Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Linksys wireless router config for bridge mode

This is a follow up to my previous post WiFi Router Problems - How to Improve home wireless connection .

In it I will describe how to setup a Linksys E2500 wireless router to provide 5GHZ options to wifi routers that don't support this option (like the Verizon FiOS router (Actiontec MI424WR) .

Don't plug it right away to your existing router since it will probably conflict with it, instead connect it to the power and let is load.

After about 4-5 minutes, the router should be up and running and you should plug your computer's network cable to one of the wired ports. We are going to make changed on the wireless and therefor need to be connected with a network cable, otherwise our link would drop.

Once connected, you should get an IP address from the router and the default gateway would be the linksys, you can use ipconfig to figure out the default gateway address.

Open a web browser and point it to the address, a login prompt should appear and the default credentials would be username: admin with blank password.

Once logged in you want to do the following things:

  1. Configure the E2500 to act as a wireless bridge (aka access point mode).

  2. Configure an IP address to the router that does not conflict with your existing wifi router.
  3. Disable the 2.4 GHZ service on the Linksys, we are going to use it for 5GHZ only.
  4. Define the 5GHZ wireless parameters and security.
  5. Define a password for the admin account.
  6. Once those steps are completed, you can connect your E2500 to the provider router (FiOS) and start using the 5GHZ SSID.

Here are some relevant screen shots for the various steps, fields that are highlighted in yellow should be configured:




This image is for the ip address config and the Bridge mode.






You should probably name the 5 GHZ SSID with a name that has 5 at the end, so it's easy to identify.



Wireless security is very important, use WPA2 and set a long passphrase with letters and numbers.



Finally, don't forget to change you admin password, otherwise you can be hacked in no time.

thats it, save, plug to the provider router using a network cable and you should have the 5GHZ SSID available to you.



18 comments:

  1. I am using Windows Vista for both computers. They are both on the same local network through a router. Sometimes the other computer doesn't show up in my network. How do I keep it on there? Also, when it is up there, I click on it and it says that there is an error called 0x0800035 (something like that). So, I can't connect and share files with my other computer. How do you fix this problem?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Windows server-less name resolution has always been challenging, its not the first or the last time things like that happen.

    We recommend going to windows 7 or 8 if you can, newer versions works better and have more fixes.

    also, here is a thread that seems to deal with the same issue:
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistanetworking/thread/955717b7-9ea3-424c-9b3a-719520f1b043/

    ReplyDelete
  3. What do I enter into the fields for the bridge mode? this is where I always get stuck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  4. Which fields, the IP address ones?

    if true then that would need to be in the same IP network as your provider router gives. in my case it is 192.168.1.x , and I gave the linksys a high number
    (245) to avoid conflicts.

    The subnet mask is usually 255.255.255.0 and the gateway is the 192.168.1.1

    hope that helps, let me know if you were asking about other fields.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm using linksys wag160n adsl router but I have main source of internet as wireless or ethernet cable . can I use same divice as access point?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If i understand your setup correctly,your internet router is the wag160n and since its already routing, it can act as an access point at the same time and a second device would be needed.

      Hope that helps.

      Delete
    2. Meant to say you can not use the same linksys device to do routing and access point at the same time.

      Delete
  6. Hi, I have my Linksys e1200 router connected to an ethernet access device. do i need to configure my router in bridge mode?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it depends on what are you trying to do.

      If the 'ethernet access device' provides routing, NAT and DHCP than you would want the linksys to be a bridge, but if it's a simple cable modem than you would need the linksys to provide routing.

      hope that helps

      Delete
  7. What i put in the field "Router Name"? It's the same name of principal? How i khow its works?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Router name is not an important field, you can configure it to anything that the interface accepts, something like "My-WL-Bridge01" would works.

      You can tell that it works if you can connect via the configured 5 GHZ SSID to the network/internet.

      Delete
  8. I have 3 router E2500. how to configure them in bridge mode?. And when I configure 1 router in bridge mode and save this configuration, I can't connect againt with router. I'm newbie, Please help me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tung,

      Its hard to troubleshoot over this platform, I would recommend contacting a local engineer or using someone over at elance.com for this.

      As for the router that you are loosing connectivity with when converting to bridge, you will need one router active in the network that can give IP addresses (DHCP) and route packets, perhaps you are converting the one that does that and this is why you loose it.

      Again, I suggest getting someone that can help on site as the amount of things that can go wrong here are enormous.

      good luck!

      Delete
  9. i have a linksys E4200 (Main router connected to modem/internet) and would like to connect my linksys E2500 to the Ethernet Port of the E4200 and have the E2500 provide wireless access to my network. Would like both routers to have the same SSID to provide seamless operation. I have spent hours trying to configure the E2500, but everytime I change the address, I can't ping it, or get access to the web console. Followed the instructions in the article. Can you give example entries for the yellow boxes? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, having the same SSID for two autonomous access points is not recommended because you will not have control on which of them you connect to.

      This type of issues may be harder to solve in this platform, if you are willing to work on it interactively using some remote access tool, email me at netvoipguy@gmail.com and we I'll work with you to resolve..

      thanks!

      Delete
  10. I have a linksys E4200 (Main router connected to modem/internet) and would like to connect my linksys E2500 to the Ethernet Port of the E4200 and have the E2500 provide wireless access to my network. Would like both routers to have the same SSID to provide seamless operation. I have spent hours trying to configure the E2500, but everytime I change the address, I can't ping it, or get access to the web console. Followed the instructions in the article.
    router ip address

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. unfortunately, the SSID has to be different, it can't be the same SSID for two autonomous access points, event though one is routing and one is bridging.
      If you need the same SSID, range extender is probably best, some can use your power lines so no cabling is required.

      Delete