bridge 2 wireless routers ddwrt

J

jcmuse

Limp Gawd
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Feb 10, 2006
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i have 1 wireless linksys router currently. i have an xbox with XBMC installed in the living room that i would like to give access to the internet. Instead of buying some sort of xbox wireless adapter, i'd like to just pickup another linksys router, load it with dd-wrt (as well as the other one) and then bridge the two, so i can then plug in the xbox with a network cable to the 2nd router.

I have heard this is possible, but not sure how well it works in practice. anyone have any experience or possibly a guide?
 
do youself a HUGE favor and go with tomato firmware instead of DD-WRT... Same wireless bridging capabilies with more stability, functionality and memory efficiency. Trust me, I've tried both and nothing out there beats Tomato on wrt54g(L/S) routers. It's leaps and bounds ahead of DD-WRT with its great web interface, AJAX real-time bandwidth monitoring, and excellent feature set. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

I use the same setup you have, 2 linksys routers each with tomato firmware. Set up one router as an access point and the other as a wireless ethernet bridge. Connect the xbox w/ XBMC to the '54g set as the wifi bridge to one of its 4 lan ports. Should work no problem is DHCP is set up correctly (usually automatically done).

Here's another great resource if you're aprehensive: http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=160
 
is it possible to use one in router mode instead of as just an AP?

ah nvm i think.. i just saw the virtual GUI.. looks simple enough, thanks
 
I believe you can... there's lots of options I have not tried. Here's some screens:
tomato2.jpg

and
tomato.jpg
 
plinko said:
do youself a HUGE favor and go with tomato firmware instead of DD-WRT... Same wireless bridging capabilies with more stability, functionality and memory efficiency. Trust me, I've tried both and nothing out there beats Tomato on wrt54g(L/S) routers. It's leaps and bounds ahead of DD-WRT with its great web interface, AJAX real-time bandwidth monitoring, and excellent feature set. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

I use the same setup you have, 2 linksys routers each with tomato firmware. Set up one router as an access point and the other as a wireless ethernet bridge. Connect the xbox w/ XBMC to the '54g set as the wifi bridge to one of its 4 lan ports. Should work no problem is DHCP is set up correctly (usually automatically done).

Here's another great resource if you're aprehensive: http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=160
Click to expand...

The bridging in dd-wrt has never worked for me but using it as a repeater works just fine.

Follow this tutorial the only difference between this and bridge that I can tell is that the second router is on a different subnet. So your main router will be something like 192.168.1.1, and the second router will be 192.168.2.1. You can plug pcs and xboxess into the repeater's lan ports and they work fine on the internet. You just got to do a little extra port forwarding. It works just the same as a bridge just on a different subnet.

Edit: Tomato also doesn't work on the newest wrt54g's so he would have to buy the more expensive GL, I'm using two "gimped" v6 54g's and they work just fine (except I could never get a wireless bridge to work, but wireless repeater works perfect).
 
yeah ive got a v6 :(

munkle dont u have to use a mini version of dd-wrt? if so, i guess i can assume that it still maintains wireless repeater functionality?
 
Please, my intent is not to thread jack.

I am in a similar situation.

I would like to upgrade my existing router to the DLink router (DLG-4500) and use my Linksys with DD-WRT as a an access point? as repeater? as a virtual router? Help, what is the correct term?

To the Linksys router I would like to hook up my Tivo and Playstation and maybe an upcoming Mac Mini.

Is this feasible with two different brands and such?

I will look into Tomato, sounds better and easier. Win win.
 
jcmuse said:
yeah ive got a v6 :(

munkle dont u have to use a mini version of dd-wrt? if so, i guess i can assume that it still maintains wireless repeater functionality?
Click to expand...
Yes, the repeater works just fine with the micro builds (mini is for another router).

Liver said:
Please, my intent is not to thread jack.

I am in a similar situation.

I would like to upgrade my existing router to the DLink router (DLG-4500) and use my Linksys with DD-WRT as a an access point? as repeater? as a virtual router? Help, what is the correct term?

To the Linksys router I would like to hook up my Tivo and Playstation and maybe an upcoming Mac Mini.

Is this feasible with two different brands and such?

I will look into Tomato, sounds better and easier. Win win.
Click to expand...

Setting up dd-wrt as a repeater is very easy, just follow the tutorial and you can use the linksys as a repeater and the other as your main router.
 
Avoid repeater modes if you don't really need them -- they use up bandwidth. DD-WRT's client bridge mode has worked fine for me. v24 even supports the WRT54G v7 and v8.
 
Madwand said:
Avoid repeater modes if you don't really need them -- they use up bandwidth. DD-WRT's client bridge mode has worked fine for me. v24 even supports the WRT54G v7 and v8.
Click to expand...

Yup..when in repeater mode...50% of bandwidth is lost just due to the repeating function.
 
Madwand said:
Avoid repeater modes if you don't really need them -- they use up bandwidth. DD-WRT's client bridge mode has worked fine for me. v24 even supports the WRT54G v7 and v8.
Click to expand...

Id use the bridge mode but it doesn't work for me on the two version 6 wrt54g's that I have.
 
DD-WRT running on a compatible router in client bridge mode should in theory be able to connect to any wireless router or AP running in a standard-g compatible mode. (As well as support a number of other configurations.) However, there are sometimes issues with configuration and wireless security, particularly WPA2 with mixed mode. However, I've just set one up running WPA2 with the main router running WPA/WPA2 mixed and it's been fine.

A simpler alternative is to get a device which comes with client mode wireless bridging capability out of the box. The Buffalo WLI-TX4-G54HP for example (but this is currently very hard to find). The Netgear WGPS606 as another -- this is currently available as a refurb off eBay and elsewhere for around $30. Its main weakness in this regard is that it only supports WPA, not WPA2.
 
thanks guys, got bridge mode up and running w/ a v6 wrt54g and v1.1 wrt54g. works very nicely (both using dd-wrt) :)
 
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