Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 22:55 Post subject: Using WRT54G as an ethernet->wireless bridge
Hi all,
Here's my situation:
I'm on a campus network and have a machine running iTunes downstairs that we'd like hooked up to the net to allow streaming songs down to the stereo instead of burning cds. There is no network jack anywhere near the area where the computer is, but there are some in the room directly above it.
I set up my spare WRT54G and got everything connected only to remember that iTunes wont let you share outside the current subnet. Everyone who's sharing would of course be on the WAN side, thus preventing it from working. So I need to get the school's DHCP running through the WRT and out to the wireless clients. Now, there's a problem with that too... The school only lets you have 2 MAC addresses per port, so if it sees both sides of the WRT, things don't work. Oh, and setting a static IP on campus will get the wall jack turned off.
In essence I need the WRT to behave like a switch that does wireless, no routing and no NAT.
I've tried turning off DHCP on both the WAN and LAN sides and connecting the campus net to the LAN side, but that doesn't seem to work.
I think the WET11/54g does something like this, but looking at its description on the Linksys site, it seems I had it backwards and the WET makes wireless into wired. It should work the other way, though, no?
Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 980 Location: Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado
Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 17:52 Post subject:
Ari,
that's what "wireless bridge mode" in dd-wrt does
In your case, it would be equivilent to putting a wireless NIC in the iTunes machine
Read the sticky and the wikki and see if that mode works for you. _________________ linksys GSv2, Gv4, Gv2, GLv1, G-TM, Buffalo wbr2, whr, whr-hp, whr-g125, wli-tx4-g54hp, Moto wr850gp, Alix.3C2
Thanks for the reply, but I don't think client bridged mode is what I'm looking for. I can't use NAT anywhere or else iTunes wont share to the WAN side. Essentially I need a switch that is wireless instead of wired and doesn't take an IP address of its own.
You are trying to plug the school network into the wan port and have wireless clients with dhcp turned off? That won't work because they are viewed as different vlans. If you add the wan port to the Lan side it should work, or you could unplug it from the wan port and into on of the lan ports. Wireless is assigned to the lan by default, so if you connect the school network to the lan port then you should truely have a wireless switch like you want, and your devices will go to your schools DHCP server to get their ips. Oh, and make sure DHCP is turned off on the router like you already did. _________________ *********************
DD-WRT v23SP2
WRT54GS 2.1 @ 216 Mhz
SD Mod w/ 512 MB Card & Dual Serial Ports
It may help if you make a drawing with your installation.
I can't see if you want that the hole school could see your iTunes server or only your local friends connected wirelessly.
If you want to do a wireless bridge between your wired iTunes server and the wired network you need two wireless routers (or one router + one AP). You can use here WDS or Client bridge mode.
Looking to your MAC limitation per Ethernet port (2 MACS) 'Client bridge mode' can be good for you as it behaves clonning the MAC (outside hosts only see the MAC of the router).
If your iTunes server has a wifi card you can use your WRT54G as a simple AP (DHCP disabled) conecting the LAN port to your school network and configuring only two MACs in the filter section to be safe with your limit of 2 MACs per port. Only one more computer can be conected to the router (wired or WIFI) to avoid problems with your school network.
It may help if you make a drawing with your installation.
See attachment, hopefully my mspaint skills are OK .
halvumo wrote:
I can't see if you want that the hole school could see your iTunes server or only your local friends connected wirelessly.
I want iTunes to see the rest of the 128.180.252.x subnet.
halvumo wrote:
If you want to do a wireless bridge between your wired iTunes server and the wired network you need two wireless routers (or one router + one AP). You can use here WDS or Client bridge mode.
Looking to your MAC limitation per Ethernet port (2 MACS) 'Client bridge mode' can be good for you as it behaves clonning the MAC (outside hosts only see the MAC of the router).
Unfortunately, CBM seems to use NAT, which wont work with iTunes, as it only allows connections from machines on the same subnet as the network card on the machine. If I set the G3 to 192.168.1.2, then I can only get iTunes to see machines on the 192.168.1.x subnet. I don't want to have everyone connecting to the WRT if I don't have to.
halvumo wrote:
If your iTunes server has a wifi card you can use your WRT54G as a simple AP (DHCP disabled) conecting the LAN port to your school network and configuring only two MACs in the filter section to be safe with your limit of 2 MACs per port. Only one more computer can be conected to the router (wired or WIFI) to avoid problems with your school network.
This is what I tried and it didn't seem to work. Would I possibly have more success with the standard Linksys firmware?
I should elaborate on my last response. The Cisco switches serving our house are set to remember when DHCP leases go through them and turn off any port where traffic for an IP that didn't get DHCP from said port starts coming through.
EDIT: After reading the above mentioned Wiki page, I see that I'm an idiot. I'll see if I can get the LAN side to pick up DHCP.
In your picture you use WAN port, you must connect your router through a LAN port.
Quote:
EDIT: After reading the above mentioned Wiki page, I see that I'm an idiot. I'll see if I can get the LAN side to pick up DHCP.
Don't be rude with yourself. Using DHCP for IP LAN assignment is not a common configuration. You wont have an easy access to the administration page if you do so (you don't know wich IP has been associated).
A workaroung is to set an static IP. Take in account that this IP is only used for configuration purposes. And this is ussualy done from a host connected directly to the router (switch). Typicaly a switch don`t replicate packets in other ports unless they are related to broadcast or network administration protocols, so with a bit of luck disabling any administration daemons (SNMP,RIP, ...) in DD-WRT your CISCO switch won't see your router.
I would test this firrst using ethereal in a PC connected to your router an see if you can get trafic comming from the static IP to another connected PC using the administration page.
Got it working using the Wiki page and some MAC filtering. Of course, as you said, accessing the router's page is a bit difficult, but I did write down the MAC, so should I need to tweak things, some clever arp work might do.
