On Thu, 15 Mar 2018 23:26:38 -0400 rhkra...@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
