Connect WD My Cloud to Cell Phone Hotspot

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
21

Without the range extender or a stand alone router there was no way to get the My Cloud to connect to my phone in hotspot mode… I could get all other devices to connect to it… just not the My Cloud.

That was the reason for all of this mess lol.

Anyway… all of the other devices could connect to the phone in hotspot mode and then just have the range extender connect as well to allow the my cloud to work but it just seemed easier the way I instructed.

Mainly due to the fact that not too much is going on at the same time while in use.

I have tested out scenarios to check performance.

Watching a movie streaming to the tv from the my cloud… on the internet on my phone at the same time on youtube and my son on the internet socializing at the same time with no noticeable lag in performance so this works pretty well for me.

The data transfer time used when I digitize a movie and send it over to the my cloud takes about 4 minutes longer than it did when I had cable WiFi so I think my service works pretty good.

22

Have you set the range extender for 5G usage instead of 2.4G? It would be best if you do, as it is about as fast as “wired” connection this way. Most especially for video playing.

23

Yes, I know… You are using the extender as a wired to wireless interface, just as we suggested in response to your OP.

My query was why you chose to connect all your devices wirelessly to the extender, rather than to the mobile router. But if it’s working well enough for you, then that’s all that really matters, even if it’s not how I might have done it.

If the extender acts as a switch, which it may well do, then it ought to route data as required to MyCloud, or to the phone hotspot router.

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@cpt_paranoia

I apologize if I didn’t explain it very well.

Ok…My reasoning was this…

Let’s say my cell phone hotspot connection was called “cellphone_hotspot”
Let’s say my RE connection was called “cellphone_hotspot_EXT”

For the tv to recognize the My Cloud, the tv and the My Cloud both needed to be on the same “network” connection. Since the My Cloud had to be connected to “cellphone_hotspot_EXT”… so did the tv. If the tv were connected to “cellphone_hotspot” it would not see the My Cloud.

Additionally, for my computer that I use to convert the movies and send them to the My Cloud… it also needed to be on the “cellphone_hotspot_EXT” connection or it also would not see the My Cloud. I tried all kinds of connections but the only one that worked was what I ended up doing.

As for the laptop, tablets and the wireless printer… they could definitely connect to the cell phone connection directly without issue… that is unless I wanted to watch a movie from the My Cloud on the laptop or tablets… they wouldn’t (I tried) see the My Cloud if it were connected to anything other than the range extender.

Unless there is some app that I am unaware of that would allow the tv and computers to see the My Cloud without them having to be also connected to the the range extender I would certainly give it a try… but my tv is not capable of downloading outside apps so it would not work for that anyway.

@mike27oct

I don’t see a 5G usage option in the range extender but I will look some more through the settings and try that if I can find it.

25

This is not quite correct.

The range extender works like a bridge, and also as an access point. The bridging functionality is all that is really needed here. The additional access point functionality is to enable it to extend the range of the network: Devices that are very far away from the main network can connect to the closer access point provided by the range extender, and can tell the range extender apart from the main network by the SSID of the range extender’s secondary access point.

EG, your main network may be named “VerizonHotSpot”, and the range extender might be named “VerizonHotSpot_EXT” Devices can tell if they are on the extender, or the hotspot, because they have different names.

Now, because the connection between the hotspot and the extender is a wireless connection, putting more devices than is sensible on the extender, rather than on the hotspot, will result in that link getting saturated. EG, all the traffic going from the extender to the hotspot is conducted over a single connection channel.

The bridge functionality is bi-directional. Unless there is a benefit to having direct wired access to the NAS, there is no compelling reason to connect to the extender’s AP. Connecting to the hotspot’s AP will work just as well, and will have fewer bottlenecks to reaching the internet. It is presumed that the only device that will be living on the extender is the MyCloud, which needs the wired interface provided by the bridge.

26

@Wierd_w

I understand the difference regarding the range extender… I only used that because I didn’t have a wireless router… I had an extender.

However… what I said was in fact correct because I tried different methods of connecting the devices and the only way the television, the My Cloud and the computer would see each other was configured as I did. No other way worked.

The smart tv was not smart enough to find the My Cloud connected to the RE if the tv were connected to the hotspot… period… there was no network settings in the tv to allow that kind of connection.

As for the number of sensible connections on the extender… who decides what is sensible? If there is not a house full of people using the network, there isn’t many devices connected causing traffic.

I can watch a movie streaming from the My Cloud to my tv and be on the internet on my cell and my son be on the internet on his ipod at the same time and not see any lagging on the tv at all… no more connections than that are ever going on at the same time so it works just fine.

I am not constantly streaming content from the My Cloud to the tv… it is only when I want to watch one of my movies. The rest of the time I am watching tv on cable and either using a laptop or my phone for internet.

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“sensible” is defined by total traffic flow.

EG, it is “not sensible” to put additional traffic on that link, if a single device can saturate it. Unless that is a wireless AC connection, just the MyCloud can saturate that link.

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@Wierd_w

Well I guess so… yes it “can” saturate it but since I am able to do all the things I want without issue… OK

29

As Cpt_Paranoia put it, if it meets your use needs, it is good.

Just saying it might not be ideal.

30

You never told us which range extender you have, but if it is the WD RE I have, there is a switch on back to set for 2.4G or 5G to move BEFORE configuring it.

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@cpt_paranoia

After doing some more investigating I discovered why I didn’t experience any lag in the scenarios I mentioned earlier. In my stupidity I thought I needed my hotspot turned on to watch a movie from the my cloud on my tv… turns out I don’t because the tv and the my cloud are connected on the RE network… also my computer I use to convert the movies is on the same so no hotspot signal is needed for them unless I want to watch Netflix or whatever on the tv.

So… no bottleneck issues there and I do thank you for all your input.

@mike27oct

Sorry… it is a netgear WN2000RPT. I wish I had a router rather than a RE but that is all I had after I surrendered my wireless modem provided by my cable company.

32

Looking at the details of your extender, it looks like it’s halfway between a switch and a router, since it has a wireless access point, with SSID.

And fitting a switch between MyCloud and router isn’t a bad idea. I do it because my modem/router is only a cheap 100Mbps device, and I use a gigabit switch between MyCloud and router, and connect my PCs to the switch, both of which have gigabit ports. Therefore I get full speed access between MyCloud and the PCs, and only use the router for accessing the internet.

All my non-wired devices (tablets, phones, media boxes, media renderers) are connected to the WiFi router. Thus, they are limited by the 100Mbps link between router and switch, and by the WiFi network. But this seems to be enough at the moment.

My internet download speed is way below this 100Mbps limit, so my PC internet access is not limited by the router port, but by the ADSL interface between my modem and the exchange.

The switch also has the benefit that router outages don’t cause the MyCloud to reboot (which direct router connections do), and the PC to MyCloud links seem to continue to work even when the router is down (I think; I’d need to confirm this).

I note your extender only has 100Mbps ethernet ports, so you cannot exploit the MyCloud’s 1Gbps ethernet. With a gigabit link, the MyCloud will achieve 40/80MBps write/read speeds (limited by disk access), but you’ll be limited to 10/10MBps by the 100Mbps link.

I’m surprised your ISP took back the modem/router; the UK second hand shops have loads of them, since ISPs don’t seem to want them back. Thus, you can pick up modem/routers very cheaply (e.g. £1 for a 100Mbps, 4-port ADSL modem/router, or £10 for a gigabit, 4-port).