Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 23:44 Post subject: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
I purchased 2 Linksys WRT 1200AC routers and successfully updated the firmware to DD-WRT (v3.0-r28788 std (01/13/16)). The first router is successfully running as my main router hooked up to my computer and I'm able to access the internet. The wireless capabilities are also working properly and I'm able to connect using WIFI.
I want to setup my second router as a wireless bridge for downstairs to connect some wired devices to my network. I've followed a few posts that I've found online which were all relatively the same, but nothing seems to be working. Most of the time, I end up not even being able to reconnect to the router. After unplugging for a long time, I'm able to connect to restore to factory defaults.
I'm wondering if there are any different settings I need to do since it's a newer router or with v3 of DD-WRT (most sites I've been following have pictures of instructions referencing an older versions of DD-WRT). Are there any guides or suggestions that anyone can assist with? Anyone successfully get a 1200AC setup as a wireless client bridge?
This is one of the sites that I referenced. I followed both ways with no success.
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 2:16 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
luckwld wrote:
I purchased 2 Linksys WRT 1200AC routers and successfully updated the firmware to DD-WRT (v3.0-r28788 std (01/13/16)). The first router is successfully running as my main router hooked up to my computer and I'm able to access the internet. The wireless capabilities are also working properly and I'm able to connect using WIFI.
I want to setup my second router as a wireless bridge for downstairs to connect some wired devices to my network. I've followed a few posts that I've found online which were all relatively the same, but nothing seems to be working. Most of the time, I end up not even being able to reconnect to the router. After unplugging for a long time, I'm able to connect to restore to factory defaults.
I'm wondering if there are any different settings I need to do since it's a newer router or with v3 of DD-WRT (most sites I've been following have pictures of instructions referencing an older versions of DD-WRT). Are there any guides or suggestions that anyone can assist with? Anyone successfully get a 1200AC setup as a wireless client bridge?
This is one of the sites that I referenced. I followed both ways with no success.
Here are the settings I'm using for my main router. All settings are the same for auth0 and auth1.
Connection Type = DHCP
Wireless Mode = AP
Wireless Network = Mixed
Wireless Channel = Auto
Security Mode = WEB
Authentication Type = Open
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
This is how I have mine setup (see attached pic)... works great! Let me know if you want me to show you any other screens. _________________ Device: Linksys WRT1900AC V1
Firmware: Kong Build 31100 1/8/2017
Kong Links: http://www.desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-MVEBU/
BS Links: ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 20:35 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
vnvjeep wrote:
This is how I have mine setup (see attached pic)... works great! Let me know if you want me to show you any other screens.
That screen looks different than what I have at home. I'll take a look tonight and let you know any other screens I'd like to see. Why do you only have 1 interface setup as a bridge? Is that what I'm doing wrong? Do you have WRT1200AC for both routers? Are you using the same version of dd-wrt?
I have my main router setup with DD-WRT directly connected to my main PC. Then I switch my PC to connect directly to my second router to configure it as a client bridge. After it's done, I try to access the internet and nothing happens. Is there something I'm missing, or is it just not working?
I'm glad to hear that it works and nothing wrong with using these routers, just a matter of getting the settings correct.
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 21:24 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
luckwld wrote:
That screen looks different than what I have at home. I'll take a look tonight and let you know any other screens I'd like to see. Why do you only have 1 interface setup as a bridge? Is that what I'm doing wrong? Do you have WRT1200AC for both routers? Are you using the same version of dd-wrt?
I have my main router setup with DD-WRT directly connected to my main PC. Then I switch my PC to connect directly to my second router to configure it as a client bridge. After it's done, I try to access the internet and nothing happens. Is there something I'm missing, or is it just not working?
I'm glad to hear that it works and nothing wrong with using these routers, just a matter of getting the settings correct.
