Shaun’s Notes

A wireless repeater can extend the range of a wireless network by ‘repeating’ the signal.
A wireless bridge allows all computer physically connected to the bridge device to receive messages from the wireless network.

Goal of this article
I will show how to extend the range of your wireless network without the need of expensive wireless repeater devices.

What is needed?
1. A wireless router: this router will be the primary router acting as the DHCP server (assigning IPs to computers)
2. Linksys WRT54G/S : this router will be the repeater and bridge used to extend your network
3. dd-wrt firmware for the Linksys router: please download the appropriate version for your router version.

Steps

1. Physically connect a computer to the Linksys WRT54G router.
2. Update the firmware of the WRT54G with the version of dd-wrt you downloaded.
3. Once the dd-wrt firmware has been installed your username should be ‘root’ and password ‘admin’.
4. I recommend changing the password before performing any other steps.
5. Go to the ‘Wireless’ tab and change the following:
Wireless Mode : “Repeater Bridge”
[this will allow all devices wirelessly and physically connected to this device to access the primary network]
Wireless Network Mode: Whatever mode your primary router is running. In the case of Wireless-N I recommend using a mixed mode of N & G then you can set this mode as G-Only.
Wireless Network Name : The SSID of the primary router
Wireless Channel: Auto
Network Configuration: Bridged

Under Virtual Interfaces : Click Add
Wireless Network Name : Create a SSID that you want for this wireless device (must differ from primary router’s)
AP Isolation: Disabled
Network Configuration: Bridged
Save and Apply Settings

6. Go to the “Wireless Security” tab
Under “Physcial Interface” enter all the corresponding security information for the primary router
Under “Virtual Interfaces” enter the security you would like for the repeater.
Save and Apply Settings

Remember that all devices that access the repeater can access your main network. Therefore, make the repeater as secure as possible.

In my situation my primary router is set to WPA, however I have a Linksys Wireless Game Adapter, WGA54G, hooked up to a XBOX that can only use WEP. Therefore, I set the dd-wrt router to WEP, which the WGA54G will connect to.

7. Click on the “Security” tab and “Disable” SPI Firewall: This will allow connectivity between the two wireless network devices. Save and Apply Settings.

8. Click on “Setup” -> “Basic Setup”
Under “Router IP”
Local IP Address: Enter the IP you would like for this router (it must be a in the range of accepted IPs from your primary router. If you primary router is 192.168.1.1 then the repeater must be 192.168.1.xxx
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gatway and Local DNS: you can leave 0.0.0.0
Save and Apply Settings.

9. Log into the primary router via a computer physically connected to it.
10.Verify that the assigned IP to the repeater is in the range of the DHCP server.
11. Reboot the primary router.

Everything is now set up and to connect to the repeater wirelessly you must connect to its SSID and provide its security key.

Now all devices physically/wirelessly connected to the repeater will be assigned an IP by the primary router and will be able to access the entire network as though they were directly connected to the primary router.

NOTE: For additional security measures I would recommend you read my note on MAC Filtering to ensure only valid systems are granted access to your network.

Posted under Networking