WDS / Bridging - Firmware Help!

[Danielkl]

I just got two RT-AC66U units, and am having a nightmare setting this up.

My previous network was a pair of Draytek 2820VN, with a WDS link between the two. Nice and simple, and it worked.

I'm replacing it with: Draytek 2850VN <- (Lan Cable) ->RT-AC66U <- (wireless link) -> RT-AC66U.

On the ASUS website, there are 4 firmwares: 140, 164, 188 and 220. For firmwares 164+, there is a Media Bridge mode for the second RT-AC66U router, and this works fine as a setup. However, unless I'm completely missing an option somewhere, this means that the second RT-AC66U does not act as a wireless AP, instead it is a wireless client only. This isn't viable for me.

So, instead I need a WDS link. ASUS has a support page about WDS links, here. It involves using a "Bridge" tab on the wireless page. However, this does NOT exist in the latest firmwares 188 & 220. This seems to only exist in firmware 140, and even in firmware 164, the line that says "Control Channel" is no longer present.

Can anyone tell me how to do WDS on the latest firmwares? Is there something that I'm not seeing? I have tried to set up WDS over firmware 140, and then update them to 220, but this simply doesn't work well at all. Upon switching the routers on, the link does not work. If I go into some of the wireless pages and hit Apply without changing anything then it can come up, but this isn't an acceptible solution. The only other thing I can think of is doing it over telnet, but I have no particular understanding of the command sequence I'd need to perform at all.

Can anyone please help?

 

[CL-Jeremy]

I do not know what happened to WDS/Bridge in the recent firmwares but I am looking in to it. When I checked the AC66U unit that I have on .220 FW, it did not have the option either.

You say that you can see the option sometimes? Is there anybody else that either has it or can sometimes see the WDS/Bridge option?

Also, when you see the tab can you click it and edit the options? or do you just see the tab and when you click it nothing happens?

Anything that you or anybody else can provide will help in fixing this issue.

Thank you for your time.

 

[somms]

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=49592&postcount=5

Tom used two RT-A66U over 802.11ac and got rather poor wireless speeds (126 Mbps down / 247 Mbps up) I assume using stock firmware so maybe you could contact him about proper setup in order to get the two Asus to work wirelessly?

If not working under stock, you could try flashing third-party firmware as well...

 

[Danielkl]

Hi Jeremy,

A few notes, after a full afternoon of testing it. The "Bridge" tab has been removed outright in the latest firmwares. There may well be a reason for this. A WDS link can still be made in the latest .220 firmware via the unlisted page http(s)://<Router IP> /Advanced_WMode_Content.asp which was formerly the "Bridge" tab.

However, the performance of the WDS link when working is... next to useless. With the two routers right next to eachother, set to 5GHz & 80MHz bandwidth, the throughput from a wired device connected to one to another wired device connected to the other is circa 10Mbps - 40Mbps (apparently depending on the direction). As direct comparison, the exact same setup via "Media Bridge" instead gives throughput of circa 120Mbps - 240Mbps (again, apparently depending on direction).

Upon further investigation of "Media Bridge" mode, I have discovered that the second router can act as a wireless AP, and that my earlier conclusion was wrong. However, control of this is extremely convoluted, since you cannot control the wireless radios while in "Media Bridge" mode. You must change the mode of the router to "Wireless Router", then enable/disable the second radio as appropriate, and finally return it to "Media Bridge". However, there is still a problem. In "Media Bridge" mode, the second router's wireless AP is NOT the same frequency as the main network. To explain: Say the primary router is broadcasting a WLAN on 5GHz. The secondary router can connect to that, but only either act as a client only, or broadcast as a 2.4GHz AP. It is unable to broadcast a network at 5GHz. If I wish to have an all 5GHz network (as is my case) under the current firmware, I would have to buy a third router and connect it to the second as a pure AP, which I am somewhat reluctant to do.

Jeremy - could you please pass along a request to the appropriate people that:

A) WDS Bridging is made to work at proper speed and returned to the menu

or

B) "Media Bridge" mode allows the second router to broadcast as a wireless AP on the same 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz that it is bridging on. Also, allow control over the wireless radios in Media Bridge mode.

Thanks, Daniel.

 

[CL-Jeremy]

*Preface: WDS is coming back in the next firmware update. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hi Jeremy,

A few notes, after a full afternoon of testing it. The "Bridge" tab has been removed outright in the latest firmwares. There may well be a reason for this. A WDS link can still be made in the latest .220 firmware via the unlisted page http(s)://<Router IP> /Advanced_WMode_Content.asp which was formerly the "Bridge" tab.

Yes, I have found out that the functionality is always there, but it was disabled. You can find the option integrated in all of the coding for the routers, it just may not function properly.

