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What's the proper way to create a wireless bridge between two wireless routers? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works to c/homelab@lemmy.ml

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I've heard that WDS is the standard for creating a wireless bridge, but I have since read on a number of forum posts that WDS shouldn't be used anymore. This idea of it being deprecated seems to make sense, as it appears that it is not supported by another newer router that I have (tp-link Archer AX73). How should I go about this?

Update (2024-01-14)

I have since found this guide which seemed to work well. I'm not sure if it's the best way, but it does at least work.

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[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yea Qualcomm is hit or miss (with more misses than hits) but never Broadcom, they never release drivers for their stuff without NDAs and lots of fees n shit (Fuckin assholes man lol). In fact you should avoid anything Broadcom, they recently acquired VMware and before the ink had even dried they announced they were revoking perpetual licenses to make people/business move to a subscription model.

But back on topic, WDS is a more full featured version where both the primary router and secondary ones are configured to bridge with each other. Kind of like a proto-mesh.

Wireless Repeater Mode, Wireless Bridge Mode, Extender Mode (There's a lot of different names to it, confusing I know lmao) is a more pared down version, big difference is that the primary router is configured as a normal happy router and the secondary routers just hop on its WiFi signal as a client off one antenna and then rebroadcasts it off the other antennas (and through the Ethernet ports as well) all with the primary router unaware of the repeaters.

It's been a long time since I've used this mode, but from what I remember, it's under the AP mode setting (Where you would select AP or Router mode) you would select Repeater mode then configure the SSID name and Security settings exactly as the primary router. Sometimes there was a dedicated spot for this, sometimes you just set it on the normal SSID Security settings screen

[–] Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Yea Qualcomm is hit or miss (with more misses than hits) but never Broadcom, they never release drivers for their stuff without NDAs and lots of fees n shit (Fuckin assholes man lol). In fact you should avoid anything Broadcom, they recently acquired VMware and before the ink had even dried they announced they were revoking perpetual licenses to make people/business move to a subscription model.

Noted!

But back on topic, WDS is a more full featured version where both the primary router and secondary ones are configured to bridge with each other. Kind of like a proto-mesh.

Gotcha. From what I've read, it appears that the AX73 doesn't support WDS, which I thought was weird since its a pretty new router.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used this mode, but from what I remember, it’s under the AP mode setting (Where you would select AP or Router mode) you would select Repeater mode then configure the SSID name and Security settings exactly as the primary router. Sometimes there was a dedicated spot for this, sometimes you just set it on the normal SSID Security settings screen

I found this guide for creating a wireless bridge. It doesn't feel as elegant a solution as simply hopping onto Router A with Router B, but it at least functions.