Any help would be greatly appreciated WIFI networking

[PUN]

I currently have Belkin N router which connects
1) Desktop (ETHERNET)
2) VOIP phone (ETHERNET)
3) VOIP Phone 2 (ETHERNET)
4) Laptop (WIFI)

In my living room, I have a HTPC and a Xbox360 which I would like to connect.
I have a spare WRT54G router. can I use this router to to connect both HTPC and 360? Or should I just get 2 USB wifi?
Thanks!

 

[xSauronx]

with some 3rd party firmware you can use the spare wrt54g as a wireless bridge, which will basically turn it into a wireless adapter with 4 (maybe 5, i think some firmware will let you use the WAN port as part of the switch) wired ports.

look into dd-wrt or tomato. note that specific versions of that router may require specific versions of the firmware

 

[PUN]

is it easy to set it up?
I think i have the version 5 of the wrt54g.
once it is updated, how does it get configured?

EDIT: I just read someone's step by step post to bridge it but it looks like the PCs connected to the client wrt54g won't be networked to the main pc with main wifi router.

 

[QuixoticOne]

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrt54g#Hardware_revisions

I think the V5 may be possible to use but you may need to take somewhat inconvenient steps to kill the VxWorks O/S on the unit before replacing the firmware. check the dd-wrt site for details and options. You may be limited to a "micro" version of the dd-wrt firmware with reduced capabilities as compared to the full version that you could run on a WRT-54GL model. Nevertheless, I think even the micro version if you can get it working will work in client mode as described.

The way you set up the dd-wrt router once the firmware is changed is usually over a web browser interface over the network just like it is possible to set up the router before you change the firmware. Though no utility that runs on your PC will work to configure it, a difference with the way you may have configured the router with stock firmware.

I don't recall if DD-WRT supports any kind of UPNP automatic configuration, but in your case you'd need to run the networked web browser interface anyway to set up the client mode stuff on the client router.

It is probably somewhat of a hassle to do, but it isn't infeasible. If you're willing to invest an hour into doing it I'd suspect that you'd manage OK.

If you want it to be much easier you can always buy a WRT54GL or a dedicated client mode device or other router(s) that support WDS bridging with stock firmware.

 

[QuixoticOne]

The PCs on the client router can be networked with the main set if you either bridge the client to the main router, or if you set up the routing tables properly so they know how to talk to each other when they're on different subnets.

 

[PUN]

thanks for your help quix

if I buy wrt54gl, will it work right out of the box in terms of networking the computers on both side of the router? does bridging client to the main router involve some knowledge of networking exp?
Thanks

 

[QuixoticOne]

WDS bridging is a feature in a few different routers stock firmware. In general it works best when the two bridged routers are of the same model. I don't recall if the WRT54GL has this feature in its stock firmware or not.

Client mode is an even rarer feature in stock firmware, and few routers have this capability unless you can and do use something like dd-wrt 3rd party firmware on those models. I don't know if the stock WRT54GL supports this mode.

The manual you download from linksys for the model should say if its stock firmware supports WDS bridging mode and/or client mode.

I meant that the WRT54G-L model has bigger flash ROM, more RAM, and is designed to be easily (relatively) able to be flashed to the full featured version of DD_WRT and similar 3rd party firmware. When you convert this (L) model of router it should be possible (IIRC) to do it with a few less steps / complications than converting the firmware in the V5 WRT54G model you said you had. And in the end the (L) model's greater flash / RAM capabilities will let you run somewhat more sophisticated / capable firmware on the (L) unit. I suspect, though, that even the V5 will do what you need once you do get it updated to DD_WRT. Check their site for limitations / features of the edition compatible with the V5 or whatever you have.

If you want an out-of-the-box client mode or wds bridge mode solution you'd be looking at replacing both of your routers, though at the moment I don't know what routers to recommend that have those features in stock firmware. I know several do have it though. It may be possible to buy a pre-flashed DD-WRT router from someone too, but I don't know the details of that.

Doing the TFTP and VX works killer program shouldn't be all that bad, though, for your current V5.. maybe 1 hour of fooling around and studying the steps required. The worst that'll happen is that you'll break the router and have to get a new one anyway (aside from some wasted effort/time). I'd try it if the site suggests that it is compatible / possible / useful.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: QuixoticOne
WDS bridging is a feature in a few different routers stock firmware. In general it works best when the two bridged routers are of the same model. I don't recall if the WRT54GL has this feature in its stock firmware or not.

Client mode is an even rarer feature in stock firmware, and few routers have this capability unless you can and do use something like dd-wrt 3rd party firmware on those models. I don't know if the stock WRT54GL supports this mode.

it doesnt.

flashing the linksys with dd-wrt wont be hard, just be sure to read the instructions. after that you can easily set it to bridge mode with dhcp forwarding, which turns it into a wifi adapter, essentially.

the dd-wrt stuff has good how tos and, iirc, pretty active forums. this is a pretty easy setup so id bet just googling or looking over the wikis on the site will walk the OP through everything without a problem, it worked for me when i flashed some buffalo routers as everything i saw was pretty well documented.

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: PUN
if I buy wrt54gl, will it work right out of the box in terms of networking the computers on both side of the router? does bridging client to the main router involve some knowledge of networking exp?

If you want a simpler solution, you can try an off-the-shelf client mode bridge. These are not very common, and typically more expensive, but in theory should be simpler, and come with vendor warranty and support. That said, the last person I gave this advice to failed to get such a device, a SMCWEB-N, working in his network. D-Link has a similar device -- the DAP-1522. Linksys has had such devices in their "WET" series for a long time. There are a number of others, with various characteristics.

The advantages of the WRT54GL are more for general-purpose routing usage -- the needs for bridging are less, and once set up, there should not be a big difference between a WRT54GL and a WRT54G v5 when used as a simple wireless bridge.

The WRT54GL is supported by Tomato firmware though, which might be a bit simpler to set up as it's not as feature rich and potentially complex.

The instructions I gave previously for for setting up client bridge mode with DD-WRT are almost all you need to know after flashing. If you have any questions, ask. After that it's pretty much plug & play, and computers on both sides of the bridge can see each other.