I need a backup for unreliable cable service internet. I acquired a cricket unit, which will serve three wifi and one USB connection. I am exploring ways I might interface this to my network, which has a Linksys running DDWRT and a Netgear FSM7352s switch. Ideally, if the cable dies, I want to go through the hotspot.

Anyone done anything similar?

Anyone have any ideas of how they might implement this, particularly without using a general computer as a gateway?

I have a spare DDWRT router with wifi, which I could use as a gateway, once I figure out how to NAT off a wifi connection.

Thanks.

Can't think of any way to do it, without using a computer as an access point. Setting up hostapd on a Linux system is pretty easy, and once you do that, firing up squid to serve as an internet proxy is pretty easy too. The only option you MIGHT have would be to see if one of your routers can do wireless mesh, and set it to connect to the hotspot.

Thanks for the pointer. Apparently DDWRT does have that capability. I'm reading the docs, and it is thusfar unclear to me whether I need to somehow reconfigure the hotspot or leave it in native mode.

Since DDWRT is linux based, there is sime scripting and cron opportunities...