Thanks nbpf, I’ve done some looking and learning on the internet last night and as the Core has no wireless receiver (like a laptop) I need to find a go between, but a hardwired ethernet connection needs to be involved as that’s what is available on the back of the Core.
So far I’ve seen one and two box (if I understand correctly) solutions…
As a long term option I would be very surprised if you found this a good option. It may depend on the line speed you are getting, as the phone will keep some of this for itself and only allocate a certain amount for tethering. It may also automatically time out, requiring you to manually tell client devices to reconnect at regular intervals.
For local replay (in contrast to internet streaming services like Qobuz, Tidal, etc.) via your local network (wired and/or wireless) you should not need an internet connection. I guess the Core requires an internet connection only to fetch metadata while ripping. Otherwise, it should work fine on a LAN without connection to the internet.
If you are not interested in internet radio and in internet streaming services, you could set up a LAN for your Core, Chromecast audio and control point using a good router and without an internet connection and take advantage of your provide’s offer for the rest.
That said, I personally would not use a mobile phone as a router at home tout court. Sometimes I have to fall back to this solution (typically, when I visit my parents or when I am on holiday) and I do not like it at all.
If, for whatever reason, your provider or your location do not allow a good wired connection to the internet, you could perhaps consider a good LTE router as an alternative to accessing the internet via mobile phone hotspot.
This isn’t actually quite correct because the Core queues jobs, for example trying again after an unsuccessful lookup, and these are typically processed when the Core isn’t being used. So if it isn’t connected to the Internet then you frustrate this activity.
Also although this doesn’t need an internet connection as such, the Core does need to be connected to the home network so that it can be controlled by a phone or tablet. It will need an IP address for that, so really needs a router to be there all the time. It doesn’t matter for this control activity whether the router is connected to the internet or not, but you do need the router to be happy about the missing Internet and not keep rebooting itself, which does happen with combined router/modems.
Personally I wouldn’t use a tethered mobile phone hotspot connection for this purpose at all, but you could perhaps use a dedicated 4G modem which probably would be much faster than a non-Infinity BT ADSL offering.
Right now my Core is connected to my 2960 switch, so is my NDS. Neither one has an internet connection because my router died (see other thread). I can still play the music off the Core using the NDS remote, and it’s front screen…not sure if this is relevant however.