Evening all,

I read a thread on here a while back but can't find it anymore. Anyway it was on how to extend your wireless network so to speak using dd-wrt firmware.

Basically i currently have a "HUAWEI EchoLife HG532" router on TalkTalk in my living room which is connected to a DM800 via a ethernet cable, PS3 and Wii via wifi. However as the footy season will be upon us soon i've got a spare TM600 which i want to make use off in one of the spare rooms to get the footy and foreign tv channels on a spare satellite dish.

The problem being that with the TM600 it will need to connect to the internet but can't do it wirelessly. So what i want to do is use a second spare router (a D-link DIR615 D2) i also have to basically extend my current wifi signal into the spare room. Once the spare router is connected in the spare room i want to be able to connect the TM600 or any other potential devices via ethernet cable to access the internet. So far i've added the dd-wrt firmware onto it and followed various guides over on the dd-wrt site and briefly had the connection working which then stopped within a few minutes. I've spent a few hours looking at it tonight starting from scratch again and even attempted without any security on my network at all.

Has anyone had any joy doing this on TalkTalk, or any helpful advice to get it working?

Thanks,

Darren

How you going to connect 2nd router in room, by cable or wifi?

if for cable, on your 2nd router the dd-wrt one, set it up as a switch basically, assign WAN port to switch giving you 5 lan ports. setup as a DHCP forwarder and enter address of your DCHP server i am assuming its the main router and the gateway IP (which are probably the same)

and oh give it an IP on same subnet so u can login to config

and you should be good to go.

if for wireless it a little more setup and only if both routers will support it.
you need to setup WDS (wireless distribution system)

basically you need to tell each router of the other device connecting so you put the MAC address of the opposite router in each one. Have the wifi setting the same except different channels ( i would try without any encryptiopn 1st to reduce any errors when setting up) when they both talk then add the encryption and both must be identical with same key etc.

bear in mind with 2nd one on WDS the wifi bandwisth is halved.

and both routers must support WDS (i think some routers terminology might call it a bridge)

Originally Posted by Kruger

How you going to connect 2nd router in room, by cable or wifi?

if for cable, on your 2nd router the dd-wrt one, set it up as a switch basically, assign WAN port to switch giving you 5 lan ports. setup as a DHCP forwarder and enter address of your DCHP server i am assuming its the main router and the gateway IP (which are probably the same)

and oh give it an IP on same subnet so u can login to config

and you should be good to go.

if for wireless it a little more setup and only if both routers will support it.
you need to setup WDS (wireless distribution system)

basically you need to tell each router of the other device connecting so you put the MAC address of the opposite router in each one. Have the wifi setting the same except different channels ( i would try without any encryptiopn 1st to reduce any errors when setting up) when they both talk then add the encryption and both must be identical with same key etc.

bear in mind with 2nd one on WDS the wifi bandwisth is halved.

and both routers must support WDS (i think some routers terminology might call it a bridge)

The second router will be connected in the spare room via wifi to the main router, well thats the plan as don't want to run a network cable between floors. There is a WDS button on the side of the HG532 router so it must support it, i'll have another play around tonight and see what happens.

Thanks!

Happy days, i've finally got this working. Following the below steps and all is now working fine:-

This mode is NOT for WIRED connections between two routers! It is a wireless connection between two routers only.

First of all, do not even try to do client bridge with dd-wrt SP1. It won't work. Also if you can't get Client Bridged to work on your hardware then try Client Mode instead.

The router that you are trying to connect to is the primary router. The router you are configuring is the client bridge(CB) router. You don't need to worry about the primary router as long a s you set your CB to the SAME subnet. What this means is, if the primary router has an IP of 192.168.A.X, you need to set the CB router to an IP of 192.168.A.Z. Most primary routers will be at 192.168.1.1. So, when you are configuring your CB router, set it to 192.168.1.6

With that in mind, here is how to configure it.

