wired wireless access

[lilshawn]

i'm having some issues setting up a wireless bridge. I keep googling and I keep getting conflicting information. I don't know if i'm using the term properly or people just don't know what the hell it is.

I have a pre-existing wireless network that i would like to connect a wired only electronics to. I have no wired access to the area.

I have a Belkin "F5D7230-4" router that supports both "wireless bridging" and "wireless access point" amongst other things.

the existing network is (at the core) an Actiontec V1000H http://www.actiontec.com/products/product.php?pid=191 dsl and router in one unit.

I did find this http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/37 that shows how to set up the bridging, but it seems like it's missing a bunch of information or a step or something. there's no explanation of how I need to set up the existing network or what. seems to me the instructions are telling you to open up the router and point the bridge to it's own MAC address 

the other information iv'e googled up about wireless bridging appears to be idiots just extending the wireless network by patching another wireless access point into a LAN port on the existing network which isn't bridging at all.

i'm still searching to see if there is some kind of dd-wrt or something that i can flash to this belkin router to make things easier.

any ideas or insight?

[Samstag]

Use the wireless mac address of your actiontec router when setting up the belkin, or just select the option to enable bridging without a specific mac address.

[lilshawn]

but since i have no way to put in security information for the existing wireless network into the belkin, am i going to have to change the existing wireless to an open network, then allow access through the MAC addresses of the wireless things that need connecting??

[Samstag]

If the belkin doesn't have any settings for connecting to a 3rd party secure network then it's not going to be able to do the job.  It sounds like the bridging is a proprietary thing that may only work with other belkins.

Can you put tomato firmware on it?  I'm pretty sure that would give you real bridging..

[lilshawn]

yeah i'm thinking it's some proprietary bridging.

i'm currently searching for an open source firmware i can load on it. Apparently dd-wrt is out not sure why... some older versions of this router can load it but not this revision. they probably shrunk the memory size.

still lookin tho

[shmokes]

Be careful. I didn't click any of your links but wireless bridging can mean two very different things, and more often than not, the bridging you're looking for is not the kind of bridging that is commonly included as a feature in routers.

The kind of bridging that routers frequently do is creating a mesh between the wireless ranges of two distinct routers, effectively extending your wireless range. It allows a wifi device to move seamlessly between two routers without having to re-authenticate. This isn't what you're trying to do.

The kind of bridging you're trying to do is totally different and typically requires a device frequently called an Ethernet bridge. It's also frequently called a "gaming adapter", since one of the most common uses was connecting the original Xbox to a wifi network, since that console was serious about internet, but had no built-in WiFi.

[lilshawn]

thanks shmokes, that helps. Like I said, I wasn't sure i was using the correct term for what it was i was trying to achieve. some of the info i found was, and others was not. wasn't sure.

seems like the actual bridging of a network is like you say, extending the wireless network. the ethernet bridge... the "bridge" part is kind of a misnomer that is really throwing things off.

alright, now that i know what i'm looking for, i can try and get things squared away.

First things first, i'm thinking i'm going to need to find a router I can install a custom firmware on to get the ethernet bridge i'm looking for.

[shmokes]

Or just get an device already made to do it, like this or like this. At $30-$40 it seems like you're not likely to get a much better deal on a router, and it'll probably be a lot less headache.

BTW, I think I may have an 802.11b wireless Ethernet bridge floating around somewhere, if you don't need any serious amount of throughput. If you're interested I'll take a look. I'm not sure whether I still have it.

[HaRuMaN]

I use networking over powerline at my house.  Love it.   

[ed12]

hi
i do rem we did that witha d-link wd467 or such
mind my mem on the model #'s but that is exactley what we did

ed

[lilshawn]

Thanks for your help guys,

I just happened to have this belkin hanging around as an extra unit. I figured if I could get it to work as a bridge, that would have been great. (it actually would have been able to run DD-WRT if it was an earlier revision but they chopped the flash memory size down to next to nothing in this later revision so it won't fit.)

No worries, I'll keep my eye out at garage sales and swap meets now that I kinda know what I'm looking for.

[Gray_Area]

I use networking over powerline at my house.  Love it.   

You mean that 'plug into your power socket' dealie?


I just have a Q1000Z, and now, somehow, that the kinks are out, is working awesome. Wired for my main stuff, wireless for my laptops/phone. Killer bandwidth.

[HaRuMaN]

I use networking over powerline at my house.  Love it.   

You mean that 'plug into your power socket' dealie?

That's the one...  have the one plugged into the router, and then wherever I need internet access, I plug another box in.   

[lilshawn]

wait wait wait what? how does this work? does it actually transmit through the power line or is it some kind of wireless connection between the boxes?

what kind of speeds can we achieve with this?

Who is the maker of the one you are using Haruman?

[shmokes]

Yes, it works through the power lines, and speeds are very good. Much better than WiFi. I've used one made by Belkin before and it was very easy to set up. Very nearly plug and play.

[HaRuMaN]

Yeah, I has having issues with WiFi in my house (2 stories) and got tired of messing with it.  The ones I use are NetGear.  I'm not sure of the data rate, but I got the cheap ones, and they are fast enough to stream HD video with no hiccups.

[BadMouth]

I have an old powerline adapter made by slingbox.
I like how mindless setup is with these things.
Literally just plugging the boxes in and connecting the ethernet cables.
Haven't used it since moving to a place with big holes in the floor.    
I was thinking about putting it in the current cab build.

They released a patch for it to prevent someone from gaining access to your computer through the electrical grid,
but I think it was one of those things that is theoretically possible but never actually happened in real life.

[ark_ader]

The Power-line has protection similar to WPA.

I had two Buffalo G54A Routers MAC bridged before moving to the Power-Line.

Performance is like night and day.  Works fine with extensions and filters too.

Heck I remember the early Power-line wall warts that just shared your 33.6 modem connection.

[ed12]

pbj
u own to many pinball's

ed

[Mysterioii]

Just don't combine networking-over-powerline with power-over-ethernet or you might cause a rip in the space-time continuum...

I've never trusted the house wiring networking stuff but that's probably because I've been around too many brown outs.

I haven't messed with it myself but maybe I should...  IIRC it basically floats some relatively low-level noise on the lines so theoretically it's only looking at the high frequency component and is completely independent on the magnitude of the 60Hz component, meaning dips or dropouts of the mains voltage should be invisible providing your devices are all on battery...  At least I'd like to think they designed it that robustly, I've got no first-hand experience with it...

[kahlid74]

What you're trying to do is not tough, but it requires the right adapter as people have mentioned above.  I've had great success with these adapters (www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wireless-N-Access-Bridge-WNHDE111/dp/B00126V3EI/) but they are no longer made.  If you do decide to bridge push to use the 5Ghz band as long as the distance/object in the way aren't too much.

I'm not a fan of 802.3U.  Especially in an older house where the power lines aren't uniform.  I prefer to either run a new cable to the said location or make sure I've got wireless to said location.  I think people abandon wireless because everything the industry tells you makes it out to be child's play when it can actually be quite complicated.  Reflection, Refraction, Absorption, distortion, channel overlap, devices sending interruptions with CSMA/CA causing all devices to halt, older devices connecting and reducing all connected devices speeds to their speed, etc.  If you're having wireless issues I would pick up a wireless card that allows for promiscuous capture and run a few tests to find out what your issue is.