In my last blog I stated that an Alfa router (at least the one I'm using, an R36A) won't recognize a non-Alfa USB adapter (a Panda PAU06 adapter in my case) if you're trying to modify the extener mode settings that already exist. Hurricane Ian destroyed the Alfa adapter I was using, and I replaced it with a Panda adapter I had lying around. The Panda adapter has been working just great, but I had already set the extender mode to utilize the satellite internet signal. When I tried changing the ssid used by the extender mode to the one produced by the T-Mobile modem, the Alfa router told me I needed to insert a a USB wi-fi adapter. The Alfa router recognized the Panda adapter for receiving a signal, but wouldn't let me modify the extender settings.
I ordered an Alfa AWUS036NHA adapter from Amazon and got it in just a few days. I climbed back up to the roof of my house, removed the Panda adapter, and replaced it with the Alfa adapter. Next, I opened up a web browser on my tablet (the one I took with me to the roof) and went to 192.168.36.1 (the ip address of the Alfa router). This time I was able to add the ssid of the 2.4 GHz line I had added to the T-Mobile modem (see my last blog if you want to see how I did that), disable the the satellite internet ssid, and enable the T-Mobile 2.4 GHz ssid. Since all of my devices using my outside wi-fi antenna are expexting a wi-fi signal of the form 192.169.36.xxx I don't have to do anything with those devices; they don't have to know that the wi-fi signal originates from a T-Mobile modem.