I'm running this on an old Netgear WNDR4500 which has a 2.4ghz and 5ghz range. I've configured the 2.4ghz to be the AP side for my clients to connect to, and used the 5ghz as the "client bridge", who's only function is to provide a connection backhaul to the main router (WRT1900AC). My WNDR4500 is running an old copy of DD-WRT v24-sp2 (09/16/14) kongac. I think there's a newer version out, but I left it as is, because it was super stable, and didn't feel like fighting with it.
The idea of the bridge is to extend your network, and allow DHCP and other traffic to bridge across back and forth to your main network. So you want to turn off most functionality, except for the specific bridge-related items. There was also some setup that had to happen under Setup -> Advanced Routing, Setup -> VLANs and Setup -> Networking. Like you, I had to thumb through various articles and how-to's before I finally got it working.
Walk me through how you have your AP router configured vs. your main router. Are you using the same wireless security settings and passwords? Things have to match exactly on the client bridge interface.
Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 0:20 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
Attached are 2 images for the settings of my main router and my bridge router. Let me know if anything looks off or what I need to change. I have the same SSID and security settings for both (which are masked in the images).
I haven't done anything to the Advanced Routing, VLANs, and Networking pages under setup. Let me know what needs to go there, or provide some screen shots if you could. I didn't see anything on other pages discussing this so never touched it.
Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 1:31 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
luckwld wrote:
Attached are 2 images for the settings of my main router and my bridge router. Let me know if anything looks off or what I need to change. I have the same SSID and security settings for both (which are masked in the images).
I haven't done anything to the Advanced Routing, VLANs, and Networking pages under setup. Let me know what needs to go there, or provide some screen shots if you could. I didn't see anything on other pages discussing this so never touched it.
Really appreciate all the help.
First thing right off the bat that I see that is incorrect is the Wireless mode on your Ath0 interface on the Bridge router... that should say "AP". Well, one of the two should say "AP" -- kinda depends on which one you want to use as your connection back to your main router... the 2.4 or the 5. Your pick.
Second, since I can't see your SSIDs, make sure that the AP interface on your Bridge router is a unique name. The client bridge SSID should match the same SSID from your main router that you want it to connect to. Also, make sure your SSIDs on your main router are different for the 2.4 and 5ghz ranges. They cannot be the same.
Third, I'm not sure if this will work with WEP. It may... but what I read is that it only works reliably with WPA2-AES. So, you may need to experiment. The other experiment you may want to do is turning off all security (to none), and once you have it working, start enabling security to both routers.
Here's some more settings from my Bridge router:
Setup -> Advanced Routing -> Operating mode: gateway
Setup -> VLANs -> (see screenshot)
Setup -> Networking -> (see screenshot) (note the create bridge portion, and the assigned interfaces)
Security -> Firewall -> SPI Firewall: Enabled (Mine is enabled, however most documentation I've seen says it should be disabled - not sure if it matters).
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 16:10 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
vnvjeep wrote:
First thing right off the bat that I see that is incorrect is the Wireless mode on your Ath0 interface on the Bridge router... that should say "AP". Well, one of the two should say "AP" -- kinda depends on which one you want to use as your connection back to your main router... the 2.4 or the 5. Your pick.
Second, since I can't see your SSIDs, make sure that the AP interface on your Bridge router is a unique name. The client bridge SSID should match the same SSID from your main router that you want it to connect to. Also, make sure your SSIDs on your main router are different for the 2.4 and 5ghz ranges. They cannot be the same.
Third, I'm not sure if this will work with WEP. It may... but what I read is that it only works reliably with WPA2-AES. So, you may need to experiment. The other experiment you may want to do is turning off all security (to none), and once you have it working, start enabling security to both routers.
Here's some more settings from my Bridge router:
Setup -> Advanced Routing -> Operating mode: gateway
Setup -> VLANs -> (see screenshot)
Setup -> Networking -> (see screenshot) (note the create bridge portion, and the assigned interfaces)
Security -> Firewall -> SPI Firewall: Enabled (Mine is enabled, however most documentation I've seen says it should be disabled - not sure if it matters).
Let me know if that helps!
