Router for wireless bridge

[J-Wo]

Hey guys, I'm looking at getting a router that will run DD-WRT or Tomato firmware to act as a wireless bridge for some of my electronics. I have an LG BD360 Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, and Samsung LN46B750 TV that I'd like to connect wired to this wireless bridge. I already have a Linksys WRT54G-L running Tomato firmware as my main router, but from what I understand this is a 2.4Ghz G-router. Is there an inexpensive replacement that will run 5Ghz N-router?

[board123]

Let me get this straight. You want another device to receive the wireless signal from the WRT54GL and feed it wired-ly to other devices?

[porphyra]

Let me get this straight. You want another device to receive the wireless signal from the WRT54GL and feed it wired-ly to other devices?

I understand it as the above too. If this is the case, then I don't see why you want an "inexpensive" N-router, as you are going to be limited by the data coming from your WRT54GL G Router, anyways.

In that case, you're better off sticking to a G router. And a good one is the Asus WL-520GU, which is DD-WRT and Tomato flashable and available rather cheap from a lot of online retailers.

[J-Wo]

Let me get this straight. You want another device to receive the wireless signal from the WRT54GL and feed it wired-ly to other devices?
From what I understand, this is what a lot of people are doing. They are getting a second router to act as a wireless bridge, and is connected wired to devices such as my TV, Blu-ray player, and xbox. I know direct wired connection is the best but in my current setup it is just not feasible.

The only reason I am looking at N routers is if the cost is not much more and there are good models out there, I would consider getting two routers and replace my WRT54G-L. But I'm guessing that will cost a lot more than just getting a 2nd G-router.

I'll look into the Asus WL-520GU, thanks

[board123]

You need a DD-WRT or Tomato capable router to use it in wireless client mode. This is not something that any off the shelf router can do.

[apvm]

Sorry to hijack this thread. Do you need both router to be Tomato flashable to do the job? I mean I have a Linsys already Tomato flashed, I am planning to buy another but if Tomato not needed I can get a G Router for like $25 taxes in.

[board123]

The sender can be whatever. It's just a generic WIFI signal.

The receiver needs custom firmware.

[J-Wo]

is wireless client mode the same as wireless bridge? What about wireless AP/extender? I get very confused by these different wireless terminologies.

Also if anyone has some other brands/models I should look out for I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Hairball]

is wireless client mode the same as wireless bridge? What about wireless AP/extender? I get very confused by these different wireless terminologies.

Also if anyone has some other brands/models I should look out for I'd greatly appreciate it.

Based on what you described it seems like you just need a "wireless bridge", where your router will connect to another router wirelessly.

These two pages should help explain, and there are diagrams.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge

[porphyra]

From what I understand, this is what a lot of people are doing. They are getting a second router to act as a wireless bridge, and is connected wired to devices such as my TV, Blu-ray player, and xbox. I know direct wired connection is the best but in my current setup it is just not feasible.

The only reason I am looking at N routers is if the cost is not much more and there are good models out there, I would consider getting two routers and replace my WRT54G-L. But I'm guessing that will cost a lot more than just getting a 2nd G-router.

I'll look into the Asus WL-520GU, thanks

Yea, a solid cheap G router is a better option. Nothing close to that level of performance for the price in N Routers at the moment. The good ones are way too expensive. Moreover, not too many can be flashed at the moment.

Also, be warned. You will likely not be able to wirelessly stream 1080p videos. This will be hard even with the N routers in this setup. We are talking huge overhead losses here. 720p should be ok.

[J-Wo]

Thanks for the links Hairball. DD-WRT's Repeater Bridge mode sounds exactly like what I need, so that it will extend the wirelese range of my upstairs computer while giving my A/V devices a wired access to the network. From what I've read, Tomato doesn't have the same repeater bridge support as DD-WRT, is that what others have found? I'm running Tomato on my main router and love it for the easy to navigate GUI.

I'm in the GTA, and see the Asus router for $44.99 at Infonec. BestDirect has the same price but with a $10 mail-in-rebate, but shipping is $9 to Ontario. However it is GST free, so there is a little savings there. Should I hold out for a better deal, I searched RFD and saw it was available for $29.99 at NCIX after rebate not too long ago.

[woof]

I have 2 WRT54GL routers running Tomato in a WDS bridge mode. One router in the basement, one on the second floor with 3 computers hard wired to it. Works fine. Don't know if any bandwidth issues since it's strictly an Internet connection, I'm not moving any multimedia files around.

