What is best way to use Maestro at Starbucks or McDonalds

mikeatthebeach .

Trying to Use McDonald’s or Starbucks’s Wi-Fi successfully With a New Maestro B unit Do I need a Travel Router, etc Any ideas how to get past splash screens and have High speed Wi-Fi at these Coffee Shops and place That offer free Wi-Fi Mike WB6DJI

Pierre Martel

Dont know about the flex itself, but I used some small device that are not aBle to pass trough identificAtion with this little trick. I use a device that I can change the mac adress, copy the mac addr from the device that I want to connect to the network to the device that can pass the portal. Do all the ident thing then change back the mac addr to the original one. Then fire up the device that cant pass the portal, the portal will recognise the mac addr as being ok and already passed the portal, you will receive the same IP as the other device received when posing as the flex and voila! This works with most places. I found one hotel once that would not accept this.

Fred Friedl

Best way to make it work is with a donut...go to Dunkin

Mike-VA3MW

The way I have done it is to have a laptop connect to the Wifi and get through the paywall.

Then, you LAN connect the Maestro to the Laptop on the network card and do a link local connection, which it does automatically.  

Once that is done, you can do a Internet Connection Sharing setup on the Laptop and it will pass the Maestro traffic to the WiFi.  

mikeatthebeach .

I have an IPhone 8 and thought if I log into Say McDonald’s WiFi then turn on IPhone Hot Spot and have a Cheap Travel Router Preconfigured to that iPhone Hotspot it might work But have not tried this Approach Has anyone tied this type of scheme Do not want to use my Cellular Data Plan As the provider since it uses too much Data Mike WB6DJI

mikeatthebeach .

Mike Did you see my comment about using An iPhone below Will I need a preconfigured Travel Router or just an IPhone and Maestro On the McDondald’s Wi-Fi New to this all Mike WB6DJI

Ken Hansen

You can not, as far as I know, use a cellphone in 'hotspot' mode to share the the phones Wi-Fi connection. The chip can not simultaneously connect to the access point at, say, Starbucks AND your maestro at the same time. You can share a cellular data connection over your cellphone Wi-Fi, that would be my approach. The alternative of logging in to a WiFi network that requires a sign-in with a laptop, and then run a cat5e or cat6 jumper to the Maestro is another good option. It's too bad the maestro can't pop open a trivial browser to facilitate WiFi login in various situations that require a sign-in.

mikeatthebeach .

Is that also the case for an iPad Also, I have a cheap tablet and thought A Travel Router assigned to the tablet Would be needed or do I ditch the Travel Router and only use aTablet is needed? Mike WB6DJI

Ken Hansen

An iPad will open a browser, so no, it does not have this issue. Your cheap tablet (assumed to be running SSDR under Windows) would also open a browser, so no issue.

Dave - W6OVP

I use a DEDICATED laptop for Remote. Nothing on it but FLEX, QRZ etc. No personal info of value. No fancy techno-gymnastics in use for access or protection besides Win10 Defender. Just wipe the HD from time to time to get rid of whatever crud, and reload. "**** the torpedos, full speed ahead!"

mikeatthebeach .

Used my iPad as a Personal Hotspot with my Verizon Cellular Service and provided the Password From my iPad Tried to log into my iPad named Michael’s iPad seen on the Maestro WiFi selections and type password provided from iPad Personal HotSpot and it would Ask for password over and over again and Maestro Would not come up FYI- Have Logged into SmartLink from iPad So it seems it not as simple as everyone thinks Something is not quite right Maestro works great via my LAN but not thru my iPad and Cellular Service with iPad Any thoughts??? Works great over LAN but No Go over WAN for the Maestro ! Guess no one here knows the solution Hotspot from Cellular for WAN is a No Go Both my iPhone and iPad using SDR iOS work Fine into Flex6600M over Cellular Service but Not Maestro working off my iPad as a HotSpot Using Cellular service Can not get past the Password given from the iPad working off Cellular Service to the Maestro even though SDR iOS works great with iPad Via Cellular To my Home Remote Flex6600M Mike WB6DJI

Steve Sterling

Just in case-- you are using SmartLink, which requires signing up for a username (email if I remember) and password?? When using a cell (Ipad) & service to create a hotspot.  SmartLink makes the connection operating from the WAN (internet) instead of your home network.

mikeatthebeach .

Steve Thanks I knew that, configured Smartlink for my
Flex6600M so that I can use it over WAN

Tried that also on Maestro with SmartLink
and did not help Wondering if it might be due to a Latency Issue But you would thing at Initial Login of a WAN password, getting stuck not able to accept it is not a Latency Issue before the Maestro actually Starts up Only unless Latency affects the Password Entry But At the Initial Point the Maestro has not even launched SDR on the Maestro Internal Touch Screen Internal Dell laptop device That is why I am stumped on why it will not accept a password from the iPad Cellular Hotspot but can use my iPhone connect fine and surf the Internet from the iPad Cellular Hotspot On another note I know the Maestro needs more MBytes/sec like 1.7 Mbytes/sec to 2.8 Mbytes/sec in comparison To SmartSDR on the PC ( can be throttled Down ) to 0.3Mbytes/sec in case your your Using Rural Internet like slow DSL In case of Apple iPhone and iPad App of iOS SDR even slower Data Rates are possible Just not sure why the Maestro can not get Past the Initial Password Entry when using the iPad Cellular Hotspot WiFi while my other devices have No issues Everything works fine on LAN on the Maestro, just can not get past the Password Via WAN Went to to Another Ham that had Fios and Try to log into his WiFi and Would Enter Password and the Password prompt would Show up again like not being the right password So something in the WAN interface is not working on this New Maestro which I have had only for almost two days Just another fact, configured Maestro 1st via My WiFI LAN and not thru Ethernet just as a Data Point Might be defective Maestro Looking for those Flex Guru Experts out there ! Mike WB6DJI

mikeatthebeach .

Maestro now works from WAN Flex Support from Tim and Dawn helped greatly 1.) For not reason did like the ‘ in name of iPad For some reason affecting the Password not getting through 2.) Also rebooted my Router & PC 3.) Also unregistered and registered via SmartLink 4.) Configured Plug and Play uPNP Port Forwarding with SmartLink and got the Green Light Bullet to PASS the ports so Everything is seen from the outside Internet Via WAN All is working now with the Maestro from WAN Thanks Again Flex Support Mike Aust WB6DJI

mikeatthebeach .

Well success at Starbucks using the Tiny HooToo Travel Wireless Router and no Splash Screen needed to login into Starbucks!!!!!!! Mike