Simultaneous hotspot connection with Ethernet LAN

[docsuess84]

I’m sure there is a very simple solution to my problem but I haven’t been able to figure it out. I live in the boonies and don’t have dedicated internet access. I have an LAN with a router for NAS devices and connecting devices together. When I do need to acccess the internet I use a hotspot on an iPhone. The problem is when I do this, I lose my connection to the home network and NAS devices which store all my media. Is there a way to maintain my connection to my LAN while also connected to my iPhone hotspot? Any help would be appreciated thanks.

 

[ferrarr]

What are you connecting to your iPhone hotspot? You would need some type of a bridge, to connect the hotspot network, to your home network? A PC, can receive the hotspot signal, and use the Ethernet port, to connect to your LAN, but that needs to be bridged.

Tell us your LAN setup, computers, os versions, etc.

 

[docsuess84]

The only thing I’m really connecting to the hotspot when I need internet access is my 2008 Mac Book running Yosemite for the purpose of maintaining a media library for my home media server setup. I have 1, soon to be 2 HTPCs running Libreelec and a centralized media collection on a WD MyCloud NAS all connected via a Cradlepoint MBR95 router. Originally I was able to use a USB dongle connected to the router for internet access but we switched carriers and I don’t plan on using a dongle anymore. I want to scrape metadata and artwork with my media manager and then sync it to my Kodi library. I can download the info while connected to the hotspot but then lose it when I attempt to switch over to the LAN in order to sync it to the library on the NAS.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you are using a WiFi connection for both your LAN and Hotspot, then that wouldn't work. You'd want to use Ethernet for your LAN connection (on a different subnet) and use WiFi for the Internet access.

 

[docsuess84]

My LAN is over Ethernet. Can you explain the subnet thing? My networking skills are pretty elementary.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Now that I think a bit further, the issue ls likely a default gateway problem. How do you normally connect to your NAS and what local network address range are you using? You can get this info from opening up a Terminal window and entering ifconfig en0 or looking at the Networking section on System Preferences.

If, for example, you are using 192.168.x.x on the LAN, the default gateway will be 192.168.1.1 (traditionally). Once you establish a hotspot connection, another network range comes in and the gateway might get changed, so now things are no longer accessible.

We would need to know a bit more about your network setup specifics to be able to provide guidance.