HOWTO: Use Linksys WRT54G as a wireless ethernet bridge

[user1234]

great.. so you're not going to return the router ?

 

[robeest]

no...gonna keep it.....will try to research some more to see if single subnet is possible. Maybe if someone can shed light how microsoft does bridging in winxp pro, it combines 2 segments into a single segment.

 

[bfc123]

I tried to make a small network for testing purposes with 2pcs and 2 wrt54g.
The first pc has ip 192.168.1.151 and the wrt54g 192.168.1.31. They are on subnet 192.168.1.x and the wrt54g is AP mode.

The second pc has 192.168.2.155 and the wrt54g 192.168.2.1 in client mode and they are on subnet 192.168.2.x. Also the client wrt54g gets ip from the AP DHCP 192.168.1.200.

in the AP wrt54g I added this route: # route add -net 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.1.200

in the pc1: route add 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.200

in the pc2: route add 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1

Although I can ping from pc1 to pc2 and and form pc2 to pc1 and form any pc to any wrt54g I can not find the pcs in the workgroup. I can only find the pc1 or pc2 for instance if I search from pc1 the ip of the pc2 but I can not find If I search it with its name. (They are in the same workgroup). Does anybody have an idea?

 

[imported_chud]

I have the same setup (as robeest mentioned) with laptop acting as a wireless bridge (winXP) allowing everything on the same subnet. I just got a WRT54G assuming it would do this instead of the laptop, but after reading this forum and numerous other things it seems not

This is the routing table from the laptop

c:\>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x30004 ...02 30 bd 9c d1 83 ...... MAC Bridge Miniport
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.2.254 192.168.2.12 25
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 25
192.168.2.12 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 25
192.168.2.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 25
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 25
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.2.12 192.168.2.12 1
Default Gateway: 192.168.2.254
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

A little background, I have a DG834G connected to inet, running dhcp and this pc upstairs wired to it.
Downstairs I have laptop with wireless card and xbox with x-over cable to laptop ethenet port. The wifi card and ethernet port on laptop are bridged with XP bridging function.
When launch Avalaunch (xbox dashboard) with DHCP, it gets assigned an IP from the DG834G (192.168.2.254) upstairs and is immediately online. They are all on same 192.168.2.x subnet and can all interact with each other. In fact when xbox has smb server running (courtesy of xenium ICE) I can browse it on windows network from pc up here.

The only interesting thing about this is that it shows in my DG834G connection table as having the same MAC address as the laptop. This causes laptop to show an IP conflict when xbox requests DHCP as my DG834G gives out same IP allready assigned to laptop,however after a few seconds something somewhere is intelligent enough to give it another IP, so laptop is say 192.168.2.12 and xbox 192.168.2.13.

I hope this is of some use to someone who understands routing tables enough to work out how to make a WRT54g have this functionality, it cannot be that complicated as winXP manages to work it all out automatically.

 

[imported_chud]

As a follow up to my previous post, I had to put the wireless card in laptop to compatibility mode (as it doesnt do promiscuous mode in winxp), which from what I have read makes it act as a Layer 3 Bridge, using a forwarding table, not a routing table (which layer 2 does).

So what the WRT54g ideally needs to perform is Layer 2 bridging, that is called transparent bridging, which also implements Spanning Tree Algorithm (STA).
(more about it here http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/xpbrdgnt.mspx

I did read somewhere that the new Sveasoft Talisman firmware would support this? I cannot remember where I read it, does anyone have any info?

So in a nutshell from what I understand, to run everything on the same subnet the firmware must have the ability to support transparent bridging.

 

[user1234]

what you describe with the laptop replying to ARP messages for the XBOX (thus making the DG834G think they have the same MAC address) reminds me of proxy-arp feature (ARP is used to find a MAC address of a recepienet by [the sender] broadcasting a message containing the recepient's IP address, and waiting for the recepient to reply with its MAC address). I believe the key to set up bridging is related to this feature, so you may want to read this page and try to set up bridging using proxy-arp. Please post if you get it to work.

