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6.2

 

Concurrent WIFI and 3G on Android – Android Tethering 

Unlike Apple iOS, Android OS does not generally allow for the WIFI radio and 3G radio 
to be enabled at the same time. This means using Airconsole-WIFI from Android (ie with 
our SerialBot app) while simultaneously allowing the Android device to be connected to 
the Internet via 3G/4G is more difficult. 
 
To avoid this limitation the easiest method is to connect to Airconsole using Bluetooth as 
described in the preceding section, however if for some reason Bluetooth is not available 
then WIFI operation while retaining Internet access via the Android devices 3G/4G radio 
is still possible however requires more complex configuration of both Airconsole and 
Android. 
 
The only supported method without rooting the Android device (as at Android 4.4) is to 
use the built in WIFI tethering feature available from Android 2.2 and later. 
 
Under this operation, the Airconsole device will use its AP Client to join to the Android 
WIFI network rather than the other way around. When in this mode the Android device 
then maintains its 3G/4G radio connection and WIFI connection at the same time. 
Android will prefer the 3G/4G network over the WIFI. 
 
Once the Airconsole APClient is connected to the Android tethering AP, access the 
serial port on Airconsole from the SerialBot app, via a telnet connection on port 3696 to 
the IP address allocated to the Airconsole device by the Android. This can be found in 
the tethering settings that lists all connected tethering clients. Alternatively use a 
websockets client or other Airconsole supported protocol. 
 
To make subsequent AP Client connections happen automatically from Airconsole 
without any user intervention, hard code the radio channel that the Android will use its 
tethering WIFI network to match Airconsole 

– ie Channel 1,6 or 11. So long as the 

Android AP is on the same channel as Airconsole, the Airconsole will continually scan 
for the AndroidAP and when available will automatically join it using the same 
credentials as the previous session. 
 
The following screenshots show the Android and Airconsole setup used to achieve a 
reusable tethering configuration. 

6.2.1

 

Enable Tethering on Android 

The following screenshots:  
 

- Enable Tethering 

 

Set tethering to use SSID “AndroidAP” 

 

Set tethering to use password “Android1234” rather than randomly generated 

 

- Set tethering to always use channel 6 

 
On Android general Wireless and Network Settings go to Tethering and Portable Hotspot, 
then enable Portable WIFI hotspot 
 

Summary of Contents for Airconsole

Page 1: ...User Manual Version 2 5 ...

Page 2: ...rver 28 6 Airconsole with Android 31 6 1 Bluetooth Connection on Android 31 6 2 Concurrent WIFI and 3G on Android Android Tethering 34 6 2 1 Enable Tethering on Android 34 6 2 2 Enable AP Client on Airconsole for Android Tethering 37 7 Using Airconsole Serial port with Mac OSX 38 8 Other Airconsole Uses 41 8 1 1 Using Airconsole Serial port with Windows 7 Terminal Applications 41 8 1 2 Connecting ...

Page 3: ......

Page 4: ... Presents RS232 serial ports over Bluetooth 4 0 Low Energy or Bluetooth 2 1 Standard Bridge Wired and Wireless networks together to offer a Pseudo wire Ethernet connection to iPad and iPhone Fully configurable Wireless security IP routing and IP Addressing On demand connectivity to Cloud Service Get Console Private Server Integrated 1800 mAH or 4400 mAH Lithium battery offers 5 12 hours of operati...

Page 5: ...bout 10 seconds Airconsole is fully operational Do NOT use the C position to charge up your Airconsole This position is used for when using Airconsole to charge up other devices Use the R position or Off Position to charge up the Airconsole internal battery 2 Connect the supplied light blue RJ45 Serial Bluetooth cable to the USB port on the Airconsole adaptor and the RJ45 end to your serial device...

Page 6: ...ss to your iOS PC Android device on the 192 168 10 X network By Default the Airconsole DHCP Server does not provide a Default gateway This allows iPad iPhones to retain Internet access while still connected to Airconsole WIFI However in this mode the WIFI connection icon in iOS may stay spinning rather than change to a tick This is Normal Airconsole will still be connected to the iPhone iPad and i...

