Use two different devices with one in media bridge mode?

[qpzm]

Hello!

I currently have an ASUS RT-AC66U and would like to buy an ASUS RT-AC68U and use one of them as a media brigde. The problem is that in the router-UI says that for the device to work as a media bridge the other device has to be the same (RT-AC66U).

The first question is, do the devices have to be exactly the same to work with each other in router mode -> media bridge mode?

The second question is this:
The reason for me doing this is because i want to have internet in an other part of my house and there I would like to use cables to get the maximum out of my connection since some of my devices have bad wireless functionalities. And the question is that when using one of the devices as a repeater, will the device only forward the wireless signal to e.g my ps3, xbox and so forth? Or can I also connect wires in the LAN-ports into the repeater and get internet through this?

I'm sorry if this is confusing but will this work:

AC68U (Router-mode) ----> wireless ----> AC66U (Repeater-mode) ----> wired through LAN-ports-----> PS3, PS4, XBOX and you name it.

 

[bill001g]

Running wireless repeater mode is one of those things that I am not sure there is a actual standard for. The more "standard" method used is to use one radio as the backhaul to the main router and a second radio to provide services to the clients. This is in effect a client bridge hooked back to back with a AP. Both those are pretty standard and there are few if any restrictions running brand to brand. When it comes to repeater mode it is attempting to use a single radio to both talk to the main router and then talk to the clients. Most the issues are related to the security protocols and seems to be most the reason there are all the restrictions.

So if your second device does not need wireless you can use it as a simple client bridge and use one of the radios to make the connection to the main router and then use the ethernet ports to connect the end devices. This assumes the device will run this way, a couple I have seen lately only run in a silly repeater mode even when you don't need the wireless.

I would bet these 2 are compatible the software and feature sets are almost the same. If it doesn't work I guess you could try load dd-wrt on the 66U...not sure if the 68u has a image yet. dd-wrt is much more flexible.

I really wish all these vendors had not tried to go as cheap as possible and sell this crap solution as "repeaters". I have always used 2 physical devices to make a repeater because I hated the idea of losing 1/2 the bandwidth by intentionally transmitting a signal on the same channel. Good design always said 2 radios that could see each other should use different channels.

 

[qpzm]

Running wireless repeater mode is one of those things that I am not sure there is a actual standard for. The more "standard" method used is to use one radio as the backhaul to the main router and a second radio to provide services to the clients. This is in effect a client bridge hooked back to back with a AP. Both those are pretty standard and there are few if any restrictions running brand to brand. When it comes to repeater mode it is attempting to use a single radio to both talk to the main router and then talk to the clients. Most the issues are related to the security protocols and seems to be most the reason there are all the restrictions.

So if your second device does not need wireless you can use it as a simple client bridge and use one of the radios to make the connection to the main router and then use the ethernet ports to connect the end devices. This assumes the device will run this way, a couple I have seen lately only run in a silly repeater mode even when you don't need the wireless.

I would bet these 2 are compatible the software and feature sets are almost the same. If it doesn't work I guess you could try load dd-wrt on the 66U...not sure if the 68u has a image yet. dd-wrt is much more flexible.

I really wish all these vendors had not tried to go as cheap as possible and sell this crap solution as "repeaters". I have always used 2 physical devices to make a repeater because I hated the idea of losing 1/2 the bandwidth by intentionally transmitting a signal on the same channel. Good design always said 2 radios that could see each other should use different channels.

So if I put my AC68U in repeater mode, will i be able to access the internet through cable from this specific device?
And is there a way to turn off the wireless outbound signals from the repeater (AC68U) so that it only goes through the LAN-ports, if this is even a possibility in that mode.


As I tried to say earlier, the media bridge mode does exactly what I want to do but it says that I need to identical devices for it and I'm not so keen on buying an AC68U to find out that it's not working.

 

[bill001g]

I really wish I knew the answer the vendors have been calling everything under the sun a wireless extender or repeater. I had started to think they at least didn't misuse the term "client-bridge" and would tell people to look for that. I have since found a couple of device from large manufacture that claim the are running in client-bridge mode but actually run as a wireless repeater with no way to disable the wireless.

At this point I would almost use a outdoor bridge unit. Something like a ENH200. They used to sell very very cheap indoor units that were really simple wireless to ethernet converters. There must still be some on the market but mostly I find those cheap garbage repeaters.

 

[qpzm]

But the question I need answered is will the AC66U work in media bridge mode with an AC68U?

And will the AC66U when put in repeater-mode put through internet to the LAN-ports?

 

[macloud]

sorry that no one answered your question, it is quite a simple request I would have expected at least someone supporting asus products to have responded. I assume that buy now you may have discovered the answer but if not or if anyone else comes to this post perhaps this may help them;

a media bridge is a name that asus and other venders have in recent years used to describe what the open source firmwares refer to as client mode. that is, one router is used as a regular AP mode wireless router, and an other router is configured as a client just as a laptop with a wireless card is a client. Remember a residential router is infact a computer that comes with built in routing services any computer can be used for such purposes. that being said, when using routers in client mode (media bridge) the purpose is usually to share that connection via a bridge to other clients over ethernet. Client bridge mode on open source firmwares has not been a perfect experience for this purpose depending on the network protocalls used by the apps intended to use this bridge, primarily routing issues occur in part because by defualt a wireless client usually has one mac address while a wireless client that is brideged can have many mac addresses.To understand wireless bridges you first must understand a basic ethernet switch,an ethernet switch will happily send a packet with an unmapped destination mac address over every port until a responce from one of the ports then it will add the port and address to the mac table This is why you can simply plug two switches together in any port with a crossover cable, that crossover cable is the `media bridge `` and will function perfectly as a single switch would. A wifi router on the other hand unlike ethernet switch will not transmit a layer II (ethernet) packet to the wireless bridge unless the destination mac is that of an authenticated wireless client (unless its a multicast packet), this is why furthar work is requred to make sure ap router and client will be capable of understanding multiple layer II (mac) addresses are available on a single wifi client (the bridge) even thogh the actual destination mac is not that of an authenticated client. WDS (an alternitove to media bridge mode) does not have this problem as it is designed to be a bridge and is a true point to point connection capable of encapsulating traffic with leaving layer II headers intact and maintaining a mac address table with multiple entries over a single wifi connection in both directions . There is of coarse many problems with WDS usualy including reduced bandwidth and the inability to use up to date encryption and both ends usualy need be same radio type ie broadcom. Now comes in asus and others who use proprietary client mode they call bridge mode which has been optimised to better function as a bridge.

Indeed I have used different asus routers in meida bridge mode without any issues besides of course that the slower of the two routers will be the limiting factor on connection speed. And i have found that the asus bridge mode functioned considerable better than other open source client modes I have tried. I would expect that an asus can function as a media bridge client even with another branded router as the wireless AP (have not tried as of yet) but the connection may suffer from routing problems for certain network protocols though ibasic internet should be possible..