Comments on: DD-WRT: Setting up a home Wireless Distribution System (WDS)

By: rick

rick — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:26:02 +0000

here is an option you might try. In theory it should work flawlessly.
Install a second network card in your computer ( if one does not exist ). If you are using wireless on a laptop then just take advantage of the onboard ethernet for your second network. Set up a new wds network with 2 wrt54gl routers DO NOT attach internet … just use as file transfer network.. or local intranet….

just a thought

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:47:34 +0000

Thanks for the rapid response . I’ll try my best to explain my madness . Both my neighbor (across the street, so wired is out) and I have essentially identical internet setups using Verizon FIOS (20Mbps/5Mbps). I have a server that is on 24/7 that I store a LOT of information on that he often would like to access, in addition to streaming content. However, the 5Mbps output stream is simply not large enough to provide high quality streams. I “can” see his router from my house and vice versa. He would like to be able to access my server from his wired network via a bridge between the two houses without going through the internet. I felt that the best solution would be to use WDS and essentially bridge our networks, putting them on the same subnet. I’m not saying I chose the best method, and if you think that there’s a better solution, believe me, I’m all ears .

By: rick

rick — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:40:50 +0000

Dave. I have never tried that … however, my guess is that it will not work unless you have a dual wan router that is wired directly to both routers. That would defeat the purpose of needing a wds setup.
In addition you are defeating the purpose of needing a wds network in the first place. If you have 2 internet connections you will be getting a wireless signal from each router that is a faster signal than that of a wds. Set up the vpn options and walla.. you have your extended network.
The ONLY reason I can immagine you would want to do this is if you need to expand your network AND keep the fast internet and… do not know about vpn.
Internet connections are RAIRLY ( unless you have your own fiber )faster than 22mbs in the first place … therefore rendering your need for 2 connections null. The only other reason I can come up with that you might need 2 internet connections would be if you are maxing out your p2p and your internet browsing has come to a crawl. In that case… throttle your p2p computer in the ddwrt software … I havent checked lately but there should be a place to do just that.

hope this helps..

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:18:43 +0000

Putting another comment here so I can turn on auto-notify. To sum up my question, my network is identical to what is pictures above with the exception that BOTH routers have internet connectivity.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:08:12 +0000

Question. Will this system work if both routers are connected to the internet?

By: Configuracion DD-WRT con WDS « Redes y Servidores

Configuracion DD-WRT con WDS « Redes y Servidores — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:04:14 +0000

[...] blog de referencia [...]

By: alexalvarez

alexalvarez — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:22:51 +0000

Buenos dias

Companero muy buena y completa tu explicacion me ha servido de mucho.
Muchas gracias.

By: Mick

Mick — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:36:38 +0000

Well, I ended up getting it all working, no problem.

Turns out I was clicking the ’save’ button, but not the ‘apply settings’ button. **smacks forehead**

Thanks for the help, and the great walkthrough!

By: rick

rick — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:47:26 +0000

Mick, the wrt v8 is not a great router for the firmware. dont know why, but I always seem to have problems with it. I know it says it is supported with ddwrt micro firmware but….
If you can afford them go purchase 2 wrt54 gl or wrtg54 tm routers. If not …

Make sure you have the ddwrt micro software on both routers. The v8 will be your limitation here. In addition the ddwrt v8 software ( if I remember correctly ) will need to be flashed differently than regular routers. You must use a firmware killer file before you can apply the MICRO software. Directions for this explaination are here… http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54G/GL/GS/GX#v7.2_and_v8.2C_v8.2_.28see_below_for_v8.1.29

full directions for v7 and v8 54g routers can be found on that site as well.

hope you have a better time… with the micro

rick

By: Mick

Mick — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:40:07 +0000

Okay, love the guide, but have one big problem:

My routers don’t see each other on the Status -> Wireless page! There’s no WDS entry at the bottom, even though I’ve put both their wireless MAC addresses into each other’s WDS pages. I don’t understand why they can’t see each other.

I can click the ’site survey’ button and see the other router, but it doesn’t show up as part of a WDS network.

My (A) router is a WRT54G v8 and my (B) is a WRT54G v4, both running v24 of the dd-wrt firmware.

Any thoughts?

By: mike

mike — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 12:42:56 +0000

i have set up the WDS however i can only connect when my security is set to “disabled”
is there something i am missing or could you elaborate on the WPA set up?
thanks,

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:40:53 +0000

Just came by this post – I enjoyed the read and picked up a few points. I have been for many years and continue to be a dd-wrt user. For my main router / isp point I found Traffic shaping / control / QOS / throtaling was not optimal if at all avalible.

I am using an opensource project called Tomato http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

Way better logging along with all of the other features that others are lagging. For my AP and repeaters I am still using dd-wrt.

