A wireless-to-ethernet hub?

[Guest kevinmd88]

Hi all. I was wondering if there is a such thing as a hub that can accept a wireless signal and allow you to connect computers to it via ethernet ports, without using a computer inbetween?

Sort of like this:

[+BudMan MVC]

Yeah thats an access point, or any wireless router (which can be used as just an accesspoint -- all of them) or a wireless bridge.. They can all connect wired to wireless.

Sort of like what? You forgot the this part ;)

[[idkfa]]

Most likely sounds like a wireless bridge.

[Mr. Chronopoulos]

  BudMan said:

Yeah thats an access point, or any wireless router (which can be used as just an accesspoint -- all of them) or a wireless bridge.. They can all connect wired to wireless.

Sort of like what? You forgot the this part ;)

I think he means the opposite. I think he wants to get a box that will take wireless input and allow ethernet output.

[KZWings]

  e-m00 said:

I think he means the opposite. I think he wants to get a box that will take wireless input and allow ethernet output.

I believe most wireless bridge's or access points also have ethernet ports integrated.

[gigapixels Veteran]

You could use one of those Linksys Game Adapters and just connect it to a switch. That receives a wireless signal and turns it into a wired signal.

[+BudMan MVC]

  e-m00 said:

I think he means the opposite. I think he wants to get a box that will take wireless input and allow ethernet output.

What??? To be honest I have no idea what he means, he did not give us anywhere close to enough details for that.. But what I can tell you for a FACT, ANY wireless router -- I mean ANY of them! can connect wireless devices to wired devices..

This is what they do.. lets forget the nat functions, the filtering functions, etc.. etc.. it comes down to the device is a wired switch bridged to wireless.. That is the basics of every one of them on the market.. Every ONE!!

If it says its a wireless router.. guess what it is can also be used as an accesspoint or what you might call a wireless bridge.. ANY OF THEM!!

If you pick up a wireless router it can function as a wireless bridge, or if you want to call it a wireless hub - just a plain ole wired switch if you want, etc.. etc..

Some simple understanding of how it works is what is required.. And what basic parts they put together to make a wireless router.

[Guest kevinmd88]

LOL, I'm so sorry. Apparently my attachment didn't work. . . It was supposed to show a diagram of what I need to do. :blush:

Let's see if it works this time:

[brand]

LOLZ, ROFLOZORZ...

Wireless [Access point, bridge/switch, router].

LMAO

[Guest kevinmd88]

It's probably a very stupid question. But I'm not sure how I would set up two routers on the same network.

[Tom Gru]

I actually have this exact same problem. And if anyone is curious as to why you would want to do this. Think Xbox and media Center PC in your living room. If you cant get a wire there and would rather avoid Ethernet over power then this is your only choice.

Can someone explain why you would go with a Access Point if buying a 2nd router is actually cheaper?

Bigflavor: can you use ANY of the 3 you mentioned? [Access point, bridge/switch, router]

Does anyone have a "How to page" on what settings are typically needed to make this work?

Much appreciated.

Edited December 11, 2006 by tntomek

[Guest kevinmd88]

I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem :) And you're right, that's exactly why I was looking for this. Although the Xbox isn't the only thing I want to use it for. I also have friends that come over all the time, bring their Desktop computers, and have no way to get online because they don't have wireless cards. Which is understandable because their computers aren't exactly new/hi-tech.

It also doesn't help that my wireless router is on the ground level and the computers/xbox are on the second floor. . . so, a How to would be very helpful if possible/not too hard. :)

[+BudMan MVC]

What your looking to setup is WDS.. not all routers support this type of setup.

Depending on the router, if it will run 3rd party firmware - this will quite often add WDS / Bridging / Repeater mode..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Distribution_System

As I have already stated - ANY WIRELESS router can be used as an ACCESS POINT.. I have pointed to this link like a 1000 just here on neowin, I think..

Its seem dslwebserver is having some issues with their domain name?

Here is a link to the cached copy

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:soJVeY...lient=firefox-a

Daisy chaining NAT router is going to give you nothing but trouble.. If you already have a wired router - and just want to add wireless, and you do not want to swap out your wired router, etc.. Then any wireless router can be added to the wired router as just a access point.

Yes quite often a wireless router is cheaper than a true accesspoint, etc..

I know for a fact what your trying to do can be done with 2 routers that support dd-wrt. I know buffalo's can be picked up for $40 right now.. Good lucking finding 1 "wireless bridge" device the cost less than 2 wireless routers ;)

Here you go - perfect example!

