settings for bridge mode

[jsmith200]

I have an old TP-LINK WR941ND router which I want to use to extend wifi range.

When setting up a router in bridge mode, I usually do three things: 1, disable DHCP server, 2. choose the encryption mode and set the password, and 3. set the router in bridge mode, click SURVEY and select the main router to be connected to, enter the main router's password and set the bridge router's channel to match main router's.

After the above procedure, I can connect to the bridge and have Internet access. It did not work for this TP-LINK router. After the above prodecure, while the Ethernet cable still connected, I did "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" on the laptop end. Another "ipconfig" showed that the ip address of the laptop was 192.168.8.123 and the gateway address was 192.168.8.1, which was the main router's IP address. However, ping main router failed, giving two "destination unreachable" and two "time out".

Looks to me the laptop was able to get IP from the bridge router but that's it. The laptop had not Internet access and couldn't even ping the main router.

Could this be a hardware failure?

 

[bill001g]

It may not have the feature. What you describe is called client-mode but also uses a function called WDS to allow multiple mac addresses to share a single encrypted wifi connection. The mac is part of the encoding keys so they use WDS to get around this single mac address restriction.

The older tplink may not have this feature. This is not a common feature in router it is more a feature you find in a repeater or extender....although I have seen some very recent routers that have it also.

 

[jsmith200]

OK. Thanks.

I was able to use a TP-LINK WR941ND as a bridge to connect to another WR941ND. That was 4 years ago.

After the post, I did further test with a WR940N and a WR1043ND. Again, same phenomenon. They could get the IP from the main router but had not Internet access. I'm beginning to think I didn't set up the bridge router correctly.

When you said "it may not have the feature", you were referring to the bridge router, not the main router, correct?

 

[bill001g]

technically both need support for WDS but most routers have that. Some are more restrictive than others since it is considered a security exposure when not setup correctly. But it is the bridge device that must have client-mode which is the hard one.