WR850G as wireless bridge?

Hello,

I have an older 802.11b SMC Barricade wireless router.

I also have a Motorola WR850G wireless router.

According to the manuals, the Barricade doesn't support wireless
bridging at all; however, the WR850G has a WDS mode.

The WR850G's manual only has a half page or so "describing" WDS mode,
hence my question. Is it possible to configure the WR850G to act as a
wireless bridge to the Barricade (i.e. to provide 4 more Internet
connections in a different part of the house via wireless?

Thanks for any info.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have an older 802.11b SMC Barricade wireless router.
>
> I also have a Motorola WR850G wireless router.
>
> According to the manuals, the Barricade doesn't support wireless
> bridging at all; however, the WR850G has a WDS mode.
>
> The WR850G's manual only has a half page or so "describing" WDS mode,
> hence my question. Is it possible to configure the WR850G to act as a
> wireless bridge to the Barricade (i.e. to provide 4 more Internet
> connections in a different part of the house via wireless?
>
> Thanks for any info.
>

I am currently using my WR850G in client bridge mode to provide 4
computers with access via 1 wireless connection. It is very easy to set
up if you are using the DD-WRT firmware. If you are hesitant to use
that firmware because it is not official Motorola firmware, I would
suggest getting the latest 6.1.4 firmware from Motorola. It has
settings built into it for easier client mode setup. I have not done
this, but have heard reports on the dslreports.com forums of this being
possible

If you feel adventurous, and you have a V2 or V3 WR850g, download the
V.23 DD-WRT moto-mini firmware from:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downl..._mini_moto.bin

and upload it to your WR850G using the upgrade page in the router's web
configuration. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS WILL WORK IF YOU HAVE A V1 ROUTER,
SO PLEASE ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE SURE OF YOUR ROUTER VERSION.

If you didn't frick your router, when you log in you can view the
wireless status and do a scan of visible WAPs. There is then a button
labeled JOIN after each entry. Just click the join button on the
network that represents your Barricade router and the WR850G is now in
client mode. You will then have to go the the wireless security
settings to make sure they match the security settings on the Barricade
router. After you have done these two easy steps, any computer you plug
into the LAN ports on you WR580G willbe wirelessly connect to your
Barricade router (Up to 32 comptuters I think).

Good Luck

Thank you very much.

Can I clarify one thing?

Does the existing router have to support WDS mode?

If I upgrade to Motorola 6.1.4 does that change the answer?

If I try the dd-wrt firmware, does that change the answer?


Thanks!

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Can I clarify one thing?
>
> Does the existing router have to support WDS mode?
>
> If I upgrade to Motorola 6.1.4 does that change the answer?
>
> If I try the dd-wrt firmware, does that change the answer?
>
>
> Thanks!
>

WDS isn't the mode that will get you a wireless bridge, but the same
functionality that allows WDS can also allow a router to be a wireless
bridge. Not all WDS routers can be a bridge and not all wireless
bridges can do WDS. WDS mode is typically used to create a sort of
repeater for a wireless signal. In your case you are not repeasting the
wireless signal, but using the router as a wireless bridge to connect
multiple wired computers to your wireless network. The WR850G has this
capability (WDS and bridge), but your Barricade router doesn't.

Motorola firmware prior to 6.1.4 didn't really give you specific options
for building a wireless bridge. I think if you mess around with the WDS
settings enough, you can probably make it work, but I'm not sure.
Version 6.1.4 has specific configuration options to put the router in
client mode (which turns it into a bridge).

DD-WRT just makes the process of setting things up easier and allows you
to use the full capabilities of the router. These Broadcom based linux
routers (like the WR850G and the Linksys WRT54G) are basically Linux
computers that have a couple ethernet cards and a wireless adapter. The
firmware allows you to configure that "computer" to fill many different
roles, including client-bridged mode. Basically the WR580G connects to
the Barricade like any other computer with a wireless card and then
shares its internet connection with the computers hooked to its LAN
ports. I just like if you had a Windows box connected to the Barricade
router wirelessly and then turned on Internet Connection Sharing and
shared the connection with other computers on its wired network connection.

