[HH] Resend: DD-WRT 'Client Mode' 'Client Bridge' with Atheros chips

[Phil C.]

Kurt,

Thank you.  Apologies aren't necessary.  I'm grateful for any help.

Per the dslreports forum post,  the current thoughts are to maybe to try
making a repeater instead, or get my friend to buy a set of  Ethernet over
house wiring adapters.

Phil

-----Original Message-----
From: Kurt Keville [mailto:kkeville at MIT.EDU] 
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 8:47 PM
To: Phil C.
Cc: hardwarehacking at blu.org
Subject: Re: [HH] Resend: DD-WRT 'Client Mode' 'Client Bridge' with Atheros
chips

I will ping some folks I know over at the OpenFenway project
(http://www.openairboston.com/fenway). It seems to me they went through this
exact problem once back in the day. Their distro (OpenWRT / Open-Mesh) has
common roots with DD-WRT and the drivers for their usually Atheros chipsets
was nominally madwifi or madwifi-ng if memory serves. Broadcom chipsets use
a different driver (HostAP maybe?) so it wouldn't surprise me if their
implementation of client mode differs. Apologies for the walk down memory
lane... 

On Aug 20, 2012, at 5:38 PM, Phil C. wrote:

> I emailed this message before I confirmed my subscription to the 
> hardware hacking mail list. So I'm sending it again. (Apologies if you 
> get a
> duplicate)
> 
> 
> I posted these questions on the DD-WRT forum a week 4 days ago and no 
> one can help, so I will ask here.
> 
> I was trying to make a low cost bridge that has external antennas to 
> help my friend whose Trendnet 4 port media bridge is not receiving a 
> wireless signal that well.
> 
> I picked up a Rosewill (Newegg) RNX-N300RT. The hardware is identical 
> to the TP-Link TL-WR841N V?. It uses an atheros chip.
> 
> I flashed it with this firmware:
>> ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlaye...P2/2012/
> 
> I followed the wiki Client Bridge instructions:
>> www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged
> 
> to set up a bridge with my WRT-54GL as the primary router (running V24
sp2).
> 
> I can get the N300 to maybe connect once after finishing the wiki 
> instructions. After that, it does not work. I am seeing a lot of 
> receive errors on the N300 status.
> 
> HOWEVER, >www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic....9#702019
> describes using "CLIENT MODE" for the TP-Link TL-WR841N V7 which is 
> the brother unit of the Rosewill, but I'm not sure if the Rosewill 
> RNX-N300RT hardware matches the TL-WR841N V7 or V8.
> 
>> www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Bridging
> says that Client Bridging is better than Client Mode, BUT SAYS that 
> Client Bridge DOES NOT WORK with Atheros chips.
> 
> So is this telling me why I can't get client bridging to work?
> 
> And client mode should work?
> 
> TO FURTHER muddy things, I read somewhere that if the host router is 
> Broadcom based that it will not communicate well with an Atheros based 
> client.
> 
> Can anyone shed some light on Client Bridging/Client Mode with Atheros 
> wireless routers?
> 
> MORE DETAIL ON THIS ISSUE IS CONTAINED IN this DslReports post that I
> started:
> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r27438567-DD-WRT-Client-Mode-Client-Br
> idge-w
> ith-Atheros-chips~start=8#27443841
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> 
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