 

[newParadigm]

YAY

I finally figured out how to get a computer on the main network to see 1 computer on the client network. Its actually quite simple. Just set up a pc on the cleint side as a dmz host.

The wireless client interface is technically a "WAN" connection. (i.e. if you connected the two routers the same way with wires it would be [main, lanport]--------[client, wan port].

So, since the alchemy firmware allows for the re-assignment of lan ports to the wan segment, wold it be possible to simply assign all the ports to the WAN, and have a transparent bridge?

thanks

~new

 

[user1234]

well yeah, you can do port forwarding or DMZ but it's only good for one machine or a few ports and it's not really a solution to join the two networks together. Please can someone try the proxy_arp solution from sveasoft documentation (it's described in the link in my previous post) ?

 

[newParadigm]

ima try the prxy-arp latter today, say around 5:00 PM eastern


if it works ill let all y'all noe.


~new

 

[newParadigm]

havin some trouble, but it ended up being my memory---i typed in the wrong dns addy and couldnt get teh web working.

Still having some trouble though, more tomorrow, for now its bed

 

[user1234]

I have figured out how to set up bridging in the WRT54G using proxy arp. This allows everything to operate on a single network, so no routing is required in any of the computers to communicate properly between the two segments. All you have to do is log in to the WRT54G as root, and give this command:

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/eth1/proxy_arp

That's it. Note that you need to setup everything on the same network now (e.g. 192.168.0.x) rather than use two distinct networks. I will update the main tutorial with all the details on ow to do this, but you can just follow my explanation a few pages back on setting up a 255.255.255.128 subnet mask, and then give the proxy_arp command above.

 

[semsoid]

I have DI-624 as my main router/AP and I got a Linksys WRT54g rev 2.2 that I am trying to use as a wireless bridge.

I installed 6.0rc5 firmware and followed instructions on the first page and no dice. The Linksys would not get an ip from DI-624, it is not listed under Wireless status page either.

My main IP class is 192.168.1.x, so I used 192.168.2.x for Linksys. I have tried setting the Basic setup using DHCP or a static IP (192.168.1.224) - static IP was suggested by a thread in sveasoft forums. Did not make any difference. I originally had MAC filtering on DI-624, I added all 3 mac addresses (router, wan, wireless), since it didn't work I even tried disabling it. The other thread on sveasoft was refering to use 64 bit wep, I have 128bit, but that shouldn't make any difference.

Any suggestions?

TIA

 

[user1234]

Yes, some other people also had problems with the 128-bit WEP. Please try 64-bit WEP which works for me (or no WEP). After you get them to connect (hopefully) you only need to add one MAC to the filters on the DI-624 (the MAC will show up on the DI-624 in the status screen).

 

[semsoid]

I was trying to avoid using 64 bit wep, as I use the same WEP key at work and home, it saves a lot of hassle with my notebook and PDA. Also there are many other devices on the network (like my wife's notebook, couple of WET11, etc). I didn't want to reconfigure all

I'll give it a shot, thx

 

[user1234]

I think it should work with 128-bit WEP, but first try to establish connection by turning off WEP. Then you can play with the settings and hopefully get the 128-bit key to work (I really don't see why it shouldn't) so you don't have to change all your other wireless clients (which would be a bummer in addition to reducing your network security).

 

[semsoid]

Nope, as soon as I enable 128bit wep, I cannot get an IP from DI-624. I don't want to decrease security, so I guess I'll look for other solutions. Has anyone posting to this thread used 128bit WEP?

 

[newParadigm]

Hey!!

I just finally apllied the proxy arp command, and I'm having some troubles. I can access the client AP via its client or lan side address (192.168.101.129<---LAN/192.168.101.103<---WAN), but ican't access any computers behind the client AP (there's actually only one).

I'm at a loss....help would be greatly apreciated.

~new

 

[semsoid]

I ditched my DI-624, got a Pre-n belkin and voila, 128 bit WEP and all is fine....

