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I asked about using a pc almost as a "router" and although it's a solution, I tought about just buying a second router to act as a "bridge" between my connection. (Reason: I don't want to have to keep my laptop turned on just to use the other devices)

Here is my setup now: in room1 I have router1. In room3 I have a laptop with a wireless connection, getting an ip by DHCP.

I want to buy another router(router2), put in room3, and connect two devices using ethernet cable(my tv and my ps3): this router2 should act just a a signal repeater (don't know if this is the correct term). All the devices connecting by ethernet cable should receive an ip from router1 dhcp, not from router2(since it's doing just a "bridge" from the other router).

My router1 is a Dlink DIR-300. Is it possible to create this setup I'm thinking of?

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3 Answers 3

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Yes. What you want to do is called a wireless bridge, and it is possible. Not all home routers support it, so do your research ahead of time. The free DD-WRT and Tomato firmware support this and work well, so if you get a router which supports one of those, it would work. The WRT54GL works very well for DD-WRT and can do bridging.

The way bridging works is the router acts as a wireless client, meaning it connects to the existing wireless network. It doesn't matter what kind of router set up the existing wireless network. You can then connect computers to the 2nd router's ethernet ports.

DD-WRT Wireless Bridge Mode documentation

DD-WRT supported hardware

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  • My dlink doesn't support DD-WRT, unfortunately. I'm going to search for other options, thanks! Jul 22, 2010 at 19:41
  • You said you're looking to buy a 2nd router, right? Your 1st router can run whatever - it does not need DD-WRT. You only need DD-WRT on the 2nd router. The router creating the original network can be any router.
    – nhinkle
    Jul 22, 2010 at 20:24
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I am currently using such a network. The second router has built in station mode and will connect to the first router quite easily, then you can decide how you want to route the traffic either using NAT or Bridge Mode. Bridge mode is nice because it makes your first router provide all of the IP addresses and you are all 1 big happy network. It is the way I run mine. Of course I am running advanced routers by Mikrotik. But the same thing can be done with any router that has bridging in station mode built in. I know because I have it working.

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If the laptop's running Windows, you can just use Internet Connection Sharing. Plug the laptop into a plain-jane switch, turn on ICS, and Windows will essentially turn into a NAT gateway for anything plugged into that switch.

Routers are only necessary if you want to have physically seperate networks with different IP blocks and whatnot. For most everything you do "inside" your network, a switch will do just fine.

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