Netgear MR314 as a wireless bridge ?

[lorlabnew]

Hi,

wonder if it's possible to configure two MR314's for bridging purpose (so the built-in access points communicate with each other and route traffic between 2 lan's)? I found MR314 on sale, and would like to use 2 of them as wireless bridges. I heard that Linksys WAP11 got upgraded firmware so it works as either access point or as bridge, would it be possible to configure MR314's? From reading around I understand that access points normally don't communicate with each other, just with clients. I don't have any (practical) WLAN experience; also sorry if my question has been asked here already.

Thx
Dave

 

[IceNineJon]

Nope, the MR314 won't communicate with other *wireless* routers/access points. It all depends on what you mean by a bridge. You can connect it to a wired network therefore bridging a wireless one with a wired one but you can't use it to extend the signal of your wireless network if that's what you're looking to do.

 

[lorlabnew]

Thanks IceNineJon,

well, I mean that I'd like to connect two wired LAN's, each equipped with one MR314, and use their built-in access points to communicate with each other. So it would be "wireless MR314" to "wireless MR314" .

Dave

 

[IceNineJon]

Ah, I gotcha. Nope, you can't do that with this. You have two solutions...Either find an access point/router that can bridge or use the MR314 and get a standalone wireless bridge (such as the Linksys WET11...although I don't recommend that one...just to give you an idea of what you need).

My setup at home is very similar to what you want. I have a wired network in my house with a couple wireless devices on it using a MR314. My neighbor has his own wired network and got the WET11 and now both our networks communicate. Again, we have major problems with the WET11 (it locks up, etc.) so I don't recommend it but there's other wireless bridges out there.

 

[lorlabnew]

Yes, after the whole afternoon research I came up to the same conclusion- that it wouldn't work, thanks for confimation though...

I checked the WAP11, but it's probably performance - similar to the WET11 which you have rather bad experience with..
If you could recommend some other device with decent encryption and good stability> I researched some bridge from Netgear (ME102_, but it has rather weak 40-bit WEP only, and it still costs around $100... I'm almost about to get some cat5 cable, climb on the loft, and wire regular 100mbit etheret into the walls...

btw found good info here:
http://www.a1-electronics.net/PcHardware/Networking/Networking_WirelessG_pg2.shtml

anyway, thx for help again!

regards
Dave

 

[IceNineJon]

Unfortunately, the linksys bridge is the only one I've had any experience with, albeit bad. Perhaps someone else can recommend a good one?!?!