Spent the whole day reading about bridge. I bought a new Linksys WRT54G V5 router and tried to convert my old WRT54G V1.1 to a bridge. I flashed Sveasoft Alchemy 1.0 binary into my WRT54G V1.1, it said "Upgrade are failed" during the process, it bricked my WRT54G V1.1. Fortunately, there is a way to recover it. I tried flashing twice, both gave me the same result. I concluded that Sveasoft Alchemy 1.0 is not able to support WRT54G V1.1.
I found another firmware from dd-wrt. I flashed in dd-wrt.v23_generic.bin firmware from dd-wrt.v23_sp2_standard.zip into my WRT54G V1.1. The router works perfectly as a "Client Bridge" with the configuration suggested in the WRT Wiki.
Router A is my WRT54G V5 with linksys firmware
Router B is my WRT54G V1.1 with dd-wrt firmware
All cables used are straight through Ethernet cables
I figured out that DHCP is disabled automatically on router B when it is operating as a "Client Bridge". Thus, only router A is serving as a DHCP server. Since Wireless MAC Address Filter is enabled in my router A, the wireless MAC address of the "Client Bridge" has to be added into the router A's Wireless MAC Address Filter List. When a computer is connected to the "Client Bridge" through a LAN cable, there is no need to add the computer's MAC address into router A's Wireless MAC Address Filter List. Router A thinks that the computer is connected to it directly through a LAN cable.
In other words, router B is effectively a switch, a switch that is connected to the router A wirelessly. All the computers (regardless of whether they are connected to router A or router B) are on the same subnet. It is also important to note that router B can no longer provide wireless connection to laptops.
My router A is connected to the cable modem through its WAN port. Its configurations are as follows :
Setup ⇒ Basic Setup
- Internet Setup ⇒ Internet Connection Type ⇒ Automatic Configuration - DHCP
- Internet Setup ⇒ MTU ⇒ Auto
- Network Setup ⇒ Local IP Address ⇒ 192.168.1.1
- Network Setup ⇒ Subnet Mask ⇒ 255.255.255.0
- Network Setup ⇒ DHCP Server ⇒ Enable
- Network Setup ⇒ Starting IP Address ⇒ 192.168.1.100
- Network Setup ⇒ Maximum Number of DHPC Users ⇒ 50
- Network Setup ⇒ Static DNS 1 ⇒ 0.0.0.0
- Network Setup ⇒ Static DNS 2 ⇒ 0.0.0.0
- Network Setup ⇒ Static DNS 3 ⇒ 0.0.0.0
- Network Setup ⇒ WINS ⇒ 0.0.0.0
Wireless ⇒ Basic Wireless Settings
- Wireless Network Mode ⇒ Mixed
- Wireless Network Name (SSID) ⇒ Genius
- Wireless Channel ⇒ 11
Wireless ⇒ Wireless MAC Filter
- Wireless MAC Filter ⇒ Wireless MAC Filter ⇒ Enable
- Wireless MAC Filter ⇒ Permit only PCs listed to access the wireless network
My router B has the following configurations :
Setup ⇒ Basic Setup
-
Network Setup ⇒ Local IP Address ⇒ 192.168.1.2
-
Network Setup ⇒ Subnet Mask ⇒ 255.255.255.0
-
Network Setup ⇒ Gateway ⇒ 0.0.0.0
-
Network Setup ⇒ Local DNS ⇒ 0.0.0.0
-
Network Setup ⇒ Assign WAN Port to Switch ⇒ Checked
Wireless ⇒ Basic Settings
- Client Mode ⇒ Client Bridge
Security ⇒ Security
Status ⇒ Wireless
- Site Survey (then select the appropriate network to join)
Since the "Assign WAN Port to Switch" has been checked, all the ports (WAN and LAN) in router B are now LAN ports. A computer can be connected to anyone of the ports.