RT-AC87U - adding another router as bridge - subnet question?

[Andy Smith]

Hi all! Long time reader, first time poster!

I've been running an RT-AC87U for years now, but it's struggling under load. As well as all the usual stuff (2 kids, 1 wife, a billion devices etc), I've got a few IP cams in the loft. They're connecting via wifi to the router (unable to run ethernet), and streaming constantly. Then I have a raspberry pi connected to the router via ethernet, and it writes the video streams to a USB drive. There's a lot of data moving around via wifi and it's having an impact on the rest of the devices in the house. So I'd like to try to isolate the camera network activity in some way.

I was thinking about :

1. Getting another router - say an RT-AC66U.
2. Put it into media bridge mode, connected to the RT-AC87U via wifi.
3. Put it in the loft.
4. Connect the IP cams to the new router via ethernet.
5. Move the Pi into the loft, connect to the new router via ethernet.

The question - will all the traffic running between the IP cams and the Pi remain local to the new media bridge router? Or will it still use the wifi connection to the RT-AC87U, and then travel back up the pipe, thus making it all pointless?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Hmmm.... I've never used the Media Bridge mode but in theory the bulk of the traffic should go directly between the Ethernet attached devices as they are switched connections (LAN port to LAN port). There will still be some wireless traffic for things like name resolution, arp, etc. but that should be negligible. ...In theory.

 

[Andy Smith]

Hmmm.... I've never used the Media Bridge mode but in theory the bulk of the traffic should go directly between the Ethernet attached devices as they are switched connections (LAN port to LAN port). There will still be some wireless traffic for things like name resolution, arp, etc. but that should be negligible. ...In theory.

Thanks Colin! Sounds like it's worth a shot at least. I'll pick up a cheapo router and see how it goes.

Cheers!

 

[Andy Smith]

Quick update on this, just in case anyone wanders in while searching.

There seems to be a lot of variation across the Asus range. Some support Media Bridge, some don't. Some support WDS, but you can't use it with WPA2 so that's a big no from me. I didn't want to spend reasonable money only to find I couldn't do what I wanted.

Instead, I got a TL-WR841N for £14 and put it into Range Extender mode. So far, it's been going well and doing what I want. I'll have to see how the network holds up over time of course.