However, the performance of the WDS link when working is... next to useless. With the two routers right next to eachother, set to 5GHz & 80MHz bandwidth, the throughput from a wired device connected to one to another wired device connected to the other is circa 10Mbps - 40Mbps (apparently depending on the direction). As direct comparison, the exact same setup via "Media Bridge" instead gives throughput of circa 120Mbps - 240Mbps (again, apparently depending on direction).

The WDS function is a bit old. It runs on G wireless so its maximum speed is 54Mbps.

Upon further investigation of "Media Bridge" mode, I have discovered that the second router can act as a wireless AP, and that my earlier conclusion was wrong. However, control of this is extremely convoluted, since you cannot control the wireless radios while in "Media Bridge" mode. You must change the mode of the router to "Wireless Router", then enable/disable the second radio as appropriate, and finally return it to "Media Bridge". However, there is still a problem. In "Media Bridge" mode, the second router's wireless AP is NOT the same frequency as the main network. To explain: Say the primary router is broadcasting a WLAN on 5GHz. The secondary router can connect to that, but only either act as a client only, or broadcast as a 2.4GHz AP. It is unable to broadcast a network at 5GHz. If I wish to have an all 5GHz network (as is my case) under the current firmware, I would have to buy a third router and connect it to the second as a pure AP, which I am somewhat reluctant to do.

Jeremy - could you please pass along a request to the appropriate people that:

A) WDS Bridging is made to work at proper speed and returned to the menu

The speed for WDS is about right. It will be returned in the next firmware update that is coming soon.

or

B) "Media Bridge" mode allows the second router to broadcast as a wireless AP on the same 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz that it is bridging on. Also, allow control over the wireless radios in Media Bridge mode.

We are also working on possibly including wireless repeating in Media Bridge Mode.

Thanks, Daniel.

You're very welcome. Please be patient as we look to possibly make Media Bridge accessible enough to where WDS isn't necessary as WDS is limited and may be difficult to set up.

 

[sunzxcv]

I have the same problem...... as Author. I bought 2 ac66u to find that there is no wireless AP mode with current firmware.

Is there tomato or ddwrt version firmware yet in development yet?

 

[CL-Jeremy]

I have the same problem...... as Author. I bought 2 ac66u to find that there is no wireless AP mode with current firmware.

Is there tomato or ddwrt version firmware yet in development yet?

Please wait just a bit longer, a new firmware is in development and may have wireless AP available.
(10/17/2012) CORRECTION: DOES have wireless AP available.

I don't think Tomato is supported, but I know DD-WRT is working on a version for this router.

 

[sunzxcv]

Dear Jeremy:

Thanks for the update with new FW!

I have upgrade to latest version but still couldn't get it to work the way I intended to do.

1st acting as Router or AP (Wireless + WDS)
2nd acting as Wireless AP ( Wireless + WDS + AP)

I have test Media bridge. It can be wireless ap but only with different GHz. If I connect with 2.4GHz, Media bridge will be on 5GHz and vice versa.

With the other router, I could run WDS+AP+Wireless with 2.4GHz only.

Is there something wrong with my setting?
How do I get it to work the way that I want?

Thanks!

 

[Danielkl]

First note: Thanks a lot to Jeremy for keeping in touch with me & helping to investigate this matter.

I'd like to put some information out there to help anyone else doing wireless bridging with these RT-AC66U routers, under the latest .249 firmware.

1) WDS. WDS is now back in the control interface, and under WDS both routers accept both wired and wireless connections under same 2.4 or 5GHz frequency. However, the performance under WDS is limited to wireless G speed only (I've not tested this on .249 myself yet, but I believe it has been unchanged since .220). There is a slight issue that the WDS "Bridge Tab" under the Wireless menu only appears when the device is in "Wireless Router" mode, and will not appear under "AP Mode" when for example you are using another device to act as DHCP server.

2) Media Bridge mode. Under this mode, one device accepts wired and wireless devices, and the other accepts wired but will only act as a wireless AP on the alternative frequency band to the bridging frequency. For example: for the maximum throughput of the bridge under wireless AC, the main frequency from the master device must be 5GHz / 80Mhz bandwidth. The second router can only listen on 5GHz, and while it can act as a wireless AP for other devices to connect to, solely on 2.4Ghz. There is also an issue that there is no explicit control over the wireless radios (e.g. enable/disable, WMM APSD or TX Power) while in Media Bridge mode, even though firmware .249 does claim (Modify 4: Wireless is configurable in media bridge mode). If you wish to control them, switch the device into "Wireless Router" mode and then make changes before reverting to "Media Bridge".

ASUS is aware of this, and again I'm extremely thankful to Jeremy for helping. I'd hope they find a way to work this out.