Thank you for taking the time to explain this.

I've upgraded the router to 6.1.4 and tried to get this working.

Before I bite the bullet and load DD-WRT on it instead, I thought I
should post the settings I've tried to make sure I'm not doing anything
stupid.

My main router is a Barricade 802.11b. I run it with 128-bit WEP
encryption. It's LAN IP is 192.168.2.1 and its DHCP server is enabled,
with an address pool from 150-199.

I've set the 850G to "Wireless Bridge" mode. I've assigned it a LAN IP
of 192.168.2.3 and gateway = 192.168.2.1. I've set the wireless SSID,
channel number, and WEP key to match the Barricade. DHCP server is
off. WAN Connection Type is Disabled.

I've hooked 1 PC up the 850 with a static IP 192.168.2.91, gateway =
192.168.2.1.

All of the IP masks are set to 255.255.255.0

On the Barricades config interface, I've taken what it calls its "WLAN
MAC address" which is shown in the form NN-NN-NN-NN..etc and entered
that MAC address in the 850 as NN:NN:NN:NN...etc. The 850 shows this
as "up", but I don't put a lot of faith in that, since I tried entering
a totally made up MAC and it reported that as "up" also.

These are the main settings I've changed and have then tried to ping a
machine on the Barricade's LAN from the machine connected to the 850
(along with trying to reach the Internet also).

Can't seem to figure out the right recipe for this to work, any ideas?

Thanks!

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
<snip>

>
> Can't seem to figure out the right recipe for this to work, any ideas?
>
>

These settings look good to me. Can you ping the Barricade router from
the 850g? I can't remember is the 850g has a ping utility or not. The
only other thing I would try is to set the computer connected to the
850g as DHCP and see if it will get an IP address from the Barricade.
Maybe the Barricade router is picky on which IP addresses it routes to
other machines. Also, make sure MAC address filtering is off on the
Barricade router if it supports it.

Some other ideas:
Are you using a HEX WEP key? If you try to using an ASCII passphrase it
may not work.

SSID is case sensitive, do you type it correctly?

If you do decide to go with DD_WRT please read the wiki and all
documentation before you start. I'd hate to see a router get turned
into a brick (Although I have had good success unbricking my 850G when I
have messed it up in the past).

Good Luck, soory I couldn't be more help. Maybe the guys on
DSLReports.com forums will be able to help you. (I see you posted there
too).

Have you seen this post too:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,15463583

> These settings look good to me. Can you ping the Barricade router from
> the 850g? I can't remember is the 850g has a ping utility or not.

I didn't see a ping built into the 850.

> The only other thing I would try is to set the computer connected to the
> 850g as DHCP and see if it will get an IP address from the Barricade.

I did try pinging the DHCP server (the Barricade) from that computer.
I didn't try it as a DHCP client though.

> Maybe the Barricade router is picky on which IP addresses it routes to
> other machines. Also, make sure MAC address filtering is off on the
> Barricade router if it supports it.

Went through the Barricade's entire interface - couldn't see anywhere
you'd
be able to enter a MAC address.


> Some other ideas:
> Are you using a HEX WEP key? If you try to using an ASCII passphrase it
> may not work.

Using HEX all around.


> SSID is case sensitive, do you type it correctly?

Yep, all lowercase.


> If you do decide to go with DD_WRT please read the wiki and all
> documentation before you start. I'd hate to see a router get turned
> into a brick (Although I have had good success unbricking my 850G when I
> have messed it up in the past).

Well, I bit the bullet and loaded the "moto" version of v23 today. I
can browse
the entire new Web interface, so I guess I didn't ruin it.

> Good Luck, soory I couldn't be more help.

You're kidding, right? You've been a tremendous help. Thanks!

> Maybe the guys on
> DSLReports.com forums will be able to help you. (I see you posted there
> too).

Yes, I am getting desperate %^)

Cheers.