Converting a wireless router into an Access Point

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erehwon6811

Limp Gawd
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Aug 5, 2004
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I have an extra xbox I plan on modding with xbox media center soon. The spot I'm planning on placing I can't get a ethernet cable to, so I'm looking at wireless. I have an extra wireless G router and I was wondering if I could use it as a wireless access point for the xbox. I would have to disable a few things like DHCP, NAT, and a few others. I'm just wondering if this would work and how well it would perform for watching recorded TV shows over the network? Our wireless network is only used if we get out one of our laptops.
 
erehwon6811 said:
I have an extra xbox I plan on modding with xbox media center soon. The spot I'm planning on placing I can't get a ethernet cable to, so I'm looking at wireless. I have an extra wireless G router and I was wondering if I could use it as a wireless access point for the xbox. I would have to disable a few things like DHCP, NAT, and a few others. I'm just wondering if this would work and how well it would perform for watching recorded TV shows over the network? Our wireless network is only used if we get out one of our laptops.
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What you are really looking for it sounds like is a Bridge. Check to see if your router supports this or perhaps you can get third party firmware that would allow it too. Otherwise I know they carry the game bridges at Circuit City and I am sure they would have them at Best Buy as well.
 
some wireless routers can be converted into AP, login into them and disable the dhvcp then hook up network cable from your wired router/switch to one of the LAN ports( not the WAN port) on the wireless router. I know it works with most netgear routers not sure about others.
 
I have actually have two extra routers, a dlink and a netgear. I was wanting to use one of them this way so I could avoid one of those game bridge devices. I've seen them at Circuit City and Best Buy, but they cost around $100 and never go on sale.

I'm thinking I might just try this on one of my routers over the weekend. I can then hook it up to the xbox I have already modded. If it works, I'll use it on the other xbox I'm going to be modding.
 
I have 2 netgear wgr614, both have dhcp turned off and are just wireless access points

make sure the router has a static IP on its lan interface, then turn off the DHCP on it.

just plug devices into the LAN ports...nothing into the WAN port.
 
*Edit: I've reread this a few times. It's 4AM, so I still could be getting it wrong. If so, sorry, my bad.

So do you want the spare router to act like one of those game bridges you mentioned? If so, what you want is to be able to turn the router into a client or client bridge, rather than a second access point. If you have a router than can run custom firmware like DD-WRT, this is a pretty painless process. Just connect the router up to a computer first, configure it to act as a client or a client bridge, and set it to connect to your standard AP. Bring the router out to the living and and hook it up to the XBox and voila. I did this for a year when I lived in an apartment who's only source of Internet was a really crappy wifi network and I had no wireless card in my desktop (the wifi network was owned and operated by the university, I wasn't stealing a neighbors connection, don't worry :p). If the router does not support custom firmware, chances are pretty good this won't help you any unless you have a higher-end wireless router.

If you just want a second access point that will allow you to connect your PC and XBox together once in a while and don't mind the fact that you won't be able to browse [H] while streaming videos to/from the XBox and laptop, then you can just set up the router as a standard access point. You probably won't even need to do any real configuration changes. Just make sure the XBox is in a LAN port and not the WAN port. . .

Alternatively, if you need to connect it to just a laptop and not a desktop in another room, use a cross over cable. No need for even the router/ap.
 
Home broadband routers always have static LAN IPs..I think I've yet to come across one that has an "obtain auto" option on the LAN interface.

You want to make sure you give it a LAN IP..that is in the same IP range as your primary router....but you'll have to change the last octet.

By default most home broadband routers come ending in a .1. Lets say you take 2x Linksys routers..or a Linksys and a newer Netgear router. By default, out of the box, they will both be 192.168.1.1. If you uplink them using the LAN ports...your network will have some fun..and you wont go anywhere. Uhm...IP conflicts. Or..if you have a Linksys..by default 192.168.1.1, and an older Netgear...192.168.0.1 by default..and you uplink them..you wouldn't have an IP conflict...but you wouldn't be able to manage your Netgear "access point" either..it's still in a different IP range.

What I do, is make my "router converted into an access point" in the same IP range as the primary router, but over on a standard access point IP address....a common one is .245. So if your primary router is 192.168.1.1, make the "router being flipped to an access point" 192.168.1.245. Or some IP address up high there that won't be handed out by DHCP conflicting in the normal DHCP pool.
 
I don't think either of my extra routers can run custom firmware like that DD-WRT. I have a Dlink DL-624 and a Netgear WGR614v5. One other thing that came to mind is our home network's wireless settings. Our router, which I think is the first version of the netgear I mentioned, is using WEP. I was just messing around with the wireless setting in the wgr614v5 and it doesn't look like I can enter a key from the home router.
 
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