I have been setting up a Mikrotik map lite this week to accompany me on my regular international flights with WiFi. After a couple of PITA Bluetooth tethering attempts trying to get my mobiles on the WiFi via my laptop, I decided to look into getting a proper piece of hardware to do the trick of letting me pay once for all my devices (laptop, two mobiles and a tablet).

Got it working on a public WiFi, need to experiment with captive portal. I am using a network status check (Netwatch feature) to trigger a recovery mode where if it can’t connect to the target AP, it still ensures the virtual AP is connectable so I can get in and configure it wirelessly. No Ethernet and no messy config reset and recovery. Apparently this can be further improved by reverting to making the mode button activate this fail open mode. Might be sensible, because having no internet doesn’t mean it’s failed to connect, it might just mean you’re over the ocean on the fringe of decent satellite coverage for a few minutes...