Download a recommended build for your router. DO NOT USE SP1. If you are using a broadcom router, read the peacock thread prior to starting. DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - Peacock Thread-FAQ: EVERYTHING you NEED to know! Really!! Use one of those recommended builds.
Do a HARD reset on your router.
Connect a cable from your computer to the LAN port on your router.
Set your computer to a static IP address of 192.168.1.9
Set your browser to 192.168.1.1 and open the dd-wrt webgui.
You should be asked to change your password and username. Carefully type these in. If you aren't asked for a password and username, do a hard reset, this time doing it properly! Hit change password.
Go FIRST to wireless, wireless security and enter the security type and key that matches your primary router.
Hit SAVE, (or APPLY if you wish to)
Go to the wireless, basic settings page and change the wireless mode to Client Bridge.
Your wireless network mode, channel and encryption should be set to the same as the primary router.
If you are using N only or Mixed with N, set your wireless channel width to match your primary
Set the wireless network name to exactly the same as your primary router. Make sure spelling and capitalization match.
Hit SAVE at the bottom. Then hit APPLY.
Check to make sure all the configurations, including the mode, saved and the mode is still client bridge. If any changed, fix them, and save again.
Goto Setup, basic setup and enter a router Local IP address of 192.168.1.6. (Presuming your primary router is on the 192.168.1.x subnet. Client bridge must match the subent of the primary router) Leave subnet mask at 255.255.255.0.
Set the Gateway IP to your primary router. (Likely 192.168.1.1)
Leave Local DNS blank
Check Assign Wan port to a switch, if you wish to.
Change your timezone and DST to match where you are.
Hit Apply.
Set your browser to 192.168.1.6 and login to your router
Goto Security, Firewall. Under Block Wan Requests, uncheck everything but "Filter Multicast" (Leave Filter multicast checked).
Hit Save
Disable SPI Firewall
Hit Apply.
Go to setup/advanced routing and change the operating mode from "gateway" to router. Hit Apply.
Set your computer back to auto IP and auto DNS.

You are done. Configure any other settings you wish at this point.

If you have any difficulty setting this up, disable all encryption on all devices, do a hard reset on the client bridge router, and start again. If it works without encryption, check your encryption passphrase and types match.

Hi Darren

Was very intrigued by your thread. Briding the Huawei hg-532, I am thinking somehting similar and was wondering if you could once again explain it to me more clearly. Im a noob n computers, hence!

Downstairs I have a netgear dg-834-GT with DgTeam firmware and all working fine with the PC.

Upstairs (also a pc) I want to use the Huawei Hg532 as the Bridge(receiver) to reeive wireless signals from the Netgear and have that pc access the internet.

Can you please post relevant instructions? WOuld I need any of the DD-WRT support? If so can you please specify how to go about it?

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by darren221980

The second router will be connected in the spare room via wifi to the main router, well thats the plan as don't want to run a network cable between floors. There is a WDS button on the side of the HG532 router so it must support it, i'll have another play around tonight and see what happens.

Thanks!

just curious have you got STP enabled (Static Tree Protocol) on either of the 2 ddwrt wifi routers

Originally Posted by jfish

just curious have you got STP enabled (Static Tree Protocol) on either of the 2 ddwrt wifi routers

I've just had a quick look at the main router which is just a standard TalkTalk router and can't see anything for STP. Unfortunately i can't even log into the other ddwrt router as the ip address for it just times out, to check the settings to check for the STP option.

Originally Posted by maniben

Hi Darren

Was very intrigued by your thread. Briding the Huawei hg-532, I am thinking somehting similar and was wondering if you could once again explain it to me more clearly. Im a noob n computers, hence!

Downstairs I have a netgear dg-834-GT with DgTeam firmware and all working fine with the PC.

Upstairs (also a pc) I want to use the Huawei Hg532 as the Bridge(receiver) to reeive wireless signals from the Netgear and have that pc access the internet.

