Can I use my old router as a bridge?

[homestarmy]

Well I just read about and bought a Linksys WRT54G router which will let me hack and shape bandwidth for my VoIP. So I have my older B wireless SMC barricade router similar to this one left. Is there any chance that I can use the SMC as a wireless bridge so I can put my VoIP box in another room (new house with non-working phone jacks because I've never had telco service).

Any chance?

 

[imported_FishTaco]

You could try, but I doubt it since they'll be different chipsets inside.

 

[homestarmy]

So to use a router as a bridge you need to have the same chipset?

 

[imported_FishTaco]

hmm, since you aren't going to get them to bridge with WDS, how about checking if the SMC has a client mode. If it does you can connect it in client mode with your VoIP box connected to it. If it doesn't have client mode, I guess you could use the SMC as your router and use your hacked linksys in client mode. That should work, but you'll lose the hacked linksys ability to shape traffic.

 

[homestarmy]

Well that would make my Linksys kinda useless to me unfortunately, so I'll have to look further into 'client mode' on the SMC... thanks!

 

[Lord Evermore]

It's possible, that's how we've been using ours until yesterday, with our DSL router (just got myself a 11g router and now bridge the DSL to it). Just leave the WAN port on the SMC open. Configure it to have a static IP on the WAN, and either leave it blank or set it to some random network (like 172.0.0.1) that won't cause any interference with real network traffic. Set the LAN IP to something that won't be assigned by DHCP from the new router, and disable all DHCP, firewall, and other functions, except for the wireless settings. Then plug one LAN port into the new router (using a crossover cable if neither has an uplink port or auto-detect). Now you've got a wireless access point as well as the remaining switch ports on the SMC. The settings like date time, if they can't be manually set, are designed to be picked up via the WAN connection, so any logs of the wireless connections won't have the right date/time.

Incidentally, as long as the phone jacks actually are wired together, you can do phoneline networking. They don't have to actually be connected to the telephone system.