Help bridging two routers

[rickeo]

Hi. Currently I have an Actiontec MI424WR (needed for FiOS) on my main floor and my iMac is connected wirelessly on the second floor, but on the other side of the house. iStumbler is giving me a signal strenth of 50%. I wanna improve that but running a Cat5e cable between floors has proven to be to much trouble, but i can run one across the house to the room directly above the Actiontec. I have a spare WRT54G v3.1 running Tomato Firmware v1.17 (i like it MUCH more then DD-WRT). I have successfully run the WRT54G in client mode connected to the Actiontec, and a Cat5e cable running to my iMac, but that puts me on a different LAN, and well, i dont want to do that. I tried disabling the DHCP server on the WRT54G but all that accomplished was no longer allowing me to connect to it because the default "192.168.1.1" no longer worked. Im just looking for a way to get the best connection to the Actiontec, and still be part of its LAN, and not the WRT54g's. Im pretty sure its just a setting in the Tamato firmware that im not enabling/disabling. Thanks in advance!

 

[Madwand1]

Try the "Wireless Ethernet Bridge" mode instead of "client mode".

 

[rickeo]

Worked! But one issue. How do i access the web interface of the WRT54G now? 192.168.1.1 brings me to the actiontec's interface.

 

[Madwand1]

You might have to reset it to defaults for that. Then connect to it directly, change its IP to something compatible and non-conflicting, and then set it up for wireless bridging again.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: rickeo
Worked! But one issue. How do i access the web interface of the WRT54G now? 192.168.1.1 brings me to the actiontec's interface.

Set the "LAN" IP address of the two routers to different values, but with both on the same subnet. For instance:

Linksys: 192.168.1.1 / 255.255.255.0
ActionTec: 192.168.1.2 / 255.255.255.0

Make sure that no other devices will tromp on either of those two IP addresses.

 

[rickeo]

Problem. When you select Wireless Ethernet Bridge mode on the WRT54G the area to change the LAN IP and subnet disappears. I completely understand what you guys are trying to say, but I dont understand where to do it, now that it disappeared.

 

[Madwand1]

The typical way to do it is to change the IP before setting it to bridged mode. However, as you've changed the mode and can't get back in to change the IP, the normal solution would be to press and hold the reset button, thereby reset the bridge to default (routing) mode, and start over -- change the IP, and go from there.

But now that I think of it, you have another option -- change the IP on the primary router instead.

 

[rickeo]

Aright, im pretty sure that when in Bridge mode, the bridged router basically becomes invisible and acts like a wire connecting my iMac to ActionTec downstairs. I can only reconfigure it if i reset it via the button on the back. I just wanted to get back into it to up the transmission power All is well now, getting much faster transfer speeds on my LAN. Thanks!