Not sure if that title is accurate, this field is not my strong point. Basically I’m about to move homes. And in my new (temporary) home I wont have access to ethernet, plus my server doesn’t have a network card. I was therefore wondering if it was possible to bridge a connection between my laptop to my server with an ethernet cable. This would obviously be a short term solution, but I’m wondering if it’s possible and if so, how? Or is it better to buy a cheap network card?
My laptop is running NixOS and my server Unraid, if it should be to any help.
An option is to buy a router that supports openwrt and install the travelmate package:
Quick Start Guide:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-quick-start/start
Travelmate Readme:
https://github.com/openwrt/packages/blob/master/net/travelmate/files/README.md
Supported hardware:
https://openwrt.org/toh/start?toh.filter.supportedcurrentrel=22.03|23.05Then you could setup Wireless WAN (Connect to existing WiFi) + Wireless LAN (for laptop/phone) + Ethernet LAN (for server) in that router.
One way is to use iptables to forward the connection from the wireless interface through the ethernet interface. But I am not sure whether this is better than using the NetworkManager or a more specialized solution. I have used iptables for configuring WireGuard VPNs, but not for this specific use case.
I have a raspi 3b dedicated to being my wifi to ethernet bridge, the config is old and it runs rpi os but if your interested i can dig up how it works 🙃
You can do the same with $25 mikrotik device.
Infact, a lot of cheap wireless APs can connect to a wifi and bridge to ethernet, especially if they are running an openWRT fork (most cheapo wifi APs do)I actually do have a spear rpi actually! However I was planning on running HomeassistantOS on it. But could do what you do as a temporary solution. If you wouldn’t mind and have the time to look up your solution I would highly appreciate it 🙌
