[goltho]

I've researched for 2 solid days and am much the wiser for it regarding using a second router as a network bridge, connecting into my HG-533 which is my Talktalk router. Despite being reasonably satisfied I understand what's required however - and having tried many times - I've hit the brick wall. My reason for the project is to provide WOL on the server via the ethernet cable attached to the bridge as it obviously won't work via Wireless. I'm hoping the voice(s) of experience will help get me over the **bleep** wall. I have:

* Huawei HG-533 as the main router (192.168.1.1)
* TP-Link WR841N as the second router (192.168.1.2)
* Windows 7 PC (let's call it the server)
* various iPads & iPhones

I've already irrepairably bricked one WR841N after flashing it with DD-WRT (I spent some hours on the 30/30/30 etc. but stopped short of wielding a soldering bolt) although it was initially fine - I believe I may have been impatient during a reboot during one of the settings changes. I tried DD-WRT as I read several times that the standard TP-link firmware doesn't do the job of bridging. However, I've since read that it does. Hmm.

Here's what I've done, forgetting about the DD-WRT bit as the replacement WR841 has standard firmware v8 :-

a) Ensured both routers are on the same subnet (192.168.1.x)
b) WR841N has:-

* i) a static IP
* ii) DHCP disabled
* iii) WDS bridging enabled
* iv) wireless settings matching the HG533 including security, channel & password
* v) mode set to 11g only

c) HG533 DHCP allocates 192.168.1.11 - 192.168.1.120
d) Server has a Wireless USB dongle and a RealTek LAN controller. I do not normally use them concurrently.
e) Server has static IPs (192.168.1.3 wireless, 192.168.1.4 wired) and gateway (192.168.1.1, the HG533) via TCP-IPv4.

Successes:
1) I can connect to the WR841N from the server via either adapter.
2) The HG533 sees the WR841N when the WR841N's wireless channel matches the HG533's.

Failures:
1) When the wireless network names match on each router, the iDevices cannot connect (to the one WiFi network which shows up). When the network name on the WR841N is changed to a different one, they can.
2) Under any circumstances, I cannot connect the server to the internet through the WR841N either on wireless or wired.

There have been some threads stating that the wireless channels should be different, and some stating the same. As I "only" need to have the HG533 squirt a WOL magic code to the WR-841, I'm guessing that they will have to be the same. However, that currently means no other device can connect to the HG533 wirelessly, as above.

I've not started on WOL yet as clearly I need to have the network working as it should.

The arp -a results on the server are:-

Interface: 192.168.1.4 --- 0xa
Internet Address Physical Address Type
192.168.1.2 64-70-02-eb-xx-xx dynamic
192.168.1.255 ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff static
224.0.0.22 01-00-5e-00-xx-xx static
224.0.0.251 01-00-5e-00-xx-xx static
224.0.0.252 01-00-5e-00-xx-xx static
239.255.255.250 01-00-5e-7f-xx-xx static

Interface: 192.168.1.3 --- 0x16
Internet Address Physical Address Type
192.168.1.1 4c-8b-ef-e6-xx-xx dynamic
192.168.1.16 b4-82-fe-61-xx-xx dynamic
192.168.1.90 e8-ab-fa-0a-xx-xx dynamic
192.168.1.91 e8-ab-fa-0a-xx-xx dynamic
192.168.1.255 ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff static
224.0.0.22 01-00-5e-00-xx-xx static
224.0.0.251 01-00-5e-00-xx-xx static
224.0.0.252 01-00-5e-00-xx-xx static
239.255.255.250 01-00-5e-7f-xx-xx static

IPCONFIG /all resutls are:-

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection 4:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8188CU Wireless LAN 802.11n
B 2.0 Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0B-81-89-xx-xx
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.3(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 90-E6-BA-BB-xx-xx
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.4(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

I'm prepared to try DD-WRT again, but only if/when I am 100% confident I know what I'm doing, and more importantly, why.

If you've read this far, respect. Any help will be much appreciated.