You are just doing one wireless hop - right.....
Done a bit of testing myself with the E2500 w/dd-wrt.v24-28211_NEWD-2_K3.x_mega.bin
Client Bridged to a WRT54Gv8.2 -- this is an always on AP within my network ... got 26.83 Mbps down
Changed wifi to bridge to my main router and got 25.93 until I remembered to
take it off G-only and put it on NG-mixed ... then it got 24.21.. humm--- after scraching my head a
bit I finnally remembered to turn wmm support back on in the advanced wireless settings .. that
was my dumbA moment (I turned wmm support off when in G-only mode and actually picked up another
2 Mbps .. but you can't do that and expect N speeds) .. So now it gets 70.33 Mbps down .. that's good.
And just for the heckofit still in CB mode I disable wireless and plug live local network cable
in just to test across its switch and get 96.40 ... so it's good there.
You probably know this but we all forget ---- key things to check for Client Bridge mode ¬
Needs to be in router mode not gateway.
Set its gateway to the device within its subnet that has a WAN connection.
Wireless - set it on NG-Mixed for a N network or G-only for G network -- never 'mixed' and N-only don't work
well -- I have devices that won't connect to a N-only mode dd-wrt router with some builds.
Advance wireless -- I always use preamble =short / shortslot override =short / CTS protection =off / don't overdo
the tx power, although the E2500v1 handles tx power very well it still gets best speed at just enough.
Disable DNSMasq in services tab.
You are just doing one wireless hop - right.....
Done a bit of testing myself with the E2500 w/dd-wrt.v24-28211_NEWD-2_K3.x_mega.bin
Client Bridged to a WRT54Gv8.2 -- this is an always on AP within my network ... got 26.83 Mbps down
Changed wifi to bridge to my main router and got 25.93 until I remembered to
take it off G-only and put it on NG-mixed ... then it got 24.21.. humm--- after scraching my head a
bit I finnally remembered to turn wmm support back on in the advanced wireless settings .. that
was my dumbA moment (I turned wmm support off when in G-only mode and actually picked up another
2 Mbps .. but you can't do that and expect N speeds) .. So now it gets 70.33 Mbps down .. that's good.
And just for the heckofit still in CB mode I disable wireless and plug live local network cable
in just to test across its switch and get 96.40 ... so it's good there.
You probably know this but we all forget ---- key things to check for Client Bridge mode ¬
Needs to be in router mode not gateway.
Set its gateway to the device within its subnet that has a WAN connection.
Wireless - set it on NG-Mixed for a N network or G-only for G network -- never 'mixed' and N-only don't work
well -- I have devices that won't connect to a N-only mode dd-wrt router with some builds.
Advance wireless -- I always use preamble =short / shortslot override =short / CTS protection =off / don't overdo
the tx power, although the E2500v1 handles tx power very well it still gets best speed at just enough.
Disable DNSMasq in services tab.
-Yes only one wireless hop between the WRT110 and E2500v3 and my speed testing is being done on my laptop (wireless disabled of course) via ethernet to the E2500v3
-Did you see my other post about what all I tried while waiting for the files? It's a definite problem only in wireless bridge mode.
-Also keep in mind I had NO problem with speed with my E2500v2 and that was with N-Only setting (didn't know about the N-only issues until mentioned after I started this thread). All of the problem has been in this new E2500v3 that I had to pick up when my v2 died (guessing a problem in the internal voltage regulators. All the lights come on very dim when it's plugged in and that's it.)
-WMM is on in both routers
-I've tried N-Only and NG-Mixed but Leave it on NG-Mixed after checking for differences
-Checklist for wireless client-bridge has been double and triple check each time I setup fresh when moving between builds
-I usually set preamble to auto and shortslot is left to default (auto), CTS protection off, tx power at default 71 (I've tried lowering down to 50)
-DNSMasq off
-Also I've tried both frame burst enable and disable and match the routers' settings but that never makes any difference
I guess I'm ready to install Tomato and try it but I'm needing to know as to be cautious the following:
-Can it be flashed directly from DD-WRT?
