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What device am I looking for? (wired > wireless, 'reverse AP')

M

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Hi,

I need to hook up a VoIP phone to a network connection in one of our offices, but we don't have a cable dropdown there. The PC in the room is using a wireless NIC, but unfortunately I can't do that with a phone. So, what piece of hardware am I looking for? I need sort of a reverse-access point, but I don't know what that's called.

So it goes: phone > ethernet cable > device > wireless access to our network (so the phone thinks it's connected via ethernet).

TIA
 
You want a wireless bridge. It is, in essence, a reverse wireless access point 🙂 You configure the wireless to connect to your wireless network, and the wired ports act just like a switch. The devices connected to it are wired to it, so they act as if its a regular old wired connection.

You can get a decent SOHO one for like $40-50.
 
The stand alone Wireless Bridges are usually very crapy.

You are better off getting an inexpensive Wireless router flash it with DD-WRT and configure it as a Wireless bridge.


😎
 
alkemyst said:
can you connect to the PC's NIC?
Click to expand...

I can try to install another NIC for 2 ports, since the PC is using a wireless antenna in its available NIC. If I install it though, how do I get it to 'port through'?

Also, will the PC need to be on for the phone to function?
 
The PC will probably have to be on....it will be like a server at that point for voice. You'd just map it another ip on the same network. I don't have a way to test this here right now (my Smart UPS 1500 just arrived DOA), but I had my UPS setup though one of my PC's NICS and it was reachable on the network.

I think default gateway cannot be set on the second NIC or else all traffic may be confused to which NIC is pointing to the proper segment. It's been a while since I set it up.
 
You guys must be buying crappy bridges. I've used the Linksys WES-610N and the D-Link DAP-1522 and while the D-Link was a little confusing to setup they were both very reliable even if a little slower than I I would have liked. If I hadn't needed to stream BR rips I would probably still be using them. The wireless seemed to struggle with FF/Rew.
 
Last edited:
Maverick2002 said:
Thanks for the responses so far. To clarify, this will ONLY be used for a single VoIP phone, so traffic on it shouldn't exceed 80-160k (this is what was told to me by our provider).

As for DD-WRT compatible, how about this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320158

$30 and it's supported: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices#Asus

I don't know anything about DD-WRT though, so no clue how easy/difficult this will be to set up.
Click to expand...

The Asus that I link to cost only $9 more has Dual External MIMo and it is rated N-300.

$9 is the price of a Fat loaded cholesterol infested Burger meal in a Fast Food Joint.:colbert:

DD-WRT has elaborate instruction pages, if you know how to read you are set.

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



😎
 
The one you linked from Newegg, on the compatibility page it doesn't have a minimum required version of DDWRT ... does that mean any version will work?
 
Maverick2002 said:
The one you linked from Newegg, on the compatibility page it doesn't have a minimum required version of DDWRT ... does that mean any version will work?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the confusion.

The $39 might not be DD-WRT compatible.

However its data sheet states that it can act as a Range Extender wireless modes.

In most cases a repeater Wireless Router is usually Client Bridge too.

It also are Tomato Shibby compatible - http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=69



😎
 
JackMDS said:
Sorry for the confusion.

The $39 might not be DD-WRT compatible.

However its data sheet states that it can act as a Range Extender wireless modes.

In most cases a repeater Wireless Router is usually Client Bridge too.

It also are Tomato Shibby compatible - http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=69



😎
Click to expand...

So ... should I just get the one from Amazon then?

This is getting overly complicated, I just need a 'wireless bridge' that's going to work for a single VoIP phone. I don't care about top notch or DD-WRT or Tomato or whatever else. I just want something that works. What should I get and how much is it going to cost?
 
smitbret said:
You guys must be buying crappy bridges. I've used the Linksys WES-610N and the D-Link DAP-1522 and while the D-Link was a little confusing to setup they were both very reliable even if a little slower than I I would have liked.
Click to expand...

I have a Linksys WET-610N (basically the same as the WES but with only one ethernet port instead of four). It's awful. The configuration interface is incredibly slow, which would only be a slight inconvenience except it also has the aforementioned glitch where connecting my laptop causes it to drop signal. I think this has something to do with radar detection, which is an undocumented "feature" that prevents the device from even detecting wifi networks on certain channels.

I absolutely hate it and I wish I had just spent a little more to get a cheap dual-band router with DD-WRT support.
 
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