I just became aware of specialty WiFi devices called "gaming adapters" or "wireless bridge adapters" which convert an Ethernet connection to a wireless one. They tend to be pricier than wireless routers and are usually dedicated to converting a single Ethernet device. How is using one of these devices different from adding another 4-port wireless router to the wireless network? What am I missing here? Thanks.
Since you didn't bother to specify what you're trying to accomplish, I can't determine if a wireless game adapter is appropriate.
There are two basic types of wireless bridges. One is a transparent bridge, where one can see multiple MAC addresses through the bridge. For every device connected to the wireless bridge radio, a seperate IP address will be assigned by the DHCP server.
The other type is a not-so-transparent client bridge mode, where only the MAC address of the bridge radio is passed. See discussion at:
The difference is visible when running arp -a command. The transparent bridge will have a different MAC address for each IP address. The client bridge will show multiple IP addresses for the MAC address of the bridge.
Where the problems appear is when you try to connect an ethernet switch to the wireless bridge radio, and find that only one connected computah can obtain an IP address through the bridge via DHCP. Most wireless bridges will allow multiple computers, but a few do not. As I recall, the DLink DWL-2100 is one that does not.
The reason these cost more is because the product volume is much less than wireless routers.
Back to doing my taxes. Grumble...
A "wireless bridge adapter" is a bridge whereas a 4-port wireless router is a router. A bridge passes all traffic whereas a router only passes some of it. If you want a more technical summary then see Jeff's post or google for it.
I think you could use the 4-port wireless router as a bridge if you plugged your network into one of the 4 "internal" ports and not the single "external" port. You might want to disable DHCP on it too assuming you already have a router providing DHCP.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for your replies Jeff and Brian. Yes, it did help my understanding. My goal is to wirelessly connect 5 Ethernet IP phones to a remote router. So it appears I can save money by tweaking another wireless router to suit my needs.
Well, not quite. You can also filter traffic with bridging such as in a VLAN. What a multiport bridge does is build a table of MAC addresses that are connected to each port. No IP addresses are involved. When a packet arrives at one port, the bridge checks the packet header, to see where to send the packet. Since a given MAC address can only be located at one port, it only sends the packet to that port, with no traffic going to the other ports. If the destination MAC address is not found in the table, the bridge does nothing. If there is no destination MAC address, such as in a broadcast packet, it goes to ALL the other ports.
A two port bridge works the same way, except that there are only 2 ports involved. If the destination MAC address is across the bridge, the packet gets sent. If not, it doesn't get sent across the bridge. If it's a broadcast packet, it gets sent. This dramatically cuts down on the wasted traffic that would need to be transmitted via wireless.
A wireless bridge is exactly the same as a wired bridge (or the multiport version which is an ethernet switch). The different types of wireless bridges are detailed in the FAQ, but it's down right now. I'll post the link when it returns. There a really old version at:
Scroll down to "Wi-Fi Hardware -> Wireless Bridge".
Nope. Some wireless routers can be convinced to act as access points, wireless client bridge, wireless transparent bridge, point to point bridge, point to multipoint bridge, ad-hoc client, etc. However, few commodity wireless routers have the ability to do much more than act as an access point or wireess router.
If you must use a wireless router as a bridge to another wireless router, it can be done use WDS (wireless distribution system
True. I was aiming for simple explanation, without the detail.
I've done it using a standard wireless router (essentially using it as a hub) so I know what I'm suggesting works.
What I was describing was using a wireless router as a WAP, not using the wireless router as a bridge between two wireless networks. Perhaps I misunderstood what the OP was after?
It can be done, but you'll probably need a wireless bridge that supports multiple MAC addresses. There's a list on the FAQ, but it's old. To add to the fun, there are some that work, but limit the number of MAC addresses to some pre-defined amount. Those are called a "workgroup bridge" mostly by 3com and Cisco. Trying to get the vendors to supply useful data like the maximum number of clients and how many MAC addresses will it pass, is an exercise in futility. Even worse, some firmware mutations break this "feature" since it's not clearly specified in the specs, and therefore not tested properly.
If you're using a SIP phone (highly likely) and a single wireless router, you'll also need to configure a STUN server to handle the NAT.
You might also consider individual wireless clients for each phone. See WBP-54G
You can also do something bizarre, such as using a WDS bridge *AND* individual wireless radios on each SIP phone. I do that with several SPA941 SIP phones at a customers. The catch is that you can't really use a highly directional antenna on the WDS bridge since the SIP phones also have to connect via the same antenna. WDS also only supports WEP encryption (except with DD-WRT firmware), so the security is rather marginal. Plenty of topology options. Use your imagination.
Anyway, back to the wireless bridge problem. Just plug two or more computahss, configured for DHCP into the wireless bridge, and see if the DHCP server in your unspecified wireless router will deliver a valid IP address to each computah. If only one gets a usable IP, and the others are stuck with 169.254.xxx.xxx, you lose. If all the machines have usable IP addresses, you win.
I looked at the WBP-54G before posting here. Since, as you say, such gaming adapters are more efficient with wireless traffic, and their setups appear to be uncomplicated, I think they'll suit my needs better.
Linksys WBP-54G (1-port) -> $38.50 @ Amazon
TRENDnet TEW-640MB Wireless N (4-Port) Media Bridge $49.99 @ TigerDirect
Perhaps two TEW-640MB for the 5 Ethernet SIP phones?
I think I'll go with the gaming adapters to be safe. Thanks again Brian and Jeff, I found the extra info useful.
Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.