-Can I flash back to DD-WRT from Tomato?
I need to know this because I haven't tried going back to stock firmware yet and there's are some warnings on the wiki page about possible problems going to stock with the v3. I need to keep away from those type of uncertainties as much as possible with all this other headache with the wireless bridge speed bottleneck.
Out of curiosity could you post screenshots of your settings in network tab and vlans tab. I noticed some things that are different from when I was running the v2 and since this is a problem in bridge mode I want to check.
-Can it be flashed directly from DD-WRT?
-Can I flash back to DD-WRT from Tomato?
Questions I can't answer with certainty because I don't have the E2500v3.
From what I've seen everyone uses Fractal's build to dd-wrt then to tomato
so that is what I would do.
I have flashed back/forth dd-wrt/tomato but doing so I would certainly
have cleared to defaults first and always give it plenty of time and then do a reset.
Safe practice would be go back to a known working stock build before
changing 3rd party firmware ... but as I just said people are using
Fractal's E2500v3 trailed build to get to tomato
As for going back to stock -- when I want to do that I usually erase the linux kernel
and let the E2500 boot into firmware management mode and load whatever
linksys mess I want ... then again I don't have the E2500v3
I'm on tomato v1.28 now. Support was added for E2500v3 in the v1.23 build so flashing from stock is the way to go.
Couldn't get back to fractal's trailed build and couldn't flash tomato from any other trailed build so had to go back to stock.
Steps from DD-WRT trailed mini version (I was on v24-27858-NEWD-2-K2.6_mini-e2500 only because that was the lowest I had that works on the v3 but should work on any build...thanks to you mrjcd making it available while FTP was down...thanks!...):
30-30-30
Telnet into router running DD-WRT logging in with root and run the erase commands:
Code:
telnet 192.168.1.1
erase linux
erase nvram
Then reboot, go to 192.168.1.1 in browser (duh), and flash stock v3 firmware from management mode.
Then flash Tomato RT-N v123 or higher labeled with E2500v3 (I used v132).
Out of curiosity could you post screenshots of your settings in network tab and vlans tab. I noticed some things that are different from when I was running the v2 and since this is a problem in bridge mode I want to check.
Well Tomato is finally running at full speed with Wireless Ethernet Bridge!
Weird things happened before this and I kicked myself in my ass a couple times during the process. After first flashing Tomato I noticed something that made a light go on in my head. Right there on the main page it shows an icon and what rate and duplex the LAN is connected at. That ended up being a nice feature right off the bat. Well, my laptop showed 10Mbs/Half-duplex. That's where I kicked myself! Snap...I remembered having changed manually the setting when I was trying to revive my v2 E2500! I have no idea if that was the problem with speeds on the DD-WRT firmware, though because the first time I tried to setup the bridge speeds in Tomato were abysmal even after fixing my adapter setting. Plus I haven't been able to test DD-WRT again as I will explain below.
Well...in Tomato the first time, Watching the speed test go through the process speeds would go up and down during each pass and never went over ~5Mbs. After this I tried switching directly back over to DD-WRT and hopefully test out some more when ftp comes back up. The flash went through ok and I 30-30-30 but any change I made the browser came up with connection reset. I also got connection resets when I tried to flash to another DD-WRT firmware.
Sooo...I erased linux and nvram again and went back to stock. Then I updated to DD-WRT using Fractals trailed build. Things looked fine and I hard reset after flashing then went to flash a NV60k build. Connection resets again and reloading the web interface nothing had changed. So I tried the 28211 k3x trailed build. Same thing. I tried every build to flash that should be proper to go to from Fractals build and nothing would flash. I even tried TFTP with no luck. I kicked myself again because I had deleted the original k3x build from my computer that I had originally used before to get from Fractal's build and ftp is still down so couldn't re-download.
Now I figured what the hell and erased linux and nvram again to go to stock and flashed Tomato again but this time I used tomato-E2500v3USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-124-Mega-VPN instead of 132. Plus I didn't mess with disabling WAN, etc before switching to wireless ethernet bridge and just let the interface handle everything as I read on another webpage is all one should have to do. All I did was set my IP and disable DHCP and switched to bridge and voila it worked! My speeds were optimal!
