I did use two WRT54G..Operating in BRIDGE MODE. THAT would only work briefly as I described. It would NOT maintain a continuous link which would NOT allow me to WAKEUP the remote PC. In theory it will work but in practice it did not. You are confusing my USB Wifi Adapter with this setup. The USB Wifi Adapter was NOT used with the bridge setup. This was real world. Not on paper. AND I insured in the BIOS that the Network card in the PC would stay powered on. I could intermittently get it to work. But either the link would drop or the PC simply would fail to respond after a while. Not a reliable setup. A direct connection was the way to go. However like I said if all you want is an internet connection or network connection while you are there (At distance) then a HiPower Wifi Adapter with rooftop antenna pointed at the router location will give you that.
d0ug wrote:
Your use of the USB adapter is why WOL never worked. When the PC goes to sleep the USB adapter looses connectivity. If you had used another AP configured as a client and hard wired Ethernet to that PC like in that diagram i put together, WOL would have worked.
I am using the following set up: 1900acsv2 as AP and Gtwy. On this router, 2.4ghz is disabled, 5ghz is running. I have 3 routers connected to this on 5ghz, all configured as Client Bridge (Routed). 2x 3200s and 1 1200ACV2. The 2 3200s have 2.4ghz configured for my client connections. The 1200 has 2.4 disabled, and several clients cabled to it.
No clients use 5ghz, only the 4 routers are connected to each other on that channel.
I have NAS set up on one 3200, and have a CIFS share and DLNA running on it.
My network has about 40 clients right now, including droids, kindles, roomba, security cams, a dozen linux servers, couple of windows boxes, handful of rasberry pi's. Very mixed. I telecommute (I'm a Unix engineer for a bank) so network is important to me -stability with DD-WRT has not been a problem for me ever.
I have wireless coverage with this setup over most of 10 acres.
Throughput: One throughput example..real world transfer of an ISO image from a server connected via a wireless PCI card on one 3200....to the NAS on the other 3200, hits right around 65 MB/s. This is fine for my needs, YMMV. I can tighten that up, but I've sacrificed some throughput in order to stretch out range as much as possible.
The major con for this configuration: Reduced bandwidth - but in my setup, that is on the 5ghz channel, so the impact is not important for me. Secondly, it's not a "mesh" type setup......you can't daisy chain. All your Client Bridge's have to be able to touch the "main" AP, so think of it as a "wagon wheel", hub/spoke configuration. It is possible to "flip" from one channel to the next, daisy chaining that way...but that get's hard to maintain and keep track of.
This set up works well for me, I can hit my network from several out buildings, my shop, and the security cams around my property can hit their zoneminder server. The only cabled clients I have are in my office....on the 1200, but that communicates exclusively on the 5ghz bridge channel.
Note: I am not a Linksys fanboy, lol. I was a 54 guy for years, got the 1900...stuck with the chipsets/model similarity - got in deep and just doubled down on them. I seem to have eleminated a lot of my issues by making sure I keep them all on the same DD-WRT version.
I have a WDS setup and I don't see any impact on my network. Speed tests still show 300 Mb up and down which is what I'm paying for. I haven't checked to see if there is any significant impact transferring files host to host over the LAN but most us wouldn't be transferring large files frequently enough to even worry about it. Plus I use openvpn between clients over my LAN and sftp which will slow things down a bit. WDS is working just fine for me. And, by the way, 3 of my routers are WRT3200ACM and one is WRT1900ACSv1. And one of the routers is dd-wrt and the others are openwrt. So, one can mix the different firmware with no problem (that I have noted). I'm not sure but openwrt claims to use 4addr so since those routers connect OK to the dd-wrt router I am assuming that current dd-wrt firmware is using 4addr also. I guess that the bottom line is go with what works for you.
Joined: 30 May 2017 Posts: 582 Location: Rural Manitoba
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 3:47 Post subject: WDS on Marvell
I use a 3200 master communicating with a 3200 at full 160 width, 1900 at 80 which communicates with a 1200. All on 5ghz WDS.
I have tried client, bridged client and other link possibilities but although they can communicate with each other up to 500' none would transfer the MAC address fully which caused me a lot of grief when trying to setup my static list on the master.
It is imperative however that the wds links are between same radio chips, well at least similar.
What I did discover is that my 3200's link flawlessly but 3200 to other wrt's would drop and reconnect every hour. I solved this by entering blank in the key renewal field.
I do have a few Netgear's but they will not link WDS to my WRT's so I have to be cautious to modify the MAC address of anything connect to them. And even though my master is in WDS AP mode any device on the 5ghz can still connect as if it were in AP.
The 3200's work well for my applications which is mostly cameras and sensors/switches throughout the farm. I am on a DSL Internet and therefore there is no way I can tell if WDS adversely affects throughput with such a slow internet.
Not sure if this helps but I would be available to provide other info if you need and I know. _________________ Starlink & DSL -> TPLink TL-R470T+
->
WRT3200acm Master WDS 5GHz 80Mhz CH 100 (+6) r55819
Ath1 2.4Ghz Disabled
99 Static Leases
ExpressVPN
WRT3200acm r55819 WDS Station 5Ghz
Ath1 AP N/G Mixed Channel 11 HT40
WRT1900Ac V1 5Ghz r55819 WDS Station
(Defective, no 2.4Ghz but 5Ghz works great)
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS Station r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT1900ACS SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS-AP r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT54G DD-WRT v3.0-r37305 micro AP CH 6 Mixed - Not in use
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 17:19 Post subject: Re: WDS on Marvell
WENED wrote:
I use a 3200 master communicating with a 3200 at full 160 width, 1900 at 80 which communicates with a 1200. All on 5ghz WDS.
Same here.
WENED wrote:
It is imperative however that the wds links are between same radio chips, well at least similar.
I hate that. I'd like to see it standardized so I would be able to use whatever types of routers I'd like. I was told that WDS is actually a manufacturers extension to the 4addr "standard". I have been able to mix dd-wrt and openwrt firmware and setting all devices to use WDS.
WENED wrote:
What I did discover is that my 3200's link flawlessly but 3200 to other wrt's would drop and reconnect every hour. I solved this by entering blank in the key renewal field.
I haven't checked my logs on a regular basis but I suppose that's happening on my network also. But, no one's complaining so it's a non-issue for me.
WENED wrote:
I do have a few Netgear's but they will not link WDS to my WRT's so I have to be cautious to modify the MAC address of anything connect to them. And even though my master is in WDS AP mode any device on the 5ghz can still connect as if it were in AP.
Same here except some older 5 GHz devices don't seem to be able to connect unless I drop down to VHT80. But I decided to stay with VHT160 and set the older devices to connect to a 2.4 GHz AP.