Frankly I think it's a little bit easier to set up if you have 2 identical routers.

[porphyra]

Thanks for the links Hairball. DD-WRT's Repeater Bridge mode sounds exactly like what I need, so that it will extend the wirelese range of my upstairs computer while giving my A/V devices a wired access to the network. From what I've read, Tomato doesn't have the same repeater bridge support as DD-WRT, is that what others have found? I'm running Tomato on my main router and love it for the easy to navigate GUI.

I'm in the GTA, and see the Asus router for $44.99 at Infonec. BestDirect has the same price but with a $10 mail-in-rebate, but shipping is $9 to Ontario. However it is GST free, so there is a little savings there. Should I hold out for a better deal, I searched RFD and saw it was available for $29.99 at NCIX after rebate not too long ago.
Tomato can do it in WDS mode. Its not that hard actually.

[lead]

You need a DD-WRT or Tomato capable router to use it in wireless client mode. This is not something that any off the shelf router can do.

Not to diss ya but your wrong. Alot of those cheap n routers available offer repeater/bridge in their firmware. In fact most of the cheap n suck at routing but work great as bridges. The Comstar at FS for 30 bucks(past sale) is an excellent n bridge on its stock firmware. Smoked my g ddwrt/bridge in both bandwidth and distance. The rosewill n(engeniuos clone) is a decent router/repeater and was available for 35 @ newegg. It had 1/2 the foot print of the asus or linksys and was aregueably much better looking. The linksys gl version looks like a big bug and the white asus looks more at home in the kitchen than next to your o!play/wdtv live in your living room htpc setup.

These cheap n's are better options for bridges than ddwrt/tomato because they are faster and offer better distance plus can be had cheaper than the linksys/asus etc. When the n's are put in wds mode to expand your coverage their bandwidth goes down to 150mbps while the ddwrt g's go down to 27mbps. Just make sure you have a decent n host router otherwise its pointless.

[Fx45]

I have the Asus WL-520GU and using it in bridge mode after flashing it with DD-WRT. Not using it for AV, just as an offline torrent downloader and NAS.

Flashing with DD-WRT was easy, took no more than 3 minutes. Figuring out the right settings to get it to work in bridge mode in DD-WRT took about an hour to get it working correctly.

[jed]

Tomato took 10mins, incl the flash and setup, to use as a bridge. To me, its far easier to use, but if course, YMMV.

[jacky28]

I spent the most time doing the 30/30/30 hard resets (3 times in total I think) when I was installing dd-wrt on mine. Configuring as a client bridge was easy.

[board123]

Not to diss ya but your wrong. Alot of those cheap n routers available offer repeater/bridge in their firmware. In fact most of the cheap n suck at routing but work great as bridges. The Comstar at FS for 30 bucks(past sale) is an excellent n bridge on its stock firmware. Smoked my g ddwrt/bridge in both bandwidth and distance. The rosewill n(engeniuos clone) is a decent router/repeater and was available for 35 @ newegg. It had 1/2 the foot print of the asus or linksys and was aregueably much better looking. The linksys gl version looks like a big bug and the white asus looks more at home in the kitchen than next to your o!play/wdtv live in your living room htpc setup.

These cheap n's are better options for bridges than ddwrt/tomato because they are faster and offer better distance plus can be had cheaper than the linksys/asus etc. When the n's are put in wds mode to expand your coverage their bandwidth goes down to 150mbps while the ddwrt g's go down to 27mbps. Just make sure you have a decent n host router otherwise its pointless.
I stand corrected. I always thought it was an uncommon feature.

[thebun]

Wouldn't this do the trick??

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=020575&cid=NTW.498

I am thinking of getting it for a WDTV live

[evanx]

I have the Asus WL-520GU, 4 of them in fact, 1 main and 3 bridges. They work very well for both functions. The Linksys GL I had before was decent, but broke down. 2nd Linksys router down in 4 years. Hence the switch to Asus.

[J-Wo]

Wouldn't this do the trick??

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=020575&cid=NTW.498

I am thinking of getting it for a WDTV live

Um yaaaaa I'm pretty sure that would work but we're looking for deals here on RFD, I'd hardly call a $100+ router a deal.

[audit13]

Sorry to hijack this thread. Do you need both router to be Tomato flashable to do the job? I mean I have a Linsys already Tomato flashed, I am planning to buy another but if Tomato not needed I can get a G Router for like $25 taxes in.

You just need a regular router to receive the wireless signals from the bridge.

