PLEX with Jet Pack

[kirkdickinson]

Where I have been living, I have decent internet service connected to a wifi/router. I have a PLEX Pass Pro and have several accounts set up. I am moving to a new house with no wired internet available. I have a Jet Pack hot spot, but the problem with that is how to connect it and build a network.

I don't think that the Jet Pack will work as a real router so I probably need to have an actual router set up. What I don't know how to do is get it all set up and working. Ideally, I think I need a wifi bridge to connect the Jet Pack to a real wifi router where I can plug in the FreeNAS box, Apple TV, Vizio TV, etc...

To watch the Plex movies I really won't use much bandwidth, but the PLEX really doesn't work well without being able to connect to the internet.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[dlavigne]

Did you come up with a solution?

 

[kirkdickinson]

No I haven't. I posted this question on the Plex forum too. Maybe I should ask Quora.

 

[dir_d]

I do something similar at work all the time in remote locations. We buy USB Aircards from ATT or Verizon (depends who is best in the area) then we buy a craddlepoint router. This router will take your mobile aircard and use it like a physical WAN port. We plug the craddlepoint router straight into a Cisco ASA 5505 or 5506-x for site to site VPN. This setup works quite well and i think you can use a modified version with a USB card instead of Jet Pack then plug your devices directly into the craddlepoint.

 

[pschatz100]

This is a Verizon Jet Pack? If it is a reasonably recent model, it should work as a router - although you won't have as many configuration options as you would have with a more sophisticated router device. Also, keep in mind that data can get pretty expensive on 4G service.

If you have a simple network, you can use the Jet Pack as your router. Since FreeNAS does not support WiFi, you will need to set up some sort of a media bridge to connect to it. Most access points and many wifi routers can be set up in a "bridge mode" that will allow you to make a connection between ethernet devices and a wifi network. You don't have to spend a lot of money to set this up. For instance, I use an old ASUS RT-AC66u as a bridge to connect devices upstairs in my house to a wifi network. Works just fine.

As long as you don't exceed the number of devices supported by the Jet Pack, this should work OK.