Page 7: ...al connections If Airconsole WIFI is detected as well as Airconsole Bluetooth then Get Console will default to the WIFI connection as provides for higher speeds To use a supported Redpark cable instead of Airconsole select Cable in the Connect with dialog WIFI Bluetooth 5 The Baud rate and other serial parameters can be modified via the Session Manager either before or after the connection is esta...

Page 8: ...The changes take effect immediately ...

Page 9: ...running OSX version 10 8 or later YES YES NO Windows 7 YES NO YES Windows 8 YES NO Experimental Android Device ie Samsung S3 or later running Android 4 1 or later YES NO YES 4 Airconsole Web Configuration Airconsole has a built in webpage that can be used to change the default settings as well as flash the device with new firmware if required To access this webpage complete steps 1 and 3 of the in...

Page 10: ...using with a terminal that does not fully support RFC2217 extensions Change the IP address of the LAN that Airconsole operates on including disabling the built in DHCP server and enabling DHCP client or static addressing Viewing the device log files Enable Airconsole to act as an AP Client to join an existing WIFI network in addition to its own WIFI Enable Airconsole to concurrently share its seri...

Page 11: ...le with a terminal application that cannot request to change these settings via RFC2217 method they should be modified to the settings required by the serial device on this webpage prior to connecting For applications such as Get Console these settings on this webpage do not need to be changed as the Get Console application will dynamically reconfigure Airconsole s serial settings Baud rate Flow C...

Page 12: ...FC2177 compatible serial terminal server and or a raw IP Serial bridge The default ports for each of these services can be modified on the Advanced Serial Settings page Note that altering the default Com Port Control tcp port from 3696 will require a restart of Get Console app to redetect the changed port and will require modification of windows and OSX driver default configuration The Force Binar...

Page 13: ...port 8080 This port can be changed on this Advanced Serial Settings page Websockets provides a simple and developer friendly method for communicating through a serial port directly from a web page or web application To learn more about Websockets support in Airconsole download the Websockets SDK at www get console com airconsole Developer resources In firmware 2 12 and later Airconsole supports th...

Page 14: ...er the below table Airconsole s Bridge interface Addressing Airconsole act as DHCP Server Notes Static Enabled Default Configuration Use when Airconsole operating outside existing Wired network Use with caution when connected to existing Wired network as Airconsole DHCP server will assign IP addresses to other Wired LAN devices Static Disabled Use when Airconsole should participate in Wired LAN th...

Page 15: ...ted to Airconsole must be in the same subnet as the addresses allocated by any DHCP located on the wired LAN network otherwise Airconsole will not be able to communicate with clients connected wirelessly or via wired LAN We recommend using Static mode in 3 situations 1 When the Wired port is not connected Airconsole is operating in WIFI only mode and will use the DHCP server feature to allocate IP...

Page 16: ...ates a gateway IP address and DNS server then the Airconsole and any client connected wirelessly to AirConsole in this mode will be able to access the Internet via the gateway When working in this mode if the Airconsole does not receive an IP address from the wired LAN DHCP server it will revert to its default Static IP address of 192 168 10 1 24 or if that has been changed by user to the currentl...

Page 17: ...rver running on the Bridge IP interface if it was enabled This is to stop competing DHCP servers existing on the same LAN 4 2 4 DHCP Server Page While the Airconsole Setup page has a static IP address set for the Bridge interface the DHCP Server Mode is enabled by default in the DHCP Server page ...

Page 18: ...does not work with Android devices an AP client tether workaround exists for Android as discussed below Enable DNS Proxy with this option enabled when Airconsole has an AP Client interface enabled along with NAT the Airconsole will act as a DNS proxy to resolve external names to IP addresses on behalf of Airconsole XX WIFI clients This allows these clients to access the Internet via the AP Client ...

Page 19: ... This includes the SSID the security settings and for advanced users the tuning of the radio interface 4 3 1 Basic Wireless The Basic Wireless tab allows for setting the WIFI SSID and the supported wireless protocols The default settings of Airconsole are 802 11 Mode 11b g n protocol support ...

Page 20: ... Antenna equipment 4 3 1 1 HT Physical Mode The following are settings only applicable to 802 11N communication Do not alter these settings unless absolutely necessary Operating Mode Use Mixed mode unless all clients are 802 11N capable Channel Bandwidth 802 11n allows for double width channels ie channel 1 and 6 bound together to improve throughput The default is 20 40 which means Airconsole will...

