Connect wired-only devices to a remote wireless access point?

Question

In building A, I have a Netgear wireless access point using WPA2. Works great, no problems.

In building B, I have some devices that only have wired Ethernet ports. They can't see my access point.

What I need is a gizmo that connects over-the-air to my access point in building A, talks WPA2, and converts the packets to and from a wired Ethernet port.

Netgear-access-point in building A
     (WPA2 WiFi)
Wireless bridge device          <-- Looking for this.
     (Cat5 ethernet)
My devices in building B.

I've looked for devices on Amazon, but the descriptions are infuriatingly unclear. It says it supports WPA2, but does it support it as a client? Grrr...

Any recommendations please?

Answer 1

A linksys router flashed with DD-WRT and setup as a Wireless Bridge will do the trick. Assuming, you can receive the signal from wireless network in Building A from Building B. It'll use the wireless link to create a bridge between Building A and Building B allowing wired-ethernet connected clients in Building B to see all clients (wired and wireless) in Building A.

Answer 2

If you've got a computer between it you could try out ICS (on windows) or the linux equivalent. You could possibly get another router with both wireless and ethernet ports, install DD-WRT on it and setup wireless bridging.

Answer 3

try this
i use one and have no problems with it. this device should allow you to connect a switch to its port and then connect all the devices you need to the switch. I haven't tested this but it doesn't appear to do anything odd that would prevent it. My friend bought a similar device which called itself a "Game adapter". It did odd things with the mac address of the device connected so it only supported a single device.

Answer 4

There's an interesting article, Long Range Links Explained, that contains some useful info about how to get a signal across a few kilometers using antennas, and recommends some suitable hardware.

Many other companies manufacture such hardware, and I have even heard of a case where the problem was solved using a tin-can as antenna.

A very fast google search found, for example, RadioLabs WiFi Networking which contains several solutions of differing types, among which the GS-1000 seems to do what you ask (I have no experience with it) on up to 5 miles line of sight, while the GS-2400 can do 20 miles.