By: rick

rick — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:24:42 +0000

Guys…. I did not intend to mislead in the previous post… I had to use sveasoft talisman software on my system due to wep … I have a password encrypted wireless network I maintain and with wep enabled I kept getting kicked off of the network ( the network crashed ) It took a while but I figured out that DHCP kept failing when the ISP reset the IP address of the primary router. If you have a static ip address you should not have this problem.
Hope this does not confuse you readers in thinking the ddwrt software does not work… that is not what I mean by this. As a matter of fact … it worked great for 2 months till I set up wep on all 5 routers. Then every couple of weeks… IP changed but the primary router would not release and renew automatically… I had to manually reset the primary router.
hope this doesnt confuse you more…..
take care all…..
rick

By: rick

rick — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:10:34 +0000

Krumbs…
This is a long one… I hope you are up for the book that follows………
I ended up using the wrt54gl with the sveasoft talisman software. I tried to use dd-wrt and freeman (talisman)
Eventually they all fizzled out but the talisman. In talisman I have the option to crank up the mw to 1watt
In my particular build I did just that and saw no side affects from it. I did however end up turning it back down to 250mw if I remember correctly..( its been over a year since I set up the system for a client )with no only one problem. I had a 54gl go down and fail to pass dns over the system. I just replaced it reflashed the firmware and reapplied the old config file to the new router… up and running in 20 min…
Now….. You are not OVERCLOCKING when you up the wattage… you are just turning up the signal strength. Overclocking is changing the clock rate of the nvram … You can overclock the wrt54g to approx 240mhz and above that you run into issues with the actual clock not changing unless you start fiddeling with jtag and custom flashing. I have not seen a reason to up the clock rate of the nvram.
As far as the tx rate… some will tell you anything over 90mw and you just produce noise… I cannot tell you if that is true or not.

You will not get better throughput with a 600n and a 54g… you still are limited to the 54g

From the research I have done and by picking the brains of a couple of wireless engineers… you cannot resolve the 1/2 speed loss of wds.

You should see more speed by using the 600n routers as the transfer rates are much higher and 5ghz for less interferance. Here is some information you might find useful … the 5 ghz model is not tested but the 350n is… so perhaps you can assume a bit better with the 5ghz models…
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/802-11n-router-roundup.ars

Point to point wds provides links from much larger antenna usually with 1watt power amps at minimum…
I have a set of antenna from tranzeo that can shoot 20 miles… but only from antenna to antenna… you cannot get a signal from a laptop or other device… it is set up for point a to point b ONLY…(If its not point to point I believe the correct term I should have used would be A/P wds and point to point wds. Maybe that makes more sense to you )….then hardwired into your existing lan through a router/switch/ap

You also need to pay attention to the NAS you get… I have had a couple of NAS and the bottleneck was at the nas for me… data transfer on those things are horrible… Unless it has changed in the last year, I would consider putting in a 1tb hdd on your xp box… sharing the drive and making sure you are using gb ethernet in addition to your n600…. seriously.. i was getting like 10 mb per sec or less when I ran nas.

It is also my opinion ( someone please correct me if I am wrong ) using ftp, samba or any other protocol just adds overhead to the data being transferred. You will not see an increase in speed… you will more than likely see a degridation in your speed…

One final thought for you… your wireless will NEVER produce the speed that is advertised on the router… your 54g router will NEVER produce 54Gb on a network…unless you are sitting next to the router … you wont even come close…. I believe in the link I gave you, It will show you the speeds of the actual packet transfer… you will see…. NOT EVEN CLOSE…
It just doesnt happen. Your 600n probably will at best get you 100mb per sec over wireless ( but I cannot say 100% on the 600n )

By: krumbs

krumbs — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:04:38 +0000

Stumbled upon this page today. The guide and comments helped me finally set up WDS. Thanks!
I managed to pair a WRT600N with a WRT54GL using the latest 10776M NEWD Eko dd-wrt firmware (mega on the 600n, mini on the 54gl). Have a few questions, though:
1] I overclocked both routers to 100mw. Nothing, absolutely nothing changed! The signal strength remained the same, even after rebooting and tinkering with antennae orientation.
So, the question is, should i overclock further? what about excess heat? the routers run 24×7 and are tucked away in corners with minimal breeze. what would be a safe limit for overclocking in a poorly ventilated setup?
2] If signal strength is not going to improve noticeably, can i instead underclock the routers to 50mw? Will they run ‘cooler’ and so presumably consume less power and last longer?
3] the wrt600n has a 5ghz radio. dd-wrt allows you to select mixed mode for the N-interface, too. so, can i link the N radio of the 600n with the G radio of the 54gl and, hopefully, get better throughput?
4] i have not fully grasped this concept of bandwidth-halving while using WDs. is there any way to minimize this issue? I have a bunch of 720p mkv files sitting on a QNAP NAS connected via a network cable to the 600n. Will i be able to stream them smoothly to my laptop, which is in the other room and wirelessly connected to the 54gl? Would using samba or nfs or ftp or some other protocol improve things (note, i am a complete networking newbie!).
5] What is point-to-point WDS? you mention LAN WDS is the easiest to setup. But what are the other options? I don’t mind trying out a complicated set of instructions if that results in better streaming of high def videos from the 600n to the 54gl.
6] finally, if the bandwidth is going to be halved no matter what the WDS setup is, would it make sense to pair up two N-routers at 5ghz frequency? would that double the available bandwidth between the two routers? or will the gain be only incremental and not worth the investment? i will be doing more of watching movies off the NAS, than internet surfing. and, unfortunately, i cannot run ethernet cable all over the house.

I see i have asked lot of questions! hope you don’t mind.