I don't know if it was the different version I used the second time or what because I'm not messing with this anymore tonight LOL. Tomorrow I plan to tinker some more because of my curious nature making me do so...
I do still wonder what the heck happened that caused me to not be able to go to any other build from Fractal's trailed build. I want to try it again but with the build I originally used but have to wait for ftp to get back up. Second I want to try the 132 build of tomato again to see if speeds were bad because it didn't like me preparing some setting manually before switching to bridge. I'm always setting everything I can manually in DD-WRT first before switching to bridge just as a precaution so I know they take. It makes no sense because the things I changed SHOULD be changed anyways when enabling bridge but I'll just leave that one alone because it's working now.
I'm liking the Tomato interface but I'm still a DD-WRT guy but I'm frustrated already with this v3 E2500 so the rest will just be messing around for curious reasons to see if I can ever get DD-WRT to fully work with it. Until then I'll just be saving my Tomato config so when I go play around with DD-WRT again I can come back to Tomato if I have no more luck and plug it back after a fresh flash with the version it was saved from.
Thanks again for all the help mrjcd and Kryptex! I learned a lot these past couple days! I'm hoping to get past the fractal build again when I can download the build I need to make sure it wasn't my adapter setting causing the slow speeds but still it didn't make any difference in Tomato. Hopefully soon I can figure out what is up with the speeds in DD-WRT but all I can do is test...
Good luck to you and I'll leave well enough alone .. with just a couple comments.
I assume you are going to test everything you can get your hands on --- some of us do that
In regards shibby-tomato, I've found the 124 or the 128 builds to be very good on the original E2500.
build 130 & 131 seemed to get sluggish over time on the 5GHz and you could actually load it
down and force a reboot if too much wireless going on. Also the 131 'clear nvram' doesn't work...
it has 'clear nvram' and a 'thorough nvram clear' in the GUI but niether work. I haven't done much
with the 132 build. My openVPN server runs 128 updated across the VPN from 124 and its been good.
NOTE -- since the dd-wrt ftp is back up I deleted the builds I linked to earlier. I really don't
want to serve files to the world for dd-wrt but I did leave the '27858' just for anyone
that might find themselves in need in a bad situation
Do you know what is the flash memory size and processor clock of that device?
Why you replaced the Tomato 132 by the older 124 ?
Have you tried OPENVPN client on the device? Does it work properly on that Firmware (132 or 124) ?
Do you know what is the flash memory size and processor clock of that device?
Why you replaced the Tomato 132 by the older 124 ?
Have you tried OPENVPN client on the device? Does it work properly on that Firmware (132 or 124) ?
Flash memory is 16MB. Processor is 300MHz.
Tomato 132 didn't play nice with the ethernet bridge as I had some download speed issues with it also but didn't play around with that version long enough to see if it could've been the steps I took to set it up. Like I mentioned earlier I didn't try just trusting the automatic settings by just enabling it and not editing anything manually before like I usually do with DD-WRT to make sure everything takes.
I didn't use 124. I used 128. If I remember correctly this was the last version (as of now) with changes pertaining to the E2500v3 mentioned in the changelog. Don't take my word for it I'd have to read the changelog again to make competently sure but I'm pretty sure. With 128 I just enabled ethernet bridge and setup security and it has been running almost perfect. Ethernet bride works. No throughput issues with bridge. OpenVPN works as it should although setup is just a little different than DD-WRT.
The best part is I have 5GHz simultaneous and I can bridge with 2.4GHz and use the 5GHz for access point as wireless range extension! I believe this can also be configured the other way around but I don't have another 5GHz router to test ethernet bridge that way. I've had occasional loss of access point/slowdown on 5GHz channel connecting as extra access point but recently it has stopped having that problem for a while.
It's also known that DD-WRT has problems when the bridge is ran in N-Only mode but with Tomato I didn't notice any problem but my final setting I left it in G/N mixed on my host router (Tomato makes you leave it's setting in mixed when it's the client of the bridge so what mode your bridge runs in is dependent on the host router setting).
