Wireless Networking → Bridge-Setup in a Home-Network

Hello Community,

I am currently having Problems with my network setup which is shown in the attachment.

The Problem is that my clients at the bottom of the picture are always recognized as the same MAC Address in the control center of my Telekom Router. I think its not even meant to run more then 1 client behind an Access Point in Client Mode, though the internet connection still works. Its always funny to watch because 1 MAC address always belongs to switching IP-Addresses.(Guess the one who is active at the moment)

For the future I want to buy the AP Model 2 which supports now WPA2 in bridge Mode.

My question is: Is it possible to set up the network like shown in "Future1"?
In other words: Do I have to buy 1 or 2 APs???

BTW: I appreciate every Answer short and long. I like to understand why stuff is like it is.

Thank you for your Efforts

Matt

As described, client mode is behaving correctly. Client mode is sometimes referred to as a WISP (Wireless ISP) router. It’s identical to any other router except the WAN is virtualized over wireless. And like any other router, the MAC addresses behind that WAN are never seen by devices upstream of the WAN. It’s no different than what any router does when connected to the ISP. In short, all is well.

As far as the rest of it, I’m not sure what you’re asking for. Are you looking to use a client bridge to avoid this issue of hidden MAC addresses?? I can’t even tell if the client device in the NOW illustration is supposed to be connected to the D-Link router’s WAN or LAN (makes a difference). FUTURE2 doesn’t make sense either; it appears to be two client bridges face to face (one side should presumably be an AP for the other side’s client connection).

Anyway, I think you need describe the bigger goal here, in plain English first, before delving too deeply into the plumbing. If I had to venture a guess, it appears as if you’re trying to extend the range of your network by creating your own quasi-repeater setup. And which raises the question, why not just use a repeater?

Hello,

Thank you for your answer.

Yes as you guessed I am trying to extend my Network upstairs(upper part of the picture) with my Network downstairs(lower part of the picture). I try to use as less Wireless technology as possible because were having several problems with it. Several Rooms have big stone walls here which were made sound proof by the pre-owner. So a repeater is out of the question as I would have to set up about 3 to get the required range.

What I am trying to do is to connect two lan networks. I just want to cover a range of about
10 meters with WLAN because these are walking ground and I really dont want to dig around in the ceiling or floor.(also stone)

The Router downstairs I am just using as a switch mainly. Only sometimes visiting friends want to connect their cellphones to it so I am turning on the wlan.

The problems I think I have with the NOW Solution is:

1st. I want to place a Web-Server downstairs which needs for forwarding purposes a static mac and IP address. And my Telekom Router upstairs somehow cant handle Port-forwarding with IP-Addresses but always forwards to a MAC-Address. Ok now you could say that I also enable Port-forwarding at my Router downstairs.(I dont know if this works like I think). But even then I dont know if Ill keep that Router with only 4 Ports.(Ill probably switch it to a big switch with 8+ ports)
2nd. I am having package loss issues downstairs with certain applications. I dont know if this has to do with my current setup, but I wanted to perhaps solve this issue too.

And my last question is about the general working mechanism of APs in bridge mode:
How are they supposed to work? The illustration in the attachment confuses me with your answer before.

Thank you
Matt

IIRC, if you can't dig to get a cable through the walls, another option I've heard mentioned around these forums
is powerline adapters... you may want to look into that for your situation, or if someone can point OP in the
right direction.Define "packet loss"? Are you pinging from a PC behind the 2nd AP downstream to the 1st AP / router upstream,
or to your ISP and seeing loss / drops? Keep in mind wireless is a halfduplex medium -- one can speak at a
time, not both. Don't know how this works? Try holding a conversation with another person and both speaking
at the same time. THAT'S half-duplex.

Dollars to donuts that's the source of your packet loss.See above for a 50K foot view on that.

Regards

I agree w/ Hellfire; powerline is often a better solution than wireless. It’s best to use wire wherever possible, whether that’s ethernet, powerline, or coax (MoCA). Trying to force wireless everywhere is often asking for trouble.

As far as the “general working mechanism of APs in bridge mode”, there is no AP in bridge mode. In bridge mode, you’re converting the AP (something you connect TO) to a wireless client (something that connects to another AP). So now you can use that bridge to convert a wired-only device into a wireless device. The remaining distinction is between “bridged” vs. “unbridged” (aka “client mode”). The prior places the devices behind the bridge on the SAME network as the wireless AP to which the bridge’s wireless client is connected. The latter places those same devices on a DIFFERENT network. While similar, each serves slightly different purposes.

Thanks so much to both of you. Everything makes sense now.

Im experiencing packet loss while communicating with an outside server. Its a Voip application and this application just has a test network button. In there it is saying I have packet loss. And its not just saying it... I can hear that packet loss sometimes too.

When pinging around IN my own network I dont experience any problems at all. I agree with you that these packet loss problems may come from these numerous "wireless clients"(about 20 at a time sometimes) I have created with my setup.

So when turning one part of my way downstairs into a WLAN I have created a bottle neck that can never be redone?

Thank you eibgrad. This explanation should write every company onto their f?%§ng AP descriptions.

So when Im using my AP in "bridged" mode, I will only solve that Im in the same network.(No MAC hiding), but will not improve my network quality downstairs right?

Ill give that Powerline stuff a shot, but I also heard the electricity circuits have to be the same. I will probably start with switching the AP to bridged mode so I can run a webserver downstairs.

Thank you
Matt

What you have to realize w/ wireless (and which Hellfire alluded to) is that all your wireless clients are serialized when it comes to accessing the same freq/channel. That means the more concurrent access you need to any given freq/channel, the more WAITING that takes place for all your wireless clients as they take turns using it (think walkie-talkie). And that’s what screws up time sensitive apps like VOIP. The worst case is when you’re using a wireless repeater since, by definition, both the wireless client and wireless AP of that repeater are ALWAYS in contention for the same freq/channel (assuming the repeater only has one radio). That’s why you can often “hear” the VOIP call dropping out over a repeater, or any situation where the wireless freq/channel is in high demand.

This is just another example of why wireless is not all it’s cracked up to be. While a wonderful convenience, it comes at a significant price in terms of complexity, reliability, consistency, security, etc., particularly as the number of wireless clients increase. IOW, it doesn’t scale all that well. Bottom line; don’t make wireless the fundamental infrastructure of your network if you can avoid it. Instead, use wired bridging solutions wherever possible and only use wireless at the “edges” to bring in clients.

I wouldn't mess around with wireless bridging when these things are available: »www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 33122464

So few people even know about these things, but they really do work.

FWIW I use these ZyXEL power line adapters with my wife's Win 7 desktop PC and our ASUS router and highly recommend them..

»www.amazon.com/ZyXEL-PLA ··· duct_top

if you want to create a true bridge you need to use WDS(sometimes called 4 address mode)