Can you please post relevant instructions? WOuld I need any of the DD-WRT support? If so can you please specify how to go about it?

Thanks in advance.

Trust me its easier using the guide i entered above

I do have another spare router lying around which i want to setup with ddwrt at some point again, so hopefully when i do i'll try and put some more information together on how i did it.

Done another DIR615 today and actually worked pretty easily, i changed one thing from the original instructions i posted before, the original instructions with the change in bold are below:-

This mode is NOT for WIRED connections between two routers! It is a wireless connection between two routers only.

First of all, do not even try to do client bridge with dd-wrt SP1. It won't work. Also if you can't get Client Bridged to work on your hardware then try Client Mode instead.

The router that you are trying to connect to is the primary router. The router you are configuring is the client bridge(CB) router. You don't need to worry about the primary router as long a s you set your CB to the SAME subnet. What this means is, if the primary router has an IP of 192.168.A.X, you need to set the CB router to an IP of 192.168.A.Z. Most primary routers will be at 192.168.1.1. So, when you are configuring your CB router, set it to 192.168.1.6

With that in mind, here is how to configure it.

Download a recommended build for your router. DO NOT USE SP1. If you are using a broadcom router, read the peacock thread prior to starting. DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - Peacock Thread-FAQ: EVERYTHING you NEED to know! Really!! Use one of those recommended builds.
Do a HARD reset on your router.
Connect a cable from your computer to the LAN port on your router.
Set your computer to a static IP address of 192.168.1.9
Set your browser to 192.168.1.1 and open the dd-wrt webgui.
You should be asked to change your password and username. Carefully type these in. If you aren't asked for a password and username, do a hard reset, this time doing it properly! Hit change password.
Go FIRST to wireless, wireless security and enter the security type and key that matches your primary router.
Hit SAVE, (or APPLY if you wish to)
Go to the wireless, basic settings page and change the wireless mode to REPEATER Bridge.
Your wireless network mode, channel and encryption should be set to the same as the primary router.
If you are using N only or Mixed with N, set your wireless channel width to match your primary
Set the wireless network name to exactly the same as your primary router. Make sure spelling and capitalization match.
Hit SAVE at the bottom. Then hit APPLY.
Check to make sure all the configurations, including the mode, saved and the mode is still client bridge. If any changed, fix them, and save again.
Goto Setup, basic setup and enter a router Local IP address of 192.168.1.6. (Presuming your primary router is on the 192.168.1.x subnet. Client bridge must match the subent of the primary router) Leave subnet mask at 255.255.255.0.
Set the Gateway IP to your primary router. (Likely 192.168.1.1)
Leave Local DNS blank
Check Assign Wan port to a switch, if you wish to.
Change your timezone and DST to match where you are.
Hit Apply.
Set your browser to 192.168.1.6 and login to your router
Goto Security, Firewall. Under Block Wan Requests, uncheck everything but "Filter Multicast" (Leave Filter multicast checked).
Hit Save
Disable SPI Firewall
Hit Apply.
Go to setup/advanced routing and change the operating mode from "gateway" to router. Hit Apply.
Set your computer back to auto IP and auto DNS.

You are done. Configure any other settings you wish at this point.

If you have any difficulty setting this up, disable all encryption on all devices, do a hard reset on the client bridge router, and start again. If it works without encryption, check your encryption passphrase and types match.

Originally Posted by darren221980

Happy days, i've finally got this working. Following the below steps and all is now working fine:-

Any idea how to configure Huawei EchoLife HG532 as primary primary router? I've got Huawei EchoLife HG532 from TalkTalk recently installed downstairs. Unfortunately I found that signal is too weak to cover first floor. I managed to configure BTHomeHub v1 as bridge (see how at: BT Home Hub - How to Use One As A Wireless Network Dongle) but could not get Huawei EchoLife HG532 working. Please help.