Creating a Wireless/Wired Bridge using LAN port

[IanGlinka]

I have what seems like it should be an easy task, but it's proving to be quite difficult to implement.

I'm trying to use a laptop as a wireless-wired bridge so I can connect a VoIP phone to the LAN port of my laptop. The VoIP phone came with a router which is pre-programmed with a site-to-site VPN into our phone system. This site-to-site VPN connection is required in order for the VoIP phone to function.

In order to do this, the VoIP router needs to be physically connected to a network somehow, however, I don't have access to a physical network port on the wireless router.

Can I use my laptop (Windows XP Pro) to create a kind-of software "bridge" between the