Client based Wireless Repeater/Bridge

[zurge]

I live in an apartment that has wifi. I would like to have a use a client based repeater to connect to the apartment wifi, and then have my devices in my apartment connect to the repeater.

The reason for this is it will allow me to share a printer, media, etc... via connecting to a single wireless connection, my client-based repeater. Is there such a device that will allow this? I would like some ethernet ports too.

If you need/want more information please let me know.

 

[thiggins]

Are the clients that you want to connect, wired or wireless?

If wired, you can use a wireless bridge. If wireless, you need a repeater.
Everything You Need To Know About Wireless Bridging and Repeating - Part 2: No WDS Required

 

[zurge]

Excellent information in the article. I want my wireless devices to connect to my repeater, so that I can take advantage of accessing my printer/NAS through my repeater. Also, is it possible to not allow people to access my NAS/Printer when using a Repeater?

Could this be accomplished with a repeater that supports 2-seperate SSIDs?

 

[thiggins]

Excellent information in the article. I want my wireless devices to connect to my repeater, so that I can take advantage of accessing my printer/NAS through my repeater. Also, is it possible to not allow people to access my NAS/Printer when using a Repeater?

Could this be accomplished with a repeater that supports 2-seperate SSIDs?

No. The second SSID would just connect wireless clients to the same LAN.

 

[zurge]

So...am I trying to accomplish the unattainable?

 

[stevech]

So...am I trying to accomplish the unattainable?

Several ways to do it.
The plug and play way is with one of these, or equiv.
http://www.ruckuswireless.com/products/mediaflex-home-products
or any other that are sold to consumers using metro WiFi and the building penetration is poor.

Another way is a WiFi to ethernet bridge, connect the ethernet to the WAN port of a WiFi router and double-NAT. the router's channel should be different by 3 or more channels. The bridge gets configured with the SSID and decryption settings for the apartment WiFi. Some products also have "RIP" to stop loops.

 

[zurge]

Interesting idea, I will have to try the router/ethernet bridge thing. I happen to have both of those things sitting around.

 

[zurge]

Tried this using a Buffalo Ethernet-to-Wireless G bridge, and my trusty Linksys WRT54GL. So far this has been working great.

Thanks for the help.

 

[zurge]

Wireless Speeds

I've been successfully running the above configuration for about 2 months now, and it works pretty good. The one thing that I have noticed is this:

When running a Internet bandwidth speedtest while connected to the building wifi, I get around 9 MB/s. When I then connect to my router (which then connects to the building wifi via an ethernet bridge connected to the routers WAN port) and run the same speedtest, I get about 4MB/s.

The building wifi is G, my router is G. Is a 50% Internet bandwidth reduction make sense? Would a new router and/or ethernet bridge make any difference?

 

[thiggins]

I've been successfully running the above configuration for about 2 months now, and it works pretty good. The one thing that I have noticed is this:

When running a Internet bandwidth speedtest while connected to the building wifi, I get around 9 MB/s. When I then connect to my router (which then connects to the building wifi via an ethernet bridge connected to the routers WAN port) and run the same speedtest, I get about 4MB/s.

The building wifi is G, my router is G. Is a 50% Internet bandwidth reduction make sense? Would a new router and/or ethernet bridge make any difference?

Try setting your wireless router radio to a different channel than the building Wi-Fi (1, 6 or 11).

 

[zurge]

Radio Channel

My router currently is set to a different channel:


My router: Ch. 11
Building Wifi: Ch. 5

Most of the other routers in the building are channel 1, with a few set to 5.

 

[overdrive31]

Connect to the bridge wired and test to rule it out, then you have your answer. If it isn't the bridge, it's the Linksys router or it's configuration.

A common use internet may never test at it's fullest consistently since load on the network can effect results.

 

[zurge]

Internet Speed Test Part II

I decided to run an internet speed test using three scenarios:

1: Laptop -->Router-->Wireless-Bridge-->Wifi
2: Laptop -->Wireless-Bridge-->Wifi
3: Laptop -->Wifi

I used www.speedtest.net/ for my speed test results. After running the speed tests one after another within roughly a 5 minute time frame i got the following:

1: 3.2Mbps
2: 6.5Mbps
3: ~6.5Mbps

It appeared to me that the router was the issue, so I decided to try the test one more time. On the second attempt I noticed something VERY strange. The Mbps i got back for each situation was completely crazy.

1: ~7Mbps
2: 4.5Mbps
3: 5Mbps

After looking at that I asked myself, how are these numbers even possible?

So I ran several more tests, and I also tried running a speed test at dslreport.com, but all of the tests showed very inconsistent speed test results. This makes me think that the shared Internet connection is just VERY unstable, jumping all over the place speedwise. So am I just looking at a Internet connection that is inconsistent or could there be more to the story?

Zach

 

[stevech]

don't use speedtest and the internet for serious performance tests. The 'net and the hosts used for testing are highly variable.

Try using freeware QCheck on two computers on your LAN. To test WiFi, one PC uses WiFi; the other is 100BT or better wired. Make sure these are fast PCs with the latest Microsoft TCP/IP stacks.