RT-AC68 Bridge mode / WDS question

[grimep]

RT-AC68U, 3.0.0.4.380_3264

Bit of a newb question... Today I bought an RT-AC68U to use in bridge mode. The plan was to wire up my PCs etc to the RT-AC68U, and put it into bridge mode over 5Ghz to connect to the router/modem that came from the ISP.

I had read the user manual before purchasing and it seemed like it would be simple enough, but when I read the instructions on the Wireless bridge settings page it became obvious this wouldn't work - turns out the ISP router/modem doesn't support bridge mode.

So I now need another router/AP that supports WDS. I might get another RT-AC68 for simplicity/compatibility though they are relatively expensive, so will look into cheaper alternatives as 2 routers is more than I wanted to spend. A $15 ethernet cable might have been worth the hassle after all. I've got the RT-AC68 hooked up to my ISP router modem, which now has its wifi disabled, and have got internet access ok. I've wired from the RT-AC68's WAN port to one of the ethernet ports on the ISP router and no further setup was necessary- the RT-AC68 had a conflict and auto changed its IP address. Its working but is there other config settings I should change with this setup to optimize?

Anyway, to my question - It isn't clear from the instructions, but if I configure the RT-AC68 that is in the remote location as 5Ghz WDS only and 2.4Ghz Access Point, do I also set the base RT-AC68 to 5Ghz WDS only and 2.4Ghz AP? I guess I'll also experiment with the Hybrid mode, can you choose Hybrid on one side but not the other? And are there any other similar models from other manufacturers that would work well as an alternative?

I see there's a firmware update for Mesh Mode which might prove useful but I want to stick with tried and tested WDS for now. thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

I think you are confusing two different things. What Asus calls "Media bridge" (Administration - Operation Mode) is not the same as WDS (Wireless - WDS).

You can configure the Asus as a media bridge and get it to connect to your ISP router/modem over the 5GHz band. You can then connect wired devices to the Asus' LAN ports.

WDS is similar to a wireless repeater or mesh system.

 

[grimep]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Well I guess its understandable that I'm confused as on the Advanced>Wireless>WDS page it says:

Wireless - Bridge

Bridge (or named WDS - Wireless Distribution System) function allows your RT-AC68U to connect to an access point wirelessly. WDS may also be considered a repeater mode

Repeater mode wasn't what I wanted but the documentation isn't clear. Using the word Bridge for 2 different concepts is pretty confusing, thanks for clarifying. I have been trying all afternoon to get the 2 routers to talk to each other via the WDS settings page. I thought the idea was they'd connect over 5ghz, the main AP would allow wifi connections on 2.4ghz and the remote one would take wired and wireless connections.

So long story short I've set everything back to default and simply enabled Media Bridge on the remote RT-AC68 and voila, I've got internet access on the remote PC. Thanks a lot for clearing that up and ending the stress- I thought I was going to have to put these routers on ebay and go for a tricky long ethernet cable instead.

One thing I thought was a bit odd- when I turn on Bridge Mode it only shows me my 2.4Ghz network as an option, I thought it would also allow connection over 5Ghz, which in my house is much less crowded. I know 5Ghz reaches to the point where the remote router is sited, is this normal? Would it be better/faster/more bandwidth if it was Bridged over 5Ghz?

 

[ColinTaylor]

One thing I thought was a bit odd- when I turn on Bridge Mode it only shows me my 2.4Ghz network as an option, I thought it would also allow connection over 5Ghz, which in my house is much less crowded. I know 5Ghz reaches to the point where the remote router is sited, is this normal? Would it be better/faster/more bandwidth if it was Bridged over 5Ghz?

I believe that there is an issue detecting 5GHz networks in certain circumstances. See this post. If you're in the EU it may apply to you. To test my theory, try switching the Asus back to "router" mode. Then set the 5GHz control channel to 36. Now change back to media bridge mode and see if you can now see your 5GHz networks.

 

[grimep]

You're right again. I changed both routers to channel 36, switched bridge mode off and on and voila, 5Ghz is available, reporting 877Mbps. Signal isn't quite as strong as 2.4 and I'm using this for internet access with slow fibre at around 30Mbps, so perhaps I'm better off sticking to 2.4Ghz, though maybe using it this way means there's more bandwidth at 2.4. Thanks again for the spot-on info.