Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 23:53 Post subject: using bridge mode in a public wifi
Hi All,
does the dd-wrt firmware have an option to do bridge mode from a public access point?
here is my scenario:
I own a small business, I have a credit card machine that uses internet (Ethernet 10MB port) I have signed up to have a booth at a industry show where I hope to sell alot of my products.
The show only offers wireless internet access. I want to use a WHR-HP-G54, load dd-wrt, connect this to their wireless network then connect my credit card machine to one of the lan ports on the WHR-HP-G54. My credit card machine can do either static ip or can pickup a dhcp address.
My best guess is you want "client mode" on your router. It treats the show's internet-connected "host router" as a wireless ISP and creates a private wired LAN you can plug into. It has a good chance of working and a good chance of protecting your credit card machine from others on the wireless side of the network.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of "blah blah" and possibly outdated info in some places of those pages. Use a recent (version 12548 or greater) build of DD-WRT, and client mode does exactly what I say it does. "Client bridge" will also get you connected, but it puts your credit card machine on the same network as every other machine on the wireless network, and do you trust everybody at the trade show, including people off the street who come in with with their laptops?
Read through all steps of any wiki instructions before you attempt them, as many begin with the steps of flashing the firmware itself, which is of course unnecessary if you already did that.
I have used client mode in situations similar to yours (I'm using it now). I started with the router completely reset to defaults, which should be the case after flashing the firmware anyway (30/30/30 reset, right?). Setup is very similar to configuring the ever-popular "internet sharing gateway" for a home office connected to cable or DSL modem, except with the radio taking the place of the WAN wire. The WAN type is typically DHCP in this case. Then after this first setup, if I go to a different venue, I only have to change the wireless SSID and/or wireless security to match the new wireless network I'm connecting to.
Unlike the wiki instructions, I do NOT change anything on the "security" page, i.e. I keep the SPI firewall enabled, etc. because I want to keep the nasty people out. I also don't use any static DNS, as the host network typically handles that just fine. Port forwarding is not necessary for HTTP browser or passive FTP internet access; as far as I know, if your main office router didn't need it for your card machine, you likely won't need it on your client router when on the road.
okay, I have loaded the dd-wrt on and setup following the instructions but it won't route out side of the primary router's subnet.
For testing my primary subnet and wireless network is 192.168.4.x
My secondary with dd-wrt loaded is set to 192.168.50.x
The secondary will connect to the primary and I can ping anything on the 192.168.4.x subnet but I cannot ping anything out side of that. (I can't goto Yahoo.com or whatever)
For testing my primary subnet and wireless network is 192.168.4.x
My secondary with dd-wrt loaded is set to 192.168.50.x
The secondary will connect to the primary and I can ping anything on the 192.168.4.x subnet but I cannot ping anything out side of that. (I can't goto Yahoo.com or whatever)
I think "the instructions" on page http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode are not complete. I never used them myself, so without very careful reading, I can't say what all they're missing or what all they include that's not necessary.
Assuming your client router LAN IP is 192.168.50.1, then try setting its gateway and Local DNS to 192.168.50.1 as well. When it connects to the primary router, the client WAN status page should show a WAN IP of 192.168.4.x with DNS and gateway of 192.168.4.1, assuming your primary router LAN IP is 192.168.4.1.
After you get the client router configured, you need to reset your PC lan interface to DHCP so that it pulls its DNS and gateway info from the client router, which it needs to get on the 'net.
Last edited by modervador on Mon Jan 11, 2010 3:52; edited 4 times in total
What version are you using that is working? Should I downgrade to 12533?
I've most recently used client mode on 13575 and client-bridge on 13575 and 13577 with success. I've also used client-bridge on 13064 successfully, but never tried plain client with that build. But I doubt it's a build issue.
I still don't think your problem is the build. If you're willing to wait a few more hours, I'm going to be changing out one of my routers, after which I'll post the minimal steps it takes me to get client mode running.
I got this working. I ended up loading the mini version of 13064, then configured again, this time I got it to work. The wiki page is wrong when it says use the gateway of the primary router.
I got this working. I ended up loading the mini version of 13064, then configured again, this time I got it to work. The wiki page is wrong when it says use the gateway of the primary router.
Well done. Now I guess you know why I wrote:
Quote:
Assuming your client router LAN IP is 192.168.50.1, then try setting its gateway and Local DNS to 192.168.50.1 as well.
I got this working. I ended up loading the mini version of 13064, then configured again, this time I got it to work. The wiki page is wrong when it says use the gateway of the primary router.
Will you please not that :
when Gateway field is mentionned on Client mode section of the Wiki, this the wan side Gateway.
Gateway and DNs field of the lan section should be set to 0.0.0.0