Page 21: ...bled Open System for WEP based encryption using pre shared secrets This is very weak encryption for use with very old Wireless clients that do not support newer WPA based security WPA WPA2 using TKIP for pre shared key exchange WPA WPA2 using AES for pre shared key exchange ...

Page 22: ...irconsole support WPA2 AES then we recommend changing the security mode to this setting Airconsole does not support the use of WPA2 or 802 1X with certificates 802 1X is supported with just Radius pre shared key 4 3 3 Advanced Wireless The Advanced Wireless tab allows for setting various radio level settings They are provided for wireless experts to tune their Airconsole wireless performance and a...

Page 23: ...led apcli0 This interface operates separately and concurrently with the Wireless1 interface which remains bridged through to the wired LAN port Effectively then the Airconsole becomes a 2 port router that can route between its LAN port the Wired and Wireless1 bridged interface and the AP Client Wireless2 WAN port This means clients such as PC s Mac s iPads and iPhones on an existing corporate WIFI...

Page 24: ... the bottom of the AP Client page Select the WIFI network you wish Airconsole to join which will populate the SSID in the top of page form Complete the password for the selected WIFI network and Apply button Airconsole will attempt to join the selected WIFI network using the supplied credentials Note that as this process often takes longer than 10 seconds browsers such as Safari will often time ou...

Page 25: ...t interface is using default DHCP setting will be shown on the main Airconsole home status page 4 4 2 AP Client Detailed Steps Choose existing WIFI network from Site Survey and press select The SSID Authentication type and encryption method are prepopulated Tick the Enable Wireless Client Mode and add in passphrase Then press Apply ...

Page 26: ...perate on a single channel at a time if the current Airconsole XX WIFI network is on a different wireless channel to the selected AP Client WIFI network the Airconsole XX SSID will shift to the same channel and a popup will appear ...

Page 27: ...to the AP Client WAN interface will be visibile 4 4 3 Access Internet via AP Client Airconsole can NAT the internal LAN through the AP Client WAN interface to allow wireless clients on the Airconsole XX WIFI network to connect to the internet via the AP Client WIFI This assumes that the AP Client WIFI network has Internet access To enable this 2 configuration changes need to be enabled 1 on the AP...

Page 28: ...direct tunneling of its serial port to a Cloud server Get Console Private Server version 1 6 or above Just as in Get Console App the Private Server connection does not preclude concurrent access to the same physical serial port via a terminal client such as Get Console SerialBot etc at the same time Private Server support is activated on the Remote Access tab in the Airconsole web management page ...

Page 29: ...n order to route out to the configured Private Server IP address Airconsole will try every 60 seconds to make a connection to the configured Private Server IP or hostname Note if a hostname is specified then the DNS server that Airconsole is using should be able to resolve the hostname to an IP address If the connection to the Private Server is successful then a session key will be shown in the St...

Page 30: ...cate installed other than the self signed certificate that come pre installed with Private Server Once connected the serial port on the Airconsole can be directly accessed via the Web Console as per any other Private Server shared terminal session Apart from direct interaction with the terminal Private Server also allows the pushing and remote execution of terminal scripts via the Airconsole along...

Page 31: ...ts Bluetooth 2 1 EDR connections to serial ports via our free SerialBot terminal application version 1 7 4 and later To use SerialBot with Airconsole over Bluetooth complete following steps 1 Pair your Android device with Airconsole Bluetooth BEFORE launching SerialBot application ...

Page 32: ...2 Launch SerialBot app and select the serial bt connection type then type in the baudrate databits parity stopbits in format like for example 9600 8N1 to select 9600 baud 8 databits No parity 1 stopbit ...

Page 33: ......

Page 34: ...prefer the 3G 4G network over the WIFI Once the Airconsole APClient is connected to the Android tethering AP access the serial port on Airconsole from the SerialBot app via a telnet connection on port 3696 to the IP address allocated to the Airconsole device by the Android This can be found in the tethering settings that lists all connected tethering clients Alternatively use a websockets client o...

