Re: Help needed with home network configuration
On Thu, 15 Mar 2018 23:26:38 -0400
rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, March 15, 2018 09:42:25 PM David Wright wrote:
> > On Thu 15 Mar 2018 at 10:18:20 (-0700), Don Armstrong wrote:
> > > On Wed, 14 Mar 2018, David Wright wrote:
> > > > When you reprogram routers with dd-wrt, does that allow it to
> > > > do, say, wired bridging even though the manufacturer's formware
> > > > doesn't allow for that?
> > >
> > > openwrt and dd-wrt both allow wired bridging[1] (or
> > > pseudo-bridging by routing if your wireless hardware doesn't
> > > support that).
> > >
> > >
> > > 1: I suppose there might be some network hardware which doesn't
> > > support actual bridging of wired interfaces, but I've yet to see
> > > such an example.
> >
> > I think the router I've been using for the last few years is one.
> > Although the User Manual from May 2013¹ has a brief section on
> > bridging, the June 2014² revision is missing that part. Both have
> > a "Wireless Repeating" link on the figure for Advanced Wireless
> > Settings, but the link is not present in the actual configuration
> > screen on the device.
> >
> > In any case, the May 2013 manual says that to use it as a repeater,
> > even wired, you have to set security to WEP or None. That's no use.
> >
> > I wandered into BestBuy and couldn't find much about bridging on
> > any of their router boxes. (Obviously I'm eschewing so-called
> > WiFi Wireless Repeaters.) What I'm trying to ascertain is that
> > all the wired bridging functionality is performed by the software
> > and not any special hardware in the device.
I'd have thought that hardwired hubs are long gone, that all devices
with multiple Ethernet ports are switches and therefore software-based.
Indeed, many routers can be configured as VLANs.
I had a different problem recently, trying to work out which of a few
high-bandwidth 802.11ac routers could be configured in pairs as wireless
point-to-point links, which also uses the term 'bridging', and no, they
can't all do it. But documentation is usually very poor for the
lesser-used functions of most things. 'Bridging' is also used to mean
wireless repeating, which is a different thing again.
> >
> > Required topology:
> >
> >
> > ╲│╱ ╲│╱ ╲│╱
> > ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐ ┌───────┐
> > │W L╞ CAT5 │W L╞═PC │ ROKUs │
> > [Modem]══╡A A╞═════════════╡A A╞ │ etc │
> > │N N╞ │N N╞ └───────┘
> > │ ╞═PC │ ╞═PC
> > └───────┘ └───────┘
> >
> >
> > ¹ WNDR3400v3_UM_10May2013.pdf
> > ² WNDR3400v3_UM_19June2014.pdf
>
> I haven't paid attention to this thread from the beginning, but
> looking at the sketch, I'm wondering what the purpose of the 2nd
> router is? Why not instead of a router put a switch there, and then
> (assuming you need another WiFi access point at that position), plug
> the 2 PCs and a wireless access point (not sure of the right name)
> into the switch.
The network between the routers is a low-security DMZ, with access to
the main network only through the port-forwarding of the second router.
I have an Internet router, which provides occasional wireless for
visitors, and a server acting as a firewall leading to the rest of the
network, so there's no wireless access to the main network, though I do
have an old wireless router that I can plug in if I need it temporarily.
--
Joe
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