Client wifi bridges have always been a hack that, in my experience, randomly fail to do some thing that seems desirable. I gave up on them 20 years ago and have avoided them ever since (they used to call it "battle fatigue", but now it's called "post traumatic stress"). If you don't control both ends, my personal rule (ymmv) is Route. If I do control both ends, than I tend to use batman-adv, a layer 2 mesh routing protocol.. You can run batman-adv over ibss or mesh-point interfaces (have to be the same within the mesh). This gives you nice flat layer 2 network where everything just works.
If you are interested, I can share a recent configuration. -- Russell Senior [email protected] On Sat, Nov 30, 2024 at 9:44 PM Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi All, > > > > So I have a network that (among other things) has several devices on it that > have ethernet only ports and are not conveniently located to be able to run > cable to them. > > > > So for a number of years I have made do with so-called "wifi-to-ethernet" > bridges using DD-WRT. > > > > DD-WRT had a nice "client bridge" selection in it's GUI that with one click > would allow you to create a client bridge. > > > > Unfortunately, a few years ago Broadcom made some changes in their binary > blob wifi drivers and it damaged the house of cards that client bridging was > built on. > > (DD-WRT supports Broadcom devices you see, and these devices used to be far > more common on the used market) > > > > The 10/28/2021 release of DD-WRT is the last reliable release that supports > a client bridge on Broadcom gear. In recent years the client bridge > > Functionality has been completely eliminated in favor of "station bridge" > from DD-WRT even on Broadcom gear. > > > > DD-WRTs "Station Bridge (routed)" configures the "relayd" daemon and it > works well on devices such as > > The TP-Link TL-WR940ND v4/v5 and the Linksys WRT400N which OpenWRT USED to > support but now turns up it's nose at. OpenWRT also > > Supports relayd. Unfortunately, "Station Bridge" is only reliable if you > have ONE device behind the wifi AP while the old "client bridge" > > That was in the Broadcom driver allowed more devices. Fortunately, these > older AP's are cheap enough to use 1 per device. > > > > Anyhoo, I came into position of 2 little Netgear WNR2000v5 wifi routers and > decided it was time to see if I could duplicate this functionality on > > OpenWRT. (DD-WRT does not support these models, unfortunately) > > > > I loaded version 18 of OpenWRT onto these devices (there is a > user-contributed build of OpenWRT for this model out there that thoughtfully > includes the > > Relayd daemon) and dug up the instructions here to do this: > > > > <https://gist.github.com/AzimsTech/fee582c7c5a89e9295e78f4c8bbda824> > OpenWrt Wireless Network Bridge (With IPv6 Support) . GitHub > > > <https://wiki.terrabase.info/wiki/WRT_Router_Series_Wireless_Client_Bridge_M > ode_with_OpenWRT> WRT Router Series Wireless Client Bridge Mode with OpenWRT > - Wiki.TerraBase.info > > > <https://www.nerd-quickies.net/2019/08/20/setup-lan-wlan-bridge-with-openwrt > -luci/> Setup LAN/WLAN Bridge with OpenWrt (LuCI) (updated) - Nerd Quickies > > > > After sorting through the various misconceptions in these instructions I > came up with these instructions - and they work - with one small problem: > > > > 1) Factory Reset router (either from command interface or from hidden reset > button on bottom) > > 2) Make sure the 18. lede special build of OpenWRT is loaded on the router > > 3) Configure PC with 192.168.1.80 and secondary IP of 172.16.100.80 > > 4) Login to router and set password (system, Administraton) > > 5) Network, Interfaces set Ethernet interface to 172.16.100.8. Clicking > Apply, Unchecked never works here. > > 6) Once it takes, remove the secondary IP address > > 7) Put in Gateway and Custom DNS servers > > 8) Set Ignore DHCP for ethernet interface > > 9) Network Wireless, remove master interface > > 10) Wireless, Scan, Join Bit O Heaven network (set encryption to AES) > > 11) Status, make sure it's associated, Diagnostics Ping 75.75.75.75 make > sure it responds > > 12) System Startup , relayd enabled > > 13) Network, Interfaces, Add Interface, name stabridge. Protocol Relay > Bridge, Submit > > 14) In Relay Between Networks that appears, dropdown lan and wwan check > both save and apply > > 15) Network Firewall, Zones Add, name bridgezone change Forward to Accept, > in covered networks select Lan wwan, save & apply > > 16) Change static IP in PC back to DHCP and it should get an address, should > work > > > > The small problem is that even after saving the configuration - once the > router is rebooted - the client bridge does NOT work > > On restart. Relayd is running, the firewall and additional interface is > there, everything seems to be in order - it simply does not > > Pass packets. I can telnet into the router and ping the Internet, it does > re-associate with the wifi network. > > > > I can factory reset the router and rebuild the config again - and it works - > passes packets and so on - until reboot. > > > > The DD-WRT routers configured as station bridges have no problems with > saving their config and restarting station bridging. > > > > I am wondering if POSSIBLY the problem might be in some kind of startup > ordering issue - that is, relayd has to be started after > > The AP has associated - or after the soft interfaces are created - or > something. > > > > Of course, it would also be cool to build a newer OpenWRT for these devices > - there ARE community built versions of OpenWRT 22 > > For 4MB flash devices such as the Netgear WNR1000 and the WNR2000v3, - so it > is possible to do it (if you delete the non-essential stuff) But, > > This is a basic networking function and I don't think the versions of things > are too old. > > > > Anyone have any suggestions? > > > > Ted >
