Using a Phone Hotspot as a Backup WAN Connection - Home Network Upgrade

In this video I upgrade my home network by adding a failover internet connection. This can be done using a multitude of different LTE/4G/5G modem products, however these would all require me to pay for an additional data plan. Therefore in this video we'll look at a way to use my phone's existing data plan a backup internet connection with only £30 worth of hardware using a MikroTik mAP lite connected to my UniFi UDM-Pro router.

Buy the MikroTik mAP lite on Amazon (Affiliate):

Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
03:50 - Hardware Introduction
10:01 - Configuring the mAP lite
22:19 - Initial Testing
23:52 - UDM-Pro Configuration
27:44 - Connecting it all up
31:43 - mAP lite PoE Weirdness
35:13 - Completed Installation
36:14 - It works!
40:25 - Conclusion

*AFFILIATE LINKS NOTICE:*
Product links under this video marked “(Affiliate)” are affiliate links where I may receive a small commission on qualifying sales. Affiliate programs that I am a member of include, _but are not limited to:_ Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network and AliExpress Affiliates.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Purchasing through these affiliate links will not cost you any more money, however the commission earned significantly helps fund the production of videos on my channel.

[camerongray]

Buy the MikroTik mAP lite on Amazon (Affiliate):

[jasonperry]

I am at the point where I watch videos on YouTube feeling like there is no new ideas, and we are at the point where people are just updating content, or showing us their way of doing someone elses video. This is new and i love it. Sorry for the negative view of the current state of home lab hardware.

Thank you for your content.

[Rorc]

I am getting a new internet line activated so may be without wired internet in my house for a few days and I thought of using my phone connection in the interim period. I used this as a guide to setup the mAP lite with my TP-Link Omada hardware and it's all working really well, very impressed. Thanks so much for this video, keep up the great work.

[JakeHillion]

I’ve done something very similar to this while waiting for a line to be installed. Raspberry Pi on hand and a short bit of setup got all of my devices online with their proper setups, plus it seemed a lot more reliable than trying to connect a bunch of devices to my phone. Enjoyed as always!

[eric]

This is excellent, Cameron! I was considering buying one of those Unifi 4G router things and buying a sim etc, but I am the same as you in that I would actually rarely need it. I work from home and so my Internet is really important, but it rarely if ever goes down. This is a brilliant solution though, I am definitely going to copy this! Thanks again!

[homiewithaduce]

Works perfectly with my Unifi USG4 and t-Mobile phone hotspot... .followed your guide, unplugged my google fiber, plugged this into WAN1 - and bada bing bada boom worked first time. THANK YOU SO MUCH saved me a ton of hassle and I was thinking about paying $25/month for a secondary internet connection. I mean its slow like 50 Mbps download but it works when google fiber has one of its MANY outages. For those wondering I am in San Antonio, TX. You are a rockstar thank you for making this video.

[NorthernMonkeeUK]

This is great - our internet goes down for perhaps 10 mins once a year, but you can guarantee it's during something important. I've extended what you've done and setup a connect-list on the MikroTik so if either my phone, my work phone or my partners phone turns the hotspot on, it'll connect and work (so if I'm not home, she can't use her phone as the backup) - brilliant.

[TMoneyJones]

FANTASTIC Video. I have been thinking about backup internet for a while because I've got services running in my homelab that need internet to run 24/7. Like you I was hesitating to pull the trigger and waste $30-$50 a month on something I might only use a few times a year. I bought this literally while watching your video and can't wait to set it up!

[Alan_UK]

Neat device. Recently I had to do a presentation at a location without wifi internet access so I looked to tethering my laptop to my mobile but I also wanted to use a Fritzbox router with an analogue telephone handset connected. I wanted to demonstrate using analogue handsets with SIP/VOIP.

After a lot of trial and error I got my Nokia Android mobile to tether to the router using USB/Ethernet adapter (couldn't get wifi or BlueTooth to pair) and the handset would take an IP call. Cool! I also paired the Linux laptop with the mobile for internet access using BT (couldn't get wifi to pair). But when I connected the laptop to the router in order to configure the router then both router and laptop internet links to the mobile failed. I suspect the laptop thought the router was the path to the internet and the router thought the laptop was the path to the internet - just a theory. I think Linux enables routing overrides but could not see anything in the Fritzbox. In the end I ran out of time.

[aardwolf]

The GL.iNET travel routers, possible most/all of them, run openwrt behind the scenes, this can be exposed or even raw openwrt installed, then the world is your oyster for whatever network you want to achieve.

[gjheydon]

Seeing that it can be run via POE, this is the perfect pairing with the UDM Pro SE and configure Port 8 as a Wan port.

[StefanHolmes]

Love this approach. I ended up with UniFi’s own 4G failover and an unlimited data plan, which is just under £18/month.

We had to, really. There were two of us working from home for nearly a month before we could get our broadband set up when we moved house, earlier this year.

It’s worked faultlessly and I get an alert when it does fail over, which has happened a few times for brief (couple of minutes) outages.

[ronanmu]

Excellent video, seriously clever use of existing mobile phone data plan and the failover feature of the UDM Pro. I got the MikroTik a few months ago and then never got round to setting this all up.. apart from today when my internet was knocked out by a tractor hitting a pole up the road! Got the MikroTik up and running ok and then tweaked some VLAN settings to get it piped back into my UDM-Pro.

Great video and has been a life saver today! Many thanks 👏👏

[Fgg]

Brilliant video! Gave up getting this working yesterday and started to set up a Raspberry Pi. Now I’ve got a wired and wireless solution 😊

[jonathanpalmer]

You convinced me to use a GL-iNet travel router to do the same thing on my network. I didn’t realize I could use port 8 on my udm pro for wan 2. Thanks for making this tutorial - I’m very glad to have a failover connection.

[akuvr]

You might have already learnt this since this video came out a while ago but Mikrotik has a "Safe Mode" available when configuring devices. When enabled (toggle button on lower left in webfig, top left in winbox, Ctrl + X in terminal) it will revert any changes done during the time safe mode was enabled if the connection is lost. Once you reach the desired config you can disable safe mode and the changes will stay like normal. It has saved me at least a couple times from a reset and restore!

[steffandavies]

Saw this yesterday and ordered one through your link. Works a treat ! Good work, not sure I’d have been able to work that out 😂 I wasn’t willing to pay too much for a backup that would hardly ever get used so this is the perfect solution. Still had to make a crossover, but it works fine from port 8 using Poe on the UDMSE.

[VincentSpaziani]

This is great! I did create a VLAN since I did not have the POE injector. It is working great. Thank you very much for putting this together, it was very well put together.

[ismaelkiki]

Super cool setup, super well explained video. Thanks for this idea. Just ordered the device and will be doing it. Thanks!

[WillyFooLiveStudios]

Been looking at his for years and couldn't figure out how. Thank you