One thing to note is I did have issues after applying any Tomato firmware trying to go back to anything else but either stock Linksys, another Tomato build, or Fractal's DD-WRT trailed build. Several posts back I believe I noted what procedures I tried. No other DD-WRT build would flash even when on Fractal's build. The flash would start but the web page would abruptly go blank and reloading the page would see nothing had changed. I haven't had a chance to mess around with that anymore lately.
Thanks, I heard the v3 had bigger flash, that's good to know. I need one --- and to tie two more
of the CPU with it and have a nice box
Yea tomato 131 & 132 not too good on the E2500. As I mentioned ealier I can bring its
wireless to a standstill real easy running either of those builds.
I have been testing WDS with ASUS RTN12D1 using shibby tomato without too much
luck. There is a lot to change from its defaults to get it working well but I
still could never come close to matching speeds of dd-wrt K2.6 builds on it.
My E2500 openVPN server running shibby 124 then 128 (I would never put later build on it)
is flawless. It usually has 12 ~ 20 wireless clients attached at all times but I have
Core USB Disabled to free up resources so it has no 5 GHz .... as for its VPN, that's
mostly only used by 1 ~ 2 people ... usually from a laptop at home in bed to work
in quickbooks at the office
I'm sure could do the same with dd-wrt but this was just so simple at the time ----
I didn't use 124. I used 128. If I remember correctly this was the last version (as of now) with changes pertaining to the E2500v3 mentioned in the changelog. Don't take my word for it I'd have to read the changelog again to make competently sure but I'm pretty sure. With 128 I just enabled ethernet bridge and setup security and it has been running almost perfect. Ethernet bride works. No throughput issues with bridge. OpenVPN works as it should although setup is just a little different than DD-WRT.
I assume you are using this one:
tomato-E2500v3USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-128-Mega-VPN.bin
Does it make any difference if this FW flashed from stock or from Fractals ?
I believe you flashed it from Stock. Right ?
bhuggins wrote:
One thing to note is I did have issues after applying any Tomato firmware trying to go back to anything else but either stock Linksys, another Tomato build, or Fractal's DD-WRT trailed build. Several posts back I believe I noted what procedures I tried. No other DD-WRT build would flash even when on Fractal's build. The flash would start but the web page would abruptly go blank and reloading the page would see nothing had changed. I haven't had a chance to mess around with that anymore lately.
This is a bit weird about Tomato FW for that router.
Have you done any speed test with and without the OpenVPN ?
I assume you are using this one:
tomato-E2500v3USB-NVRAM60K-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-128-Mega-VPN.bin
Does it make any difference if this FW flashed from stock or from Fractals ?
I believe you flashed it from Stock. Right ?
Yes that's the 128 mega build I'm using.
Yes it did make a difference for me. I don't believe I was ever even able to flash straight to the fractal build but you're supposed to not have to. The very first thing I tried was flashing straight back. It did the same thing like was happening trying to flash other DD-WRT builds from Fractal build after had once installed Tomato. Page would go blank and reloading would show nothing changed. This is why I think the problem was caused by Tomato but I still haven't had time to figure that one out. I have the procedures documented earlier here. I erased Linux and NVRAM through telnet to go to stock first. I also tried TFTP but you know I never tried TFTP with only boot code loaded...hmmm
greg80 wrote:
This is a bit weird about Tomato FW for that router.
Have you done any speed test with and without the OpenVPN ?
Thanks
Yes full speed internet speed test (I have 10Mbit) even with OpenVPN service running! I've been wanting to do some various LAN tests as well like simultaneous data transfer speeds through 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Plus go through both plus vpn simultaneous to see how much this baby can handle. I have enough resources at my house to setup dedicated lan transfers through each channel, i.e a pair of PC's for each and maybe run the transfer through vpn over internet from my phone to another PC. Of course running the VPN transfer test at the same time is putting other hardware in the mix but it'd be interesting to actually get some statistical data.
... so it's good there.