So this is obviously showing my lack of knowledge on how to setup these newer routers. Why would I have separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5? Wouldn't this be creating multiple wireless networks to connect to? So from what I gather, this is what your suggesting:
Would this produce 3 wireless networks (net1, net2, net3)? If that's the case and how these new routers with 2 bands work, what is your suggestion for how I connect to for my WIFI and what should I use for my Bridge (5 vs 2.4)?
I'll make these changes and look at the other settings you shared. Thanks again for all your help.
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 17:33 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
luckwld wrote:
So this is obviously showing my lack of knowledge on how to setup these newer routers. Why would I have separate SSIDs for 2.4 and 5? Wouldn't this be creating multiple wireless networks to connect to? So from what I gather, this is what your suggesting:
Would this produce 3 wireless networks (net1, net2, net3)? If that's the case and how these new routers with 2 bands work, what is your suggestion for how I connect to for my WIFI and what should I use for my Bridge (5 vs 2.4)?
I'll make these changes and look at the other settings you shared. Thanks again for all your help.
That is correct. You will have 3 different networks available in your list that you could connect to. This way it's easier to see which one your device actually connects to. If the names were all the same, your device may pick one based on preference, or strength, or whichever it sees first, and you couldn't force it to pick one over the other. Much less confusion. People typically use some kind of naming convention to indicate what speed it's at. Like net1_5ghz, net2_2ghz, etc... which makes it easier to again, know exactly what you're connecting to.
In my case, my Bridge router has the 2.4ghz range available for people to connect to, and used the 5ghz range to connect back to the router. I figured, if there was a load on the 2.4ghz range, the 5ghz pipe back to the main router would be able to easily handle it. But that is your preference. So this is what mine looks like:
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2016 18:03 Post subject: Re: Setup WRT 1200AC as Client Bridge
vnvjeep wrote:
That is correct. You will have 3 different networks available in your list that you could connect to. This way it's easier to see which one your device actually connects to. If the names were all the same, your device may pick one based on preference, or strength, or whichever it sees first, and you couldn't force it to pick one over the other. Much less confusion. People typically use some kind of naming convention to indicate what speed it's at. Like net1_5ghz, net2_2ghz, etc... which makes it easier to again, know exactly what you're connecting to.
In my case, my Bridge router has the 2.4ghz range available for people to connect to, and used the 5ghz range to connect back to the router. I figured, if there was a load on the 2.4ghz range, the 5ghz pipe back to the main router would be able to easily handle it. But that is your preference. So this is what mine looks like:
Thanks, this is very valuable information. I'll probably setup the bridge to connect over 5GHz like you and use 2.4 for the WIFI. I want the bridge to have the best connection since I'll be streaming Netflix from it.
Knowing this now, perhaps I'll setup the Bridge differently and use WPA2-AES like you suggested and continue using WEP for personal WIFI connections.
Sorry for such a slow reply. I went on vacation and been busy catching up at work. I'm still trying to get my router bridge to work and still unsuccessful. I split-up the two networks like you discussed and using the 5Ghz as the connection to my bridge. I also changed the security to be WPA2-AES as you suggested and still nothing. I'm sure it's something really stupid that I'm missing.
My biggest concern that is causing problems is that my bridge router software keeps "crashing". Not sure if that's the right word to use. When my computer is connected to the router used as the bridge, when I'm in DD-WRT, I only get to work on a couple screens (2 or 3) before my connection stops and I'm unable to view DD-WRT. I have to connect my PC to my main router, open DD-WRT, then switch back to the bridge for DD-WRT will open again on the bridge. Have you ever experienced this? It's very frustrating trying to debug when you can't even get in for more than 20 seconds before it stops. I don't have to unplug the router, just swapping connections resolves it. Like something happens with the browser.
I'm also trying to do the exact same thing with a WRT AC1200, so far have no luck, I've done this long time ago with with old router http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=69846&highlight= I have tried doing similar thing, but nothing seemed to make it work, would be nice to have some pointers.
