AP, Client, C.Bridge, Repeater, R. Bridge? Which one?

[TonyGotaTruck]

Thanks for helping.
I have a stock Linksys Router WRT54G connected to cable modem. 250 feet away (through Wi-Fi) I have another 54G and both will serve hardwire and wireless devices. The second one has DD-WRT and I need to understand what to call it in the configuration. is it a:
Access Point,
Client,
Client Bridge,
Repeater,
Repeater Bridge???
I am noticing as a AP it is slower than usual so I am thinking I need to change it.

Thanks TonyGotaTruck

 

[jimasek]

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_Routers

 

[TonyGotaTruck]

Thanks Jim I have read everything possible and been all through DD-WRT.com Just wanted a personal opinion. I hope someone will offer an honest one. See I don't understand enough of this, should I disable DHCP & NAT to make a decision. That's why I was looking for the short answer. Thanks again for your concern.

 

[smitbret]

Thdanks Jim I have read everything possible and been all through DD-WRT.com Just wanted a personal opinion. I hope someone will offer an honest one. See I don't understand enough of this, should I disable DHCP & NAT to make a decision. That's why I was looking for the short answer. Thanks again for your concern.

For a simple home network, there should be only 1 device that handles DHCP and NAT, in your case it appears that it should be the WRT54G. This is your router since it handles the addressing and routing of the packets.

The 2nd router that you have set up with DD-WRT is technically a wireless bridge since it is not wired to the network and is responsible for picking up the network WiFi signal and distributing it to several wired and wireless clients. Hence, the term "bridge" as it is bridging two, otherwise independent networks.

This is different than an Access Point that is wired to the main router and just acts as another point that devices (Clients) can access the network. A repeater just picks up the WiFi signal and rebroadcasts for greater range at the expense of bandwidth.

 

[TonyGotaTruck]

I really appreciate your reply. It was helpful. I am still not 100% sure of which to choose . Client Bridge or Repeater Bridge but,I will try either and see what happens. Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

The words are not used consistently between vendors. Generally when you run in client mode as compared to client-bridge mode you can only run a signle mac address. The clinet-bridge mode normally uses WDS to allow multiple mac addresses. Then again some device run in a special client mode that using only 1 mac address and then runs like a router.

The word repeater almost always implies they are retransmitting the signal via wireless. Again there are a number of ways this can run. The vast majority of devices use a single radio to establish the connection to the main router and talk to the clients. Some devices use 2 radios one to talk to the main router and the second to talk to the clients. The second method performs much better but is more costly because you need 2 radio chips. When they say repeater-bridge most times they mean in addition to replicating the signal they also allow the signal to be "bridged" to the wired ports.

Still you have way to many uneducated marketing guys calling every device on the market a wireless range extender so there is no way to get a constant definition.

 

[smitbret]

The words are not used consistently between vendors. Generally when you run in client mode as compared to client-bridge mode you can only run a signle mac address. The clinet-bridge mode normally uses WDS to allow multiple mac addresses. Then again some device run in a special client mode that using only 1 mac address and then runs like a router.

The word repeater almost always implies they are retransmitting the signal via wireless. Again there are a number of ways this can run. The vast majority of devices use a single radio to establish the connection to the main router and talk to the clients. Some devices use 2 radios one to talk to the main router and the second to talk to the clients. The second method performs much better but is more costly because you need 2 radio chips. When they say repeater-bridge most times they mean in addition to replicating the signal they also allow the signal to be "bridged" to the wired ports.

Still you have way to many uneducated marketing guys calling every device on the market a wireless range extender so there is no way to get a constant definition.

Amen. This marketing stuff drives me nuts. This is the one place where standardized naming would be most useful, but for some reason they can't get together and just say "Hey, why don't we just call these things what they are?"

Most frequent? When you put something in <Bridge> mode. 9 times out of 10 it's actually <AP> mode. The actual definition of Bridge was just thrown out the window. It's a pain because most people want an AP and just start calling it a Bridge because that's what the router calls it.