 

[mlrtime]

Originally posted by: user1234
I have figured out how to set up bridging in the WRT54G using proxy arp. This allows everything to operate on a single network, so no routing is required in any of the computers to communicate properly between the two segments. All you have to do is log in to the WRT54G as root, and give this command:

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/eth1/proxy_arp

That's it. Note that you need to setup everything on the same network now (e.g. 192.168.0.x) rather than use two distinct networks. I will update the main tutorial with all the details on ow to do this, but you can just follow my explanation a few pages back on setting up a 255.255.255.128 subnet mask, and then give the proxy_arp command above.

Any chance you can update the original tutorial with this method? I'd like to be able to get this to work.

Thanks

 

[mlrtime]

Originally posted by: Jumperus
Yeah, I used WPA-PSK + Mac filtering until I added the Linksys. Can't get the sonbitch to work with 128bit WEP or WPA. I'll play with it some more later and I'll try 64. I know most morons won't bother trying to crack encryptions, especially around an upper middle-class area, but still, I'd much rather use WPA. >=/

Jumperus, I'm having the exact same problem. My setup is working fine now (Even with same network). But the second I turn on any type of encyption, it fails. The wrt54g refuses to talk to my wireless ap (att 6850). Anyway I turned on mac filtering on the ap and my linux firewall, and i'll write a program to parse to watch for attempts.

Anyone have any ideas why this fails with wpa/wep?

thanks

 

[semsoid]

I guess it is dependant on the AP. I had problems with 128 bit wep, I had to ditch my DI-624 and go with a Belkin. 128bit WEP works fine with it. (haven't tried wpa)

 

[bgbysleepy]

I able to connect and use the internet with my wrt54gs to netgear 54g.
modem <--wired-->netgear
wrt54g <--wired-->pc1
I have a laptop with 54g card, but the signal is always "LOW" from the netgear's router signal. is there a way to make the linksys wrt54g to broadcast its signal so that my laptop can use, and as the same time i can connect my pc1 to it with wire.
and One more thing.
How do i share files the two computers? I can't see my pc on the workgroup

 

[bgbysleepy]

# route add -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.112

my computer setting like this
modem--netgear(192.168.0.1)--wifi---
linksys wrt(192.168.0.2)--pc1(192.168.1.100)
laptop(192.168.0.3)--wifi--netgear router

this is what i did on my netgear under static routes option
Route Name toLinksys
Private---unchecked
Active--I checked this box
Destination IP Address: 192.168.1.100
IP Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway IP Address: 192.168.0.2
Metric: 2

for linksys under setup--advanced routing
Gateway
Enter route name: toNetgear
desktination Lan IP: 192.168.0.3
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
Interface: lan& Wireless

I can use the internet on laptop and pc1, but I can't get laptop and pc1 to recognize each other. I can't share files between them. please help

 

[JackMDS]

Hmm. This Linksys Hack must be very Good.:shocked:

97 posts viewed by 5,746 and still No Solution. :thumbsdown:

:sun:

 

[user1234]

What do you mean no solution ? the original instructions in post number #1 give a solution to the main problem : how to use the wrt54g as a wireless bridge so you can connect remote PCs to your network and the internet without installing wireless cards. This works 100%. But as with many networking setups there are some complications, such as getting all the PCs to see each other and share files, or how to get WPA to work, etc. There are partial solutions to these complications, but that doesn't change the fact that even the basic setup described in the first post is a satisfactory for most situations.

btw, I updated the instructions with the proxy arp setting which enables seemless integration of the two network segments - the PCs attache to the main router and the PCs attached to the client router (the wrt54g). I've been using this improved setup for a couple of weeks now, and it simplifes things as no additional configuration is required on the PCs to be able to see each other. Note that for proxy arp to work, the client router and its attached PCs must share part of the subnet of the main router - so step 4 has been modified and step 10 has been added to the instructions.

Post your experiences - if this works for you or if there are any problems.