Hacker News Reader

What hardware are you using for the gateway/AP? What's the backhaul, a USB LTE modem? Do you carry it in a handbag with a USB battery pack?

I've been thinking about doing this and scrapping all but one of my data plans, and having a robust default-deny whitelist of allowed IPs/netblocks/hostnames on the phone vlan/ssid, but haven't worked out all the details yet.

How are you doing it?

View on HN

The gateway is a small form-factor computer with a rechargeable battery, e.g., a netbook or laptop. The AP is a SBC that the preferred kernel, e.g., NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, etc., supports. The AP draws power from the gateway's battery via USB.

Regarding LTE modems, I do not use a data plan on "locked-down" mobile devices for personal use. Somehow I have been able to survive on WiFi alone.

So you carry around a laptop powered on all day when you are out? What about battery life?

I’m looking at something like a raspberry pi zero, using the built in wifi to serve as an AP, powered from a large-ish USB battery pack, something that could run 18h+, with a USB LTE modem. Ideally I could get it small enough to strap to an ankle or something so I don’t need to bring a bag.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com