'bridge' between two routers

Hi,
spent a few hours looking into this, to no avail..

I have 1x USrobotics 8054 Cable router/firewall with dhcp, my laptop is
connected to this via wireless.

I'd like to configure a belkin cable router/fireway model F5d6231-4 to
'bridge' via wireless to the usrobotics so that I can plug in a PC and
network printer on the other side of the house.

1) can this be done?
2) if so, i kindly ask how..? or a decent resource for this information..?

thanks in advance,
chris.

On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 15:27:06 GMT, chris <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I have 1x USrobotics 8054 Cable router/firewall with dhcp, my laptop is
>connected to this via wireless.
>
>I'd like to configure a belkin cable router/fireway model F5d6231-4 to
>'bridge' via wireless to the usrobotics so that I can plug in a PC and
>network printer on the other side of the house.
>
>1) can this be done?

No, not with what you have in equipment.

>2) if so, i kindly ask how..? or a decent resource for this information..?

Easy. Replace everything.

What you're looking for is a router pair that support WDS (wireless
distribution system). This allows a pair of router to simultaneously
act as an infrastructure access point, and also as a transparent
bridge between routers. The catch is that WDS isn't very well
standardized and is therefore chipset dependent. Broadcom chipsets
have this feature so you're sutck with using all Broadcom equipment.

Here's the setup for the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware:
http://docs.sveasoft.com/SV-Wireless-WDS.html
Most of the other routers that support WDS have a similar setup.



--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
# (E-Mail Removed)
# (E-Mail Removed) AE6KS

Thanks for the info. Were I to connect clients only to router #2 would
this setup be possible with my current gear?

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 15:27:06 GMT, chris <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I have 1x USrobotics 8054 Cable router/firewall with dhcp, my laptop is
>>connected to this via wireless.
>>
>>I'd like to configure a belkin cable router/fireway model F5d6231-4 to
>>'bridge' via wireless to the usrobotics so that I can plug in a PC and
>>network printer on the other side of the house.
>>
>>1) can this be done?
>
>
> No, not with what you have in equipment.
>
>
>>2) if so, i kindly ask how..? or a decent resource for this information..?
>
>
> Easy. Replace everything.
>
> What you're looking for is a router pair that support WDS (wireless
> distribution system). This allows a pair of router to simultaneously
> act as an infrastructure access point, and also as a transparent
> bridge between routers. The catch is that WDS isn't very well
> standardized and is therefore chipset dependent. Broadcom chipsets
> have this feature so you're sutck with using all Broadcom equipment.
>
> Here's the setup for the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware:
> http://docs.sveasoft.com/SV-Wireless-WDS.html
> Most of the other routers that support WDS have a similar setup.
>
>
>

On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 07:37:17 GMT, chris <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Thanks for the info. Were I to connect clients only to router #2 would
>this setup be possible with my current gear?

[Connect remote PC and network printer via single wireless link]

I'll assume some type of printer with an ethernet port.

You can't do this with a typical client radio. The problem is that
most client wireless adapters will only bridge exactly one MAC
address. You can't just put an ethernet hub or switch behind one of
these and magically bridge more than one MAC address.

However, all is not lost. What you need is a "workgroup bridge" or
possibly some of the "game adapter" type of ethernet wireless bridge
that will bridge more than one MAC address at a time. Not all game
adapters will do this so be careful. I know the WET11 will work.
Linksys WRT54G with Sveasoft Alchemy firmware also has the ability to
bridge multiple MAC addresses. The number of MAC addresses that can
be bridged varies from 4 addresses for the 3Com workgroup bridge to 30
addresses for the WET11. I think Alchemy will do 32 MAC addresses,
but I'm not sure.

The only thing you lose by this arrangement, the replace everything
WDS solution, is that you cannot connect to the "workgroup bridge"
adapter with a wireless client (i.e. laptop) in order to increase your
coverage area by using two access points.




--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558