Page 35: ...r than the randomly generated password Also tick Show Advanced Options to hardcode channel to 6 rather than Auto Then save When Airconsole is connected it will show up under Connected devices with the IP address that the Android device has allocated to Airconsole APClient interface This is the address that can be used in SerialBot or other apps to reach Airconsole Serial port ...

Page 36: ......

Page 37: ...n to use SSID AndroidAP Set APClient to use password Android1234 Set Airconsole to always use channel 6 by default On the Basic Wireless page set Airconsole to channel 6 On AP Client page join to AndroidAP with passphrase Android1234 and enable NAT Check AndroidAP is on Channel 6 to ensure auto connection next time needed ...

Page 38: ...nal applications for example Macwise SecureCRT or Zterm that require a kernel mode installed serial port Airconsole can also be accessed directly from the OSX terminal using the screen app that is bundled with OSX For serial port support in OSX download the Mac OSX Kernel mode Serial Port driver from the above page on www get console com airconsole and install the package file If WIFI serial is re...

Page 39: ...oth In this situation select the method required or Auto Auto will default to WIFI as WIFI has better performance than Bluetooth The AirconsoleOSX program will create a NullModem 1 and an Airconsole 1 COM port In your Terminal Application ie MacWise only connect to the Airconsole 1 port ...

Page 40: ......

Page 41: ...o USB port support Simply replace the supplied light blue USB Bluetooth Serial ribbon cable on the Airconsole with a standard USB to mini USB cable and connect to the Cisco USB console port 8 1 3 Connecting to other USB Serial ports While not expressly supported Airconsole s firmware also includes a standard linux USB serial driver that will attempt to negotiate and build serial over USB connectio...

Page 42: ...gs via the small pin hole on the side of the unit that is marked with R 8 2 1 Factory Reset procedure for version 1 x Firmware With the unit powered on insert a paperclip to press the reset button and keep it pressed on until the AirConsole starts blinking red The Airconsole will go through blinking red and then blue and then red again After around 1 minute the air console should be slowly blinkin...

Page 43: ...lue for a few seconds then the Airconsole will reboot Red LED followed by slow blue blinking followed by blue intermittent blinking For Wifi access SSID Airconsole XX where XX is as printed on the back of the Airconsole password 12345678 For Web console Admin username and password are admin WIFI network will be on the 192 168 10 0 24 network with Airconsole set as 192 168 10 1 24 and enabled as a ...

Page 44: ...hone to pick up the Airconsole XX SSID OSX Choose Join other Network then Show Networks to rescan for Airconsole SSID SSID hidden If Airconsole has been configured to hide its SSID then manually join Other Network in iOS WIFI settings and enter Airconsole xx where xx is the value printed on Airconsole device On OSX click Join Other from the Find and join a Wi Fi network dialog box Airconsole power...

Page 45: ...ut cannot connect to serial port in Get Console app USB Serial cable not connected Get Console will popup error if it connected to Airconsole WIFI but there is no Serial cable connected from Airconsole to your serial device Connect cable and retry the connection Get Console needs to be restarted If Get Console was running in the background of iPhone iPad prior to joining to Airconsole WIFI network...

Page 46: ...al device Check serial pinouts or flow control If RX counter shows 0 then check Baud Rate Flow control and also scroll around on Get Console screen as terminal output maybe not where expected on screen When connecting to DB9 serial port on Serial device Pinouts of serial device not correct for RJ45 to DB9 adaptor Try DB9 RJ45 Null Adaptor Often serial devices with DB9 interfaces require a Null Mod...

Page 47: ...performing firmware upgrades 10 100 Ethernet Port Use this port for connecting a to LAN switches to bridge the Airconsole WIFI network into a local LAN or b to Ethernet based management ports on field equipment The port has Auto MDIX detection so can accept normal or crossed over Ethernet cables Micro USB Port For charging up the Airconsole via the supplied micro USB charging cable Factory Reset F...

Page 48: ...ybe faulty d Long Blue Blinking Airconsole is booting version 2 0 e Intermittent Blue blinking Airconsole WIFI network has started and available to connec Battery Indicator Depending on model either 3 or 4 lights indicate the battery charge level 3 or 4 Lights near full charge 4 5 hours remaining 2 Lights 60 90 minutes remaining 1 light 30 minutes remaining ...

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