Wireless bridge - anyone tried this?

[Barnabybear]

About 2 years ago I found a web site that showed how to use an old router as an access point, this worked very well and I have one router downstairs at the rear of the house and one upstairs at the front of the house. Having just been sent a new router by my broadband supplier as an upgrade, my mind got to thinking – could the old router be configured to receive a wifi signal and then output it through the rj45 sockets.

Simply – could I wifi out to this old router in the garden the cable to my E681s? A quick Google came up with this. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-...reless-bridge/
Has anyone tried this? Does it work? What are the draw backs?

As a side thought – has anyone tried using the network extenders that you plug into the mains supply. This sort of thing. http://www.pulsat.com/products/Home-...n-Pack%29.html

Just thinking – will probably go with cable, but this could be cool if your show has to cross a drive or extend to a neighbours house.

[budude]

I use a couple bridges in my home - I have the luxury of having access to some high-end APs that can be APs or bridges. They are used by tons of companies to provide wired access to remote equipment. I visited a hospital in LA that runs their laundry robots with bridge APs. They should work fine as long as you're OK with the the common issues with WiFi.

[kingofkya]

High end... Any dd-wrt router can do this.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

I use wap54g ($10-20) on ebay and they work great as bridges repeaters etc.

OR you just work around wifi issues. An am a bit of a wireless hog in my neighborhood I use 3 acces point on channle 1 6 and 11. They just fail-over to another AP Just give them all the same SSID and wpa key. And because i have so many bandwidth is not really a issue and if one dies the pc just floats over to the next one.

Farly common to see a lot of them on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-5-Lin...item2c6629dc58

OR the non diy method this a repeater and bridge(fairly powerful)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124430

[Barnabybear]

High end... Any dd-wrt router can do this.

So inprincipal - I could buy http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-5-Lin...item2c6629dc58 . Run a cable from my show computer to one of these units postioned at the front of my house (the transmitter). Then (incorperated in a suitable enclosure) have one of these units (the reciever) any E1.31 device (in my case a E681) a power supply and the only other thing I would need is a mains supply?

[chelmuth]

That or it sounds like you already have a wireless network just connect the show computer and the (receiver) to the current network and go to go.. one less router to buy?

[rklarman]

I purchased and tested these APs with my network. You set it to work in AP client mode and type in the wifi settings from your main router and then attach the network cable to the E1.31 controller.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Tpk=tew-650ap

[Barnabybear]

That or it sounds like you already have a wireless network just connect the show computer and the (receiver) to the current network and go to go.. one less router to buy?

Yep, I thought of that - But with teenagers gaming online and a wife catching up on the previous night tv over the net, and 'interesting' family descusions about who is using all the bandwidth and causing lag. I'll go my own way!

[Barnabybear]

@kingofkya & rklarman.
Would you mind if I add a P.S. to my inital post listing the APs that you (and possably others) confirmed work and referencing yourselves (bearing in mind you may be asked for support)? I belive that with the increse in E1.31 controlers this could be a usefull reference.

[kingofkya]

Well depeding on what you run you might not need mains power as the ap will use 9-12vdc.

Doesn't matter to me, Just a warning READ THE WIKI for your router model. Or you will brick it. IT is common for there to be 4-5 different versions of the same router. Just type it in http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database and you will see if it is compatible. For example type in "WRT54G" there is a ton for revisions some are and some are not compatible.

Also I would also recommend everyone who does this UNDERCLOCK your router. You wont really notice and they will last a very long time.

And if you do brick your router most can be revised via tftp which is detailed in the dd-wrt wiki for your model.

also http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...dd-wrt&x=0&y=0

[kingofkya]

Found this little gem today.
http://www.ubnt.com/picostation

outdoor 1000mw ap/bridge.

The strength display caught my eye. This would be great for a whole neborhood.