Suggestions for bridging WiFi

ewaller · 2022-07-01 20:04:40

Looking for some direction here. First, my situation.

My network currently uses a powerline extender pair to connect an 8 port switch to my router. I use it to provide access to a handful of non-wifi devices and instruments on my workbench. Not a great solution as I only manage about 50 Mb/s over the powerline extenders as the signals have to pass through two subpanels. My old laptop is being retired and converted into a server; it manages 433Mb/s to the router wirelessly. What I would like to do is replace the powerline extenders with the retired laptop's WiFi and 1000 gig wired Ethernet.

On the surface, a bridge would be the answer -- but my research seems to indicate one cannot bridge wired and wireless networks. Is that true, or am I missing something?

The alternative, of course, is to set up a separate subnet and set up a DHCP server for devices on that subnet and then use NAT forwarding to/from the WiFi. This has drawbacks in that the devices on the subnet cannot (easily) open a port with the expectation it can be reached from devices on the router itself.

It would be my preference to have one happy subnet on which all my devices live(*) with a single gateway to the outside world.

(*) Not exactly true -- my router has a separate guest subnet on a different SSID which is used for IoT things every other untrusted thing -- including all things Windows. There is no need or desire to bridge the guest subnet

seth · 2022-07-01 20:25:28

Is that true

"Depends"
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … n_a_bridge
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Softwa … rt_AP_mode

Edit: alternatively, there're wifi extenders that have an RJ45 connection - I bought one for €15 or so and attached a €10 switch to avoid having TV, RX and Raspi all radio in immediate proximity …

Last edited by seth (2022-07-01 20:29:46)

ratcheer · 2022-07-01 20:27:13

I used to bridge from wireless to wired using dd-wrt. The topography was Main Wi-Fi router near the modem, then a Wi-Fi router running dd-wrt (configured as a "client bridge"), then an ethernet cable from that router to an ethernet switch, then two more ethernet cables from the switch to two Linux hosts. It all worked like a charm for several years until a lightning storm killed my cable modem, both of those routers, and some other stuff.

But I still do the same sort of thing in a much simpler way. Main router via Wi-Fi to a Wi-Fi extender, then an ethernet cable to the switch, then two ethernet cables to the two Linux PCs. It works perfectly, and I get 460 Mbps at the Linux PCs.

ewaller · 2022-07-04 14:04:37

Thanks for the answers, and sorry for the delay. I have been moving into my new laptop, but that is another happy story.

This may be moot -- my old laptop is like the proverbial one-horse shay. Everything on that machine died at once -- it now looks like the the battery draws down even when running on AC power and shuts down when the battery hit zero (about 6 hours of run time). The only way to use it again is to let the battery charge. Lather-rinse-repeat. Not overly useful for a server. Let me see if I can solve that issue before I worry about this one

Edit: Solved the power supply issue, so this is back on again.

Edit 2: Seth, those links seem to imply this only works if the the WiFi is acting as a host while in AP mode. I need to run this as a client that is talking to an access point.
ratcheer, that is what I am looking for, but -- and I could be wrong on this -- I thought that kind of topography cuts your bandwidth in half.

Last edited by ewaller (2022-07-05 03:36:08)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-07-01 20:04:40

Suggestions for bridging WiFi

#2 2022-07-01 20:25:28

Re: Suggestions for bridging WiFi

#3 2022-07-01 20:27:13

Re: Suggestions for bridging WiFi

#4 2022-07-04 14:04:37

Re: Suggestions for bridging WiFi

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