[mdack80]

Hello, I was hoping to get a little bit of advice on which wireless bridging option I should go with. I have read the wiki's on WDS, Wireless Bridge, and Repeater Bridge and just can't figure out which one is the best for my situation.

Previously, I was running WDS with this same setup, but with v24 rc?. It worked fine for 6 months and then decided to stop working, so I figured it was a good time to upgrade the firmware on both routers and start from scratch. I was running WPA2 Personal Mixed TKIP+AES with the WDS setup, and would like to maintain at least that level of encryption. (Although it seems as though this encryption wasn't supposed to work...still don't understand this since I connected a laptop and PSP wirelessly)

My Equipment:
Linksys WRT54GS v6 with DD-WRT v24-sp1 (07/27/08) micro - build 10012
Linksys WRT65GS v5 with DD-WRT v24-sp1 (07/27/08) micro - build 10012

My Setup:
My internet connection (16/1) comes into my home office which is located upstairs. I have the WRT54GS v6 connected to my cable modem and my main computer and a printer wired into the router. I will occasionally connect a laptop to the network upstairs in the home office wirelessly. My XBOX 360 sits downstairs in the living room and is wired into the WRT54GS v5.

Previously, with WDS I was getting a link between 24 and 36 between the routers, but it would also drop lower. This has forced me to put HD videos on a thumb drive in order to play them without problems on the XBOX/Big Screen downstairs...which is a problem I would like to solve. My goal is to maximize bandwidth between the XBOX and my main computer/ the internet.

I have read that Repeater Bridge and WDS and any other type of Repeater halve the bandwidth of the connection...but I have read opposing views of what it does to clients wired into the routers. I have also read that different bridging techniques seem to provide better bandwidth (i.e. "it seems faster with Repeater Bridge than with WDS).

With the WDS setup, I had assigned the XBOX 360, main computer, and printer static IP's so that it was simple for me to forward ports. I don't want to run uPnP for security reasons. I have read that Repeater Bridge will perform a MAC address translation, which will pose issues when I need to connect more than one XBOX into the network downstairs. Also, it's worth mentioning that I can connect a laptop downstairs to the router upstairs at 36 while sitting on my couch in front of the XBOX/ Big screen. Therefore, it doesn't seem necessary to use the router downstairs as a wireless access point.

Please, help me decide which bridging option would be best for my situation ;o)

[soulstace]

[mdack80]

The issue with Wireless Bridge is that, from what I have read and understand, only fully supports one client behind the bridge due to a limitation in the 802.11 protocol. Also, from reading about the Client Mode...it puts the client onto a different subnet. Therefore, would my computer still be able to talk to the XBOX and successfully initiate a Windows Media Center session given that they are on different subnets?

[olmari]

QDS is your only option if you want to have all your devices in same LAN-segment...

Also every kind of wireless extension huts bandwidth by half for every wireless client... So 2 WDS nodes talks to eachothers as 54mbps, hence every wired client will go as fast as wlan can carry, but wireless device can use optimally half of 54mbps if it goes trough WDS node (or by any other wireless extension)...

Then again if at all possible wired connection is allways best solution...

[rseiler]

I wish there was something that concisely delineated the several different repeater and client modes on one page. I've been all over this page, and I still can't figure out which is best for me (and the comparisons subsection doesn't help):
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_Routers

Nothing that complex: two WRT54GL's (v24 preSP2)

The vast majority of my needs are served by the main router (several PCs variously wired and wireless).

The second router, which is in a different part of the house, would serve only about two PCs but must also be able to handle wired and wireless connections. I don't yet know if these machines would ever need to be able to connect to resources on the machines of the first router (or vice-versa), but that would be nice.

So which of the five or six different configurations makes more sense and why?

The only one I've eliminated is Wireless Bridge, since it apparently doesn't support wireless connections to the second router.

I'm tempted to use Repeater Bridge, but only because it seems to have the most active article.

[olmari]

As said, WDS would do quite nicely, covers wired and wireless both and it's most "transparent" too: one big LAN-segment no matter wired or wireless at any of your location...

[rseiler]

OK, but that's one of the things that's unclear to me: Repeater Bridge looks to all be in the same subnet as well and apparently handles wired/wireless. Is it doing effectively the same thing as transparently as WDS?

Since Repeater Bridge is a lot newer, and newer is usually better, is it seen as a replacement for WDS?

[olmari]

Well practically the dofforence you will see there is that with WDS your WLAN is "one", I mean you can use any wireless device and move around and not notice anything when access point changes... While with repeater bridge you need to use diffirent SSID? (I'm not sure actually). Also afaik repeater bridge still ins't that transparent, it can't pass all clients MAC-numbers to main router etc, which can give problems... Anyways someone with more knowledge about repeater (bridge) can sort this out...

WDS is afaik only truely transparent in a way where every clients MAC-address is directly known by main router and WDS link is direct equivalent to wired switch.

And there are no "newer is better" here, something is better for one, something else for second... WDS isn't gotten slow even when it is invented years ago and repeater bridge can't be any faster than other solution, wireless G max is that 54mbps...

And I say WDS is most "natural" solution for you for your own network and usability.

[mdack80]

Looks like I will be going back to WDS then. And here I thought I was going to get a chance to play with a new setup. That is, unless there is anyone else that can say there is a better solution.

[soulstace]

I don't know about this wireless bridge limitation you speak of (only one client?). That is not what the picture in the wiki article conveys. If this is true, the tutorial needs to be revised.

I would have recommended WDS as well, but you seemed to be having issues with it.

@olmari
With repeater bridge, you can use the same SSID as host AP. It's stated in the tutorial, and confirmed.

But I still agree to go with WDS instead of Repeater Bridge, for transparency.

[sufrano63]

[mdack80]

Why would the wired throughput using a Repeater Bridge setup be faster than the throughput using a WDS setup?

Also, is there a way in WDS to prevent clients from wirelessly connecting to the second AP (the one not connected to the Cable Modem)?

@solstace:
Take a look at the Wireless Bridge Wiki located here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge

Towards the bottom of the screen there is a section called "Limitations" that outlines this.

[soulstace]

[mdack80]

Well, I would think that the "Limitations" section is correct since there is an accompanyiing 15 page forum discussion on the issue. But, to tell you the truth I only know what I read :/

[rseiler]