For my brother, I used a wrt54g running stock firmware on the 2nd floor of his house. The Rogers modem was also connected to the wrt54g. In the basement, I took a Motorola wr850g with dd-wrt and set it to bridge mode. I have a pc and an xBox360 connected to the wr850g via enet cable. Both units have no problem accessing the unit simultaneously through the wr850g/wrt54g combo.

[J-Wo]

I was able to find a $10 rebate online but only DirectCanada and NCIX link to it. However it doesn't appear that there are any retailer restrictions on the rebate itself. Do you think this is valid if I get the router from Canada Computers and send in this rebate?

http://www.mirhelp.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/AsusWLAN-Nov-30-09.PDF

[npinc]

Hey guys, I'm looking at getting a router that will run DD-WRT or Tomato firmware to act as a wireless bridge for some of my electronics. I have an LG BD360 Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, and Samsung LN46B750 TV that I'd like to connect wired to this wireless bridge. I already have a Linksys WRT54G-L running Tomato firmware as my main router, but from what I understand this is a 2.4Ghz G-router. Is there an inexpensive replacement that will run 5Ghz N-router?

If you can cut your way through all the misconceptions out there, there's a great little unit from Engenius that you'll want to take a look at, the ESR-9753. It's Wireless N and doesn't require any custom firmware to work as a client bridge. There are actually several products in the Engenius lineup that can accomplish this, all of them quite inexpensive and infinitely more reliable than any Linksys or D-Link product.

I would encourage you to check them out. Engenius (Canadian Office is in Markham) can point you to an authorized reseller. Be careful.. We found out the hard way that there are some that sell Engenius that aren't authorized. They're buying them through channel and selling them... but the products come out of the US. Engenius Canada will NOT honor the warranty if there's a problem.

So yeah. Check them out. Fantastic products. Great price point. Very flexible. Shatter every myth about wireless. Very easy to set up and configure. Just make sure you go through an Engenius Authorized Reseller in the off chance you have a problem.

[Larsin]

I have a linksys allready flashed with the micro dd-wrt I was using as a bridge ,if you want it I can sell it for $25. I think it's version 6 ,
worked great.

[lead]

If you can cut your way through all the misconceptions out there, there's a great little unit from Engenius that you'll want to take a look at, the ESR-9753. It's Wireless N and doesn't require any custom firmware to work as a client bridge. There are actually several products in the Engenius lineup that can accomplish this, all of them quite inexpensive and infinitely more reliable than any Linksys or D-Link product.

I would encourage you to check them out. Engenius (Canadian Office is in Markham) can point you to an authorized reseller. Be careful.. We found out the hard way that there are some that sell Engenius that aren't authorized. They're buying them through channel and selling them... but the products come out of the US. Engenius Canada will NOT honor the warranty if there's a problem.

So yeah. Check them out. Fantastic products. Great price point. Very flexible. Shatter every myth about wireless. Very easy to set up and configure. Just make sure you go through an Engenius Authorized Reseller in the off chance you have a problem.

ESR-9753 enginius does this look familiar

enginius
http://www.engeniustech.com/img/Products/prodImg277.jpg
rosewill
http://www.rosewill.com/Mgnt/Uploads/ImagesForProduct/7276ef432a455fd5fabc693e8d3838d0.jpg

or ralink 1035 chipset is found in a few cheap n routers. If it has that chip its probably got repeater. I will say the comstar did beat the rosewill (clone) in distance and bandwidth, since I have both. I wouldn't use either as a router though. That chipset gets hot in router mode it'll probably die after a while do to over heating. In repeater/bridge mode the loads are much less and will probably go the distance just fine. The comstar i am guessing since it gets even hotter and is such a phenom for distance probably has the tx set way too high. I added heatsinks and only use as a bridge and its warm but not hot anymore.

[npinc]

ESR-9753 enginius does this look familiar


Considering Rosewill doesn't make anything.. Quite possible :) I'm not sure about the firmware inside them. I can certainly attest to Engenius' reliability, however.

[lead]

Considering Rosewill doesn't make anything.. Quite possible :) I'm not sure about the firmware inside them. I can certainly attest to Engenius' reliability, however.

Nothing wrong with engenius as a whole. But those 2 routers are perfectly identical down to the faulty power connector. Its loose and tight to the port exactly on both and problematic as reported by users of both.
If its truly a senao build, found also again in a sitecom(clone) then its their burden and problems aren't eliminated by what name is on the box. The problems correlate with this router in particular stem not to firmware at all but layout and chipset.

