WRT54G as wireless bridge

"jch" hath wroth:

Only the "micro" version of DD-WRT will work on the V5 abomination. Micro is lacking in features, but I think (not sure) supports transparent bridging:

You might ask in the DD-WRT forums.

I've only attempted to install DD-WRT on a V5 mutation only once. I was trying to solve a problem where the router would just stop moving traffic for no obvious reason. After installing DD-WRT, the problem persisted. I replaced it with a Buffalo something, and the customer lived happily ever after.

However, I have a problem with your description. You mention that you would like to build a "wireless bridge" to "some ethernet devices". It takes two radios to do this. Do you have two WRT54G v5 routers? If not, what is on the other other end? If it's a common wireless router or access point, what you really need is a "wireless ethernet client bridge" that supports more than one MAC address. That's somewhat different from a transparent bridge, which usually is a symmetrical arrangement acting effectively as an ethernet extension cord. See different types listed at:

My guess(tm) is that you just want it to act as a wireless client. The micro version should do that, but can become messy if you have a complicated system:

I flashed a v5 that was having the same problem with the micro dd-wrt and it fixed the problem, the router is now stable for months at a time.

I would flash the router just because, no matter how you end up using it.. dd-wrt is much better than stock firmware. It does support client bridge but is sorta tricky to get working. When setup in client bridge you lose the ability to connect to the wireless but ethernet devices should live happy. If you have two routers WDS'ed together I believe both ethernet and wireless will work. and btw, you only lose wireless on the client brigde, not both routers. (assuming you are connecting your bridge to an exsisting router.)

Adair

I'm replacing the WRT54G v5 with a different wifi router. I am also making the assumption that the modified WRT54G v5 will handle multiple MACs. I'd never heard of DD-WRT micro. Thanks for the tip. Looking at the bridge types, I believe I need the functionality of a "Multiple MAC address cleint adapter". The WDS bridge is overkill because I don't need the access point functionality. Although the "Transparent bridge" would seem to fit as well. In the definition, I don't see reference to symmetrical.

I believe this is correct. My new router will arrive in a few days and I look forward to working on this and not making a brick of my WRT54Gv5. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions or hopefully some interesting results.

For what its worth, I wanted to report back here since I got such useful information from this group. Thank you.

Goal: Expand existing home network consisting of WRT54G v5 wireless router,

1 wired desk top, 3 wireless laptops, and 1 networked laser printer. Expansion would add 2 new devices: a HR20 DirecTV DVR and an XBox game console. The two new devices are located together but unable to hardwire connect to the WRT54G. Solution: Purchase Zyxel X-550 to replace the WRT54G and provide network with upgraded router. Hack the WRT54G v5 to have it function as a wireless bridge and provide network connectivity of the HR20 and XBox. Process: The Zyxel X-550 set up easily as the router for this network and has many more features than the WRT54G. After setting up the new router and confirming its operation, I hacked the WRT54G by loading the DD-WRT micro firmware (ver 24). It didn't go totally smoothly. In fact I thought I'd bricked the Linksys unit but that turned out not to be the case at all. The DD-WRT micro firmware is a fine upgrade for the v5 WRT54G. I had no idea I could use 3rd party firmware with this unit and very much appreciate the advice given here.

The expanded and upgraded network works flawlessly. FYI, the WRT54G acting as a wireless bridge with the DD-WRT firmware is still accessible wirelessly by any of the laptops (to check status or change configurations via the browser GUI). I know there was a question about this functionality being lost but that was defginitely not the case.

Thanks again.