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July 14, 2009 4:14 AM Subscribe
Help me set up a wireless network bridge - with a twist
I am trying to set up a network bridge, but reversed from normal. I am defining normal as: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Image:Standard_bridge_large.jpg I have a Linksys WRT54G running Tomato, and a Linksys WRT350N v2.1
Currently my network setup is:
Any transfers from a wireless device to my storage box - wired in to the WRT54G only move at 1.3MB/sec now, since the bridge slows things down.
What I tried to do was the following, keeping in mind my modem has a router function, which I turned on. It logged in successfully to the DSL provider, I could browse the web when plugged in locally.
I'm putting the modem on the other side of the bridge. All the network hardware has static IPs. I was able to connect wirelessly to the WRT350N, get an IP assigned by the modem's DHCP, the gateway was correct, I could resolve DNS, but I could not actually ping anything on the internet, nor get a page to load. (ping google.com came back with Pinging google.com [74.125.67.100] etc. but no pings would actually return. tracert failed as well at the gateway. What am I doing wrong? Am I doing it right and missed a step? Or is this simply not possible?
I am trying to set up a network bridge, but reversed from normal. I am defining normal as: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Image:Standard_bridge_large.jpg I have a Linksys WRT54G running Tomato, and a Linksys WRT350N v2.1
Currently my network setup is:
modem---WRT350N (DHCP) (AP) ~~~~~WRT54G (Bridge)----(various wired devices)
and WRT350N~~~~ (wireless devices)
Any transfers from a wireless device to my storage box - wired in to the WRT54G only move at 1.3MB/sec now, since the bridge slows things down.
What I tried to do was the following, keeping in mind my modem has a router function, which I turned on. It logged in successfully to the DSL provider, I could browse the web when plugged in locally.
modem/router (DHCP) (plugged into local port)----WRT54G (Bridge mode) ~~~~~WRT350N (AP) ---(various wired)
and WRT350N ~~~~ wireless.
I'm putting the modem on the other side of the bridge. All the network hardware has static IPs. I was able to connect wirelessly to the WRT350N, get an IP assigned by the modem's DHCP, the gateway was correct, I could resolve DNS, but I could not actually ping anything on the internet, nor get a page to load. (ping google.com came back with Pinging google.com [74.125.67.100] etc. but no pings would actually return. tracert failed as well at the gateway. What am I doing wrong? Am I doing it right and missed a step? Or is this simply not possible?
are any ports closed on the bridge? are there any rules on these routers? Where is the gateway on this network?
posted by fozzie33 at 7:34 AM on July 14, 2009
posted by fozzie33 at 7:34 AM on July 14, 2009
I don't really have a good understanding of what you're trying to do, but it seems as though you basically want to have two wireless networks joined by a bridge.
One wireless network is the one produced by the WRT350N connected to your modem. Then you have a separate wireless network produced by the other 350N, and you want to bridge the two of them together with the WRT54G in AP mode.
If that's the case then I think it's doable, and I've done something similar only with different equipment. The easiest way to do it IMO is to break the network into two segments each with their own IP block. This makes the routing easier.
So you could have the first 350N dispensing IPs via DHCP in the 192.168.1.0/24 range, and the second 350N dispensing from 192.168.2.0/24. Or whatever you wanted. (I actually recommend that people not use 192.168.1.0/24 anymore, and instead pick some lesser-used range, because it makes it easier to tie segments together over VPNs if you ever want to down the road.)
If you do that, then you just need to make sure that the WRT54G is acting as a router, and that it speaks the same routing protocol as the two 350N's. Generally this is RIP-1 or RIP-2. Typically this is configurable. If you don't have this set correctly, you'll either have to construct routes manually (often a pain if you can do it at all, since many consumer devices don't have an interface for it) or packets won't route from one network to the other.
I think if I were doing this that I might try to make the WRT54G act as "dumb" as possible, and just bridge the traffic, and have the routing done by the 350Ns on either side. However it ought to be possible to put the router separately in the center (handled by the 54G) if everyone is speaking the same language and you construct your subnet masks appropriately.
The subnet masking, by the way, is fairly important, and that will screw things up as well if it's not correct.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:05 AM on July 14, 2009
One wireless network is the one produced by the WRT350N connected to your modem. Then you have a separate wireless network produced by the other 350N, and you want to bridge the two of them together with the WRT54G in AP mode.
If that's the case then I think it's doable, and I've done something similar only with different equipment. The easiest way to do it IMO is to break the network into two segments each with their own IP block. This makes the routing easier.
So you could have the first 350N dispensing IPs via DHCP in the 192.168.1.0/24 range, and the second 350N dispensing from 192.168.2.0/24. Or whatever you wanted. (I actually recommend that people not use 192.168.1.0/24 anymore, and instead pick some lesser-used range, because it makes it easier to tie segments together over VPNs if you ever want to down the road.)
If you do that, then you just need to make sure that the WRT54G is acting as a router, and that it speaks the same routing protocol as the two 350N's. Generally this is RIP-1 or RIP-2. Typically this is configurable. If you don't have this set correctly, you'll either have to construct routes manually (often a pain if you can do it at all, since many consumer devices don't have an interface for it) or packets won't route from one network to the other.
I think if I were doing this that I might try to make the WRT54G act as "dumb" as possible, and just bridge the traffic, and have the routing done by the 350Ns on either side. However it ought to be possible to put the router separately in the center (handled by the 54G) if everyone is speaking the same language and you construct your subnet masks appropriately.
The subnet masking, by the way, is fairly important, and that will screw things up as well if it's not correct.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:05 AM on July 14, 2009
Response by poster: I have put up a network map of the system:
http://imgur.com/Wgaz2.jpg
fozzie33 - I'm not sure what you mean with ports closed on the bridge? I can access the modem's web interface from a wireless client, simply by typing in the assigned IP. I can also get DNS to resolve. I just can't get packets to the internet.
posted by defcom1 at 3:46 PM on July 14, 2009
http://imgur.com/Wgaz2.jpg
fozzie33 - I'm not sure what you mean with ports closed on the bridge? I can access the modem's web interface from a wireless client, simply by typing in the assigned IP. I can also get DNS to resolve. I just can't get packets to the internet.
posted by defcom1 at 3:46 PM on July 14, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by defcom1 at 6:59 AM on July 14, 2009