When it comes to bridges these work fine. As routers they get overloaded and heat up too much. If you don't move it around too much the the power connector isn't an issue.

[npinc]

When it comes to bridges these work fine. As routers they get overloaded and heat up too much. If you don't move it around too much the the power connector isn't an issue.

Quite fascinating. I've never had an RMA on one and I've sold quite the number of them. Very interesting to hear and I'll be watching for that. Thanks for the heads up.

[lead]

Quite fascinating. I've never had an RMA on one and I've sold quite the number of them. Very interesting to hear and I'll be watching for that. Thanks for the heads up.


a close to home eg. check the last post
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/engenius-wireless-n-router-usb-adapter-support-dd-wrt-39-99-a-808062/2/

For this router I'd guess more where it connects to the router than the actual ac/dc it just doesn't fit snug enough or shorted because it doesn't fit snug, or he torrented the sh1t out of it.

[npinc]

a close to home eg. check the last post
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/engenius-wireless-n-router-usb-adapter-support-dd-wrt-39-99-a-808062/2/

For this router I'd guess more where it connects to the router than the actual ac/dc it just doesn't fit snug enough or shorted because it doesn't fit snug, or he torrented the sh1t out of it.

I can't find any reference to the power issue on that page, but certainly I'll be keeping a close eye on that. Always nice to be armed with as much info as possible. You never know when it will come in handy.

Thanks :)

[lead]

I can't find any reference to the power issue on that page, but certainly I'll be keeping a close eye on that. Always nice to be armed with as much info as possible. You never know when it will come in handy.

Thanks :)

its the very last post, and posted today too he complained it died after 4 days and thinks its ac adapter related. Just pointing out their not without fault. I'm guessing its a comparable situation to the dlink 655 an out sourced reference board, identical to a trendnet version you can swap firmwares with. Not so with engenious since their firmwares are encrypted.

[cmx1o1]

Sorry to hijack this thread. Do you need both router to be Tomato flashable to do the job? I mean I have a Linsys already Tomato flashed, I am planning to buy another but if Tomato not needed I can get a G Router for like $25 taxes in.

i have a tomato wrt-54gl and a dd-wrt wrt54g2 using wds and it is working perfectly

[J-Wo]

Okay so I picked up the Asus WL-520GU at Infonec for $44.99 (hopefully the $10 MIR will work) but am having trouble setting up WDS. I successfully flashed Tomato onto it, but now am unable to enter the GUI. I tried to run the Asus firmware recovery tool and flash it back to stock Asus firmware, but I still can't get into the config screen. I think I may have bricked the unit so I'm going back to Infonec to get an exchange.

Anyway after all is said and done, can someone point me in the right direction for a WDS tutorial with Tomato firmware? Also I have WPA/WPA2 encryption, is that okay? And finally is it true that WDS will split my bandwidth in half between the two routers? If so am I doing something wrong, I'm still confused between the different terminologies, e.g. WDS vs wireless bridge... sorry for my noob-ness!

[woof]

I believe that flashing to an alternate firmware voids your warranty. Could be wrong.

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomatofaq#how_do_i_use_wds

You can't use WPA2 with WDS.

[jacky28]

I believe that flashing to an alternate firmware voids your warranty. Could be wrong.

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomatofaq#how_do_i_use_wds

You can't use WPA2 with WDS.

Is that a Tomato thing? I asked cuz I have WDS setup with WPA2 with DD-WRT and it "seems" to be working.


The halfing bandwidth is true for any wireless bridging for "wireless client" connected to your second AP communicating with anything connected to the first AP. It needs to retransmit the packet to the first AP. Wired connections on the 2nd AP are not affected.

[woof]

Is that a Tomato thing? I asked cuz I have WDS setup with WPA2 with DD-WRT and it "seems" to be working.

No, apparently it's a universal thing. Eg DD-WRT:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/469092836/m/300003311041

Note the post by Arbelac.

[jacky28]

Hmm ...is that mean WDS uses a different encryption than wireless clients (like laptops)? According to my netbook (running Windows 7), I'm connected with WPA2-PSK and yet I have WDS setup and working.

According to this wiki page, it says it is confirmed working under the Broadcom section. Why are there so much "conflicting" reports?!

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WDS_Linked_router_network

[lead]

Hmm ...is that mean WDS uses a different encryption than wireless clients (like laptops)? According to my netbook (running Windows 7), I'm connected with WPA2-PSK and yet I have WDS setup and working.

According to this wiki page, it says it is confirmed working under the Broadcom section. Why are there so much "conflicting" reports?!

