WiFi Bridging a WISP

I've just moved into a new apartment, which has internet supplied by a wireless ISP (basically a shit ton of Access points all over the building). Prices are shit and bandwidth is ass, but that's not the problem.

My signal is absolute shit, and they've tried to boost my signal apparently but it's done nothing.
The last option they gave me is to "install" an AP in my room, but it won't have a hard link to their network - instead it will just "bridge" the strongest AP while allowing me to create my own AP/SSID and stuff. But they want to charge something like $200 for this, with no guarantee of performance, no refund possible and some proprietary modem/router/device thing that they claim won't work anywhere else. Cables can not be run into the room and they have an exclusivity contract with the building, meaning no fibre or VDSL/ADSL possible.

This got me thinking - surely this device is basically some garden variety AP using standard bridging technologies? I have no idea about bridging past that you can do it with Apple's AirPorts as long as all your bridged points are AirPorts.

Is it possible to buy an access point and just bridge myself? What would I need to know? I'd much rather spend $200 on a router/AP that I own and can take with me than give that $200 to these fucks.

Or am I just shit out of luck and have to spend my shekels to continue shitposting?

>wifi only building

Move.

Move somewhere else

Change your region to one which allows higher power to dongle.

You'd need something with the capability to connect wirelessly. Mikrotik makes some good wireless AP's for that. Some as low as $35 that I've used on outdoor installations and work great. As long as you have the password to connect to the wireless interface and they aren't using some proprietary protocol, you should be able to connect with it.

I meant *bridge wirelessly*

> to dongle

mfw when I read that as a verb

I can only move at the end of the year.

So basically something that connects over say 802.11n 2.4Ghz and creates my own AP using 5Ghz?

What do I need to look out for to make sure this is possible?

Typical home routers don't offer this type of capability, in my experience, I've only used Mikrotik and ubiquiti. It depends on configurability, most routers wireless interface doesn't have WAN capability. I'd recommend the former (Mikrotik) due customizability and better security. Ubiquiti has serious security faults, you can upload any configuration file without any credentials.

But yes, you'd use the 2.4 as the backhaul and 5 for your LAN or vice versa depending on what their shit is.
There would be two reasons you couldn't connect.
1) they won't give you the password.
2) it uses a non-802.11 protocol. If it's something proprietary, you'd need the same device type.

is the wifi password infinity?

>1) they won't give you the password.

Its all open networks. No security whatsoever. You are redirected to a captive portal where you enter your client username and password, and then I guess it binds to your MAC for 24 hours or so.

>2) it uses a non-802.11 protocol. If it's something proprietary, you'd need the same device type.

Wifi stumbling reports it using 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n. Nothing on 5GHz, but then again my built-in motherboard Atheros wifi might not even be able to do 5GHz.

Interestingly all of their AP's are on channel 6, so they're all interfering with each other (I assume). There's like 5 of them in range and the strongest one is ~85 Db RSSI. The one I'm connected is showing up as a Ubiquiti. The others are all TP-Links.

My computer is connected to it right now, so I don't think there's anything proprietary. Why they said I would need their special snowflake router I don't know. Are they just being greedy?

You'll be fine then. Should just be able to connect one wireless interface, and bridge them together. -85 DBI is shitty btw, you typically want -67 or better for anything like VoIP or streaming. But a dedicated AP would get a better signal.

They MAY not be interfering with each other if there is some controller architecture. But it doesn't sound like there is. They sound like morons.

And ya, just greedy and trying to make money.

you're not given any variables. Are you supposed to simplify it?

Thanks user. You've done me a great service.

I would have gone with the install if they just explained to me what they would do and what level of control I would have over my own network, but the engineers/actual tech guys refused to talk to me and made the receptionist answer all my questions (poorly). I can't believe one company can be so arrogant and retarded at the same time.

Just one last thing, is there a guide for this or is it a pretty simple process? Bridge the 2.4GHz interface and route all traffic through it?

cantenna or woktenna

There's a lot of documentation and instructions for Mikrotik stuff. High level, you'd connect the 2.4 to their AP network, add a bridge interface for the 2.4 to the 5, then put in your settings you want for your 5ghz.

With Mikrotik it's a lot easier to use their winbox GUI, and those steps are easier with it.

There should definitely be some online instructions, they have a decent forum and decked out wiki

I'm browsing their website now. I'll probably order one in the next few days.

Fuck these people. At least then I'll have a decent access point to use wherever I move to next.

>Ubiquiti has serious security faults, you can upload any configuration file without any credentials.
Source? I assume you're talking about UniFi.
We have been working on our own replacement UniFi controller and reverse engineered the protocol.
All communication between the APs and the controller is AES128 encrypted with a key that created and exchanged at adoption.
You'd need to have SSH access to change the controller.
I'm not defending any of their design choices, I know it's pretty bad. I'm just curious where you got that from because I don't see how that should work.

Not just unifi. All of our Ubiquiti devices were susceptible. I mostly used their outdoor equipment. . Exploitdb has it on there often. It's really nasty. Had to deal with worms, getting devices bricked etc.

When I had to deal with it, it was called mother fucker. Maybe look for that