the phone is the one assign g the IP address..

[G+_David Keeler]

I had not thought of using the USB as an access point.  But wouldn't the Phone still assign the IP address?  Tell me more about how Raspberry Pi can help....

[G+_Ben Reese]

I guess I haven't tried it, but I'm pretty sure the USB connection would give the router the public IP since there would be no internal network to NAT. I have wifi tether through a root app so can't try the USB option... If you plug in USB and enable USB tethering, does the virtual network adapter on the computer get the public IP or an internal IP?

[G+_David Keeler]

Well the good newss is that the sourse phone is rooted, but my WRT54G doesnt have a USB input... that may put me back to square 1. That being said, perhaps the simplest way is to try and handle port forwarding direcctly on the phone, perhaps an app? I remember using WiFi tether Trev E Mod, I wonder if that is the way to go?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Yes, that might work exactly! I'm using wifi tether router on my phone so I checked the settings. There's no "port forward" option, but there IS DMZ. You'd probably want to take extra precautions on your DD-WRT setup so you don't give the whole world access to your network, but it's certainly another step forward.

 

To test the USB tethering and find out if your USB host gets the public IP, you could plug it into a computer and check there. Darren Kitchen? did a Hak5 episode with a WiFi pineapple connected to an Android LTE modem/router. I'll see if I can find that old episode to see if any of his screenshoted showed a public IP from the USB interface.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Not sure if this is the original that I saw, but has some good info about using USB modems - at least with the WiFi Pineapple. Around 10 min in he plugs into he USB interface, but it doesn't look like it gives the router the public IP ?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Alright... You got me thinking so now I have to try to find a solution lol. That DMZ option would probably work, but it's not ideal. Here's a port forwarding app that would be a better option if it works.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.bherbst.net

 

I also posted a link a while back to Servers Ultimate Pro which appears to do both port forwarding and can create a VPN server (not sure which flavor yet).

 

One other thing to be aware of though... Even if we can get port forwarding or a VPN server setup, there's a chance that Freedom Pop (or Sprint) will block the connections.