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WDS_Linked_router_network

check tomato faqs. It didn't support wpa2 in bridge before so I can't say it does for wds. DD-wrt only from sp24 and on added wpa2 support for bridge reapeater etc.

[Larsin]

Okay so I picked up the Asus WL-520GU at Infonec for $44.99 (hopefully the $10 MIR will work) but am having trouble setting up WDS. I successfully flashed Tomato onto it, but now am unable to enter the GUI. I tried to run the Asus firmware recovery tool and flash it back to stock Asus firmware, but I still can't get into the config screen. I think I may have bricked the unit so I'm going back to Infonec to get an exchange.

Anyway after all is said and done, can someone point me in the right direction for a WDS tutorial with Tomato firmware? Also I have WPA/WPA2 encryption, is that okay? And finally is it true that WDS will split my bandwidth in half between the two routers? If so am I doing something wrong, I'm still confused between the different terminologies, e.g. WDS vs wireless bridge... sorry for my noob-ness!

I'm using one with Tomato now as a wireless bridge , is that what your trying to do ??

[Matryx]

I'm also looking to setup my DLink DI-524 as a wireless bridge. Anyone know if this is possible for my router?

[J-Wo]

I don't think the Dlink DI-524 can do that on stock firmware, but I've never tried. I do know those routers cannot take 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT and Tomato.

Anyway just wanted to say I successfully configured my Asus WL-520GU as an Access Point + WDS, providing wired internet connectivity to my LCD TV, Blu-ray player, and Xbox 360. Ran into some trouble when I thought I bricked my router, but turns out the Asus has a very complicated reset method (read more here (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_WL-520GU#Reset_Button)). I also didn't realize that you need the Wireless MAC address of both routers in order to link them, and this MAC address is different from the router's WAN address and LAN address! So very confusing, but in the end I am okay.

Anyone else looking to get this router should note that the MIR I linked to earlier has a different UPC code from the one I got at Infonec. So sucks for me, no $10 back. Oh well, still not bad for a terrific router that cost me $50 after taxes.

[Jeff146]

J-Wo

Are you able to stream 720p HD content successfully with that setup?

If not has anyone been able to get 720p HD content streamed successfully on a Wireless N setup with a a bridge?

I just want to know everyone's setup so that I know what's the best setup for streaming wireless HD content.

Thanks,
Jeff

[J-Wo]

Well I was able to stream 720p before with my old setup (one router on 1st floor, connects wirelessly to computer on 2nd floor) between my 2nd floor computer and an xbox 360 with the microsoft proprietary wireless dongle. Now I have a wireless bridge / WDS connected to the xbox 360. I had trouble playing some 720p apple trailers with my old setup, I think because of the high video bitrate, now with the WDS they stream a lot better. Only thing with the 360 is it doesn't handle MKV files with 5.1 AC3 audio, so I never had problems before streaming 720p video with 2 channel AAC audio (MKV files can easily be converted to MP4 for xbox 360 compatibility). My new Blu-ray player and TV do support MKV files with 5.1 audio, which is a lot more video/audio bitrate so I will have to test to see how those play wirelessly -- once I figure out how DLNA works with those devices.

Another option is I could get an external hard drive enclosure to pop my 1TB drive into, and plug that directly into the Asus WL-520UG and then all my devices *should* detect the drive to play media off of. That's another step...

[lead]

J-Wo

Are you able to stream 720p HD content successfully with that setup?

If not has anyone been able to get 720p HD content streamed successfully on a Wireless N setup with a a bridge?

I just want to know everyone's setup so that I know what's the best setup for streaming wireless HD content.

Thanks,
Jeff

my comstar could stream 1080p blueray np but I don't have any iso's to try out I stick with 720p content. Thru smb it hits 5-6.5 megs a sec. Through upnp I can max the 100 mbps port.
The rosewill is further but never really reached much better than 3.5-4.5 megs a sec in smb. But I stream 720p thru it all the time thru it as well. However its set as a repeater and like wds it splits your bandwidth from 300 mbps to 150. True bridge streams faster than repeater/wds and doesn't cut the bandwidth in half.

[Mr. Robo]

Anyone else looking to get this router should note that the MIR I linked to earlier has a different UPC code from the one I got at Infonec. So sucks for me, no $10 back. Oh well, still not bad for a terrific router that cost me $50 after taxes.

Oh don't worry. It'll work. NCIX did the same and I sent the rebate to ASUS and they still approved it as long as the receipt shows you bought it in the MIR timeframe.