Saturday, December 7, 2013

Setting up a wireless bridge with DD-WRT

I recently needed to setup an old router as a wireless bridge. The device is running DD-WRT firmware, which allows users to configure it as a bridge pretty easily. But both sets of directions I found on the DD-WRT wiki seem really outdated and way more complex than they need to be. These are the steps I took instead:

  1. Disconnect your computer from any network device it might be connected to - either wired or wireless. Plug your computer into one of your (soon-to-be) bridge's wired LAN ports.
  2. In a web browser, navigate to the bridge's configuration site - http://192.168.1.1/ by default. Go to the Setup → Basic Setup page. Change the Local IP Address to an address other than the local IP address of the router that your bridge will be connecting to. Also be sure that the IP address you pick for your bridge is not in the range of IP addresses that your router's DHCP server might assign to clients. Click the Apply Settings button. If your bridge's local IP address changed, you will need to navigate to that new IP address before continuing.
  3. On the Wireless → Basic Settings page, change Wireless Mode to Client Bridge (Routed). Apply the settings.
  4. On the same page, change the Network Name to the SSID of the network you want your bridge to connect to. Apply the settings.
  5. On the Wireless → Wireless Security page, change the Security Mode to the mode used by your router and enter the router's wifi password. Apply the settings.
  6. On the Administration → Management page, press the Reboot Router button.

Once the bridge reboots, you should be able to connect to the internet with only a wired connection to your bridge. No configuration should be needed on the router you are connecting to, unless your router is configured to use additional security features like MAC address filtering.

One addition step that I've seen online but wasn't needed on my bridge was to go to the bridge's Setup → Basic Setup page and set the Gateway and Local DNS to the router's local IP address. DD-WRT seems to do that automatically when you use the default - 0.0.0.0. Although, that may vary depending on what chipset your bridge uses. My bridge is a Buffalo WZR-HP-300HN, which uses an Atheros chip.