--

Here is the WET54G for like $87 plus shipping

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00...6235858-8922362

Or you could get 2 Buffalo WHR-G54S from the same place for $84

http://www.amazon.com/G54-Cable-dsl-Router...p;s=electronics

Or you could get it over at newegg for $39.99 at your door - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16833162173

--

Here is how you would do it with 2 or more routers running dd-wrt

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php?title..._router_network

WDS Linked router network

WDS (Wireless Distribution Service) creates a wireless backbone link between multiple access points that are part of the same wireless network. This allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points without the need for a wired backbone to link them, as is traditionally required.

here is a guide to setting up WDS with 2 wrt54g

http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47118

here is yet another guide

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wi...w_to_wds_bridge

How To: Setting up WDS Bridging / Repeating

Edited December 11, 2006 by BudMan

[Guest kevinmd88]

Before I go purchasing another router, let me ask you this. . . (By the way, thanks to everyone who's helped me :) )

If I were to buy a regular 8-port ethernet hub, and connect my computer (which has a wireless card in it) to this hub (input), would I be able to somehow share the wireless internet connection from my own computer over this hub (IE, output it to the 8 ports)? Something along the lines of ICS in WinXP.

[+BudMan MVC]

Yes depending on your wireless card you can share it out.. some of them have issues with bridging, etc..

If your 1 router supports WDS, I would suggest you buy another router vs doing anything with ICS or Bridging and spending money on a switch, etc..

Or for that matter buy 2 new routers that do support it, and you could use your old router as just a switch to add more ports, if needed.

Your going to have FAR less problems getting your machines to talk to each other using routers vs ICS on your xp machine.. Since with that type of setup your going to be double natting the machines that are connected to your ICS host.

Here is how you can bridge wireless with XP

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/n..._02april22.mspx

Windows XP Home Networking: Building Network Bridges

And here is the section of the howto that talks about some wireless cards having issues

If the bridge appears to be made but doesn't actually pass network traffic, it could be that your wireless NIC doesn't support promiscuous mode, even though, when Windows XP queries the card, it reports that it does. (A description of how the bridging technology works and a description of promiscuous mode can be found in Windows XP Bridging and Media Support for Home Networking.)

Unfortunately, this appears to be a problem with many wireless cards on the market right now. There is a solution to this problem, which is to manually force the NIC into Compatibility mode. The Knowledge Base article, Bridge May Not Work with a Non-Promiscuous Mode Network Adapter, that discusses this problem lists three cards that have to be forced into Compatibility mode. Even if your card is not listed, the fix is the same for all of them. You need to set the wireless adapter to ForceCompatibilityMode. First, open a command window:

[zivan56]

You could just get one of those "gaming adapters," which is basically a access point/client which has only one ethernet port. These are very cheap, and you can plug in a hub to them which would solve what you posted in the picture. You could probably find an access point/router (I know WRT54GL works with alternative firmware) with client mode and 4 ports so you wouldn't even need a hub.

As a rule of thumb, WDS usually slows down your wireless network by a factor of n where n is the number of WDS accesspoints you have on the network. The same issue occurs with multiple clients, so having only one client on the wireless network for all those computers should be faster than having 4 seperate wireless clients.

[+BudMan MVC]

  zivan56 said:

You could just get one of those "gaming adapters," which is basically a access point/client which has only one ethernet port. These are very cheap, and you can plug in a hub to them which would solve what you posted in the picture.

Your idea of cheap is a bit wacky.. When I can by a wireless router with a 4 port switch for $40, or this "gaming adapter" that will connect to 1 device for $70.. Which one would you consider cheap? ;)

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DWL-G820-Wire...g/dp/B0002MH3HE

[zivan56]

  BudMan said:

Your idea of cheap is a bit wacky.. When I can by a wireless router with a 4 port switch for $40, or this "gaming adapter" that will connect to 1 device for $70.. Which one would you consider cheap? ;)

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DWL-G820-Wire...g/dp/B0002MH3HE

I don't see that as expensive, as they often have good wireless chip in them (Atheros based for the one you listed I believe). The router is probably of lower quality and most of the ones in that range would not support client mode. The WRT54GL costs around ~60 here.

If you want to be really cheap, you can get a RTL8186 based router which retails for around $5 - $15 and runs a stock Linux firmware which can do client mode. However, if you have to reboot it constantly, its worth paying a bit extra.

[wired57]

myself, I would go with WDS, Simpler and once done, you can add more nodes.

[AZKABAZ]

Hey, I took this method ->

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/n..._02april08.mspx

For setting up my Wii. I don't have a wireless router so I told my Wii to hook up to the Wifi in my comp and go through my PC ethernet connection.

[JamesCherrill]

Budman's right - you're looking for WDS. But beware - the "standard" isn't that standard, and not all WDS-enabled products will interoperate.

I've got a speedtouch WiFi hub running WDS to an Apple Airport Express and that works 100%

[+BudMan MVC]

  zivan56 said:

The router is probably of lower quality and most of the ones in that range would not support client mode.

:blink: The router I linked to before in the thread is not of lower quality - and is only $40 at your door! Put dd-wrt on it - and it will do about anything you could possible want in a wireless device..

Clearly more than a device that has only 1 port for almost twice the price! Like I said your idea of what is cheap is a bit wacked.. When I can do more for less - that is cheap.. not the other way around.. Is $70 a reasonable price, you won't find me calling outrageous or anything, but it clearly is not "cheaper" than setting up a WDS or a wireless bridge using a reasonable priced router that supports 3rd party firmware.

Client bridge mode - which basically turn it into that $70 device for $40 and the few minutes it takes to put the free firmware on it.

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

As to a router running just client mode.. There can be a few draw backs.. For starters the lan devices connected will be behind a NAT or at best a different subnet.. So quite possible you will have a double nat - and access between devices that are infront of the client mode router will be a pain. You will not be able to use the wireless of this client mode router, etc..

The client bridge mode is more what he would be looking for, if he does not want to setup a full WDS.

I'm not sure what $5 router your thinking about, the RTL8186 router that comes to mind is the EW-7209APg which is clearly not in the $5 range.. I think you can find it for about 30 quid.. better check your exchange rate if you think that is only $15

And the only 3rd party firmware I know runs on it is NOT free.. AP Router NG like $25 for 1 lic I think.

As I stated early on in the thread - there are many options to connect wireless to wired devices.. And from the few details we have - there are few different ways he can go about it, he can setup a WDS which would provide for the most capabilities and accomplish what he wants, he could setup a client bridge, he could setup client mode -- would allow for his wired devices to get to the internet with a wireless backbone, etc..

He can do this with a specialty device (most likely twice the cost) or for that matter he could setup a computer sharing its wireless connection to some wired devices, etc..

[Tokar]

Cant u just get a computer and do adhoc with network bridging?

[zivan56]

  BudMan said:

:blink: The router I linked to before in the thread is not of lower quality - and is only $40 at your door! Put dd-wrt on it - and it will do about anything you could possible want in a wireless device..

I wasn't referring to any particular router you posted, in general, if you buy a cheaper router you will get a crappy one. I have dealt with a bunch of el-cheapo routers, and they are nothing but a headache.

  BudMan said:

Clearly more than a device that has only 1 port for almost twice the price! Like I said your idea of what is cheap is a bit wacked.. When I can do more for less - that is cheap.. not the other way around.. Is $70 a reasonable price, you won't find me calling outrageous or anything, but it clearly is not "cheaper" than setting up a WDS or a wireless bridge using a reasonable priced router that supports 3rd party firmware.

As I said, a quality chip is in there, and one single connection to the AP will probably result in greater throughput. WDS will slow things down, and a wireless bridge will do the same thing.

  BudMan said:

Client bridge mode - which basically turn it into that $70 device for $40 and the few minutes it takes to put the free firmware on it.

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

Was that not what I suggested with the WRT54GL? :blink:

If he/she does not want to void their warranty by running a 3rd party firmware, they could just get the gaming adapter and it will have a step by step book on how to set everything up. If they are more technically inclined, then they can use the WRT54GL.

  BudMan said:

As to a router running just client mode.. There can be a few draw backs.. For starters the lan devices connected will be behind a NAT or at best a different subnet.. So quite possible you will have a double nat - and access between devices that are infront of the client mode router will be a pain. You will not be able to use the wireless of this client mode router, etc..

On the WRT54GL, there are vlan interfaces which can be configured to act in many ways, so just bridging them with the lan port will work. The RTL8186 devices also have this feature in stock firmware.

  BudMan said:

I'm not sure what $5 router your thinking about, the RTL8186 router that comes to mind is the EW-7209APg which is clearly not in the $5 range.. I think you can find it for about 30 quid.. better check your exchange rate if you think that is only $15

And the only 3rd party firmware I know runs on it is NOT free.. AP Router NG like $25 for 1 lic I think.

Gigafast WF719-CAPR and Blanc wireless router are two that I got for $5 - $10 (I have 3 in total). I did not mention any alternative firmware, as it runs linux stock firmware. Btw, do not try that one on the above two, as it will permanently make your txpower the lowest possible, which can only be changed back if you hook up a serial console with a ttl<->rs232 level converter.

  BudMan said:

As I stated early on in the thread - there are many options to connect wireless to wired devices.. And from the few details we have - there are few different ways he can go about it, he can setup a WDS which would provide for the most capabilities and accomplish what he wants, he could setup a client bridge, he could setup client mode -- would allow for his wired devices to get to the internet with a wireless backbone, etc..

He can do this with a specialty device (most likely twice the cost) or for that matter he could setup a computer sharing its wireless connection to some wired devices, etc..

Yep, plenty of options. It is my strong belief that client mode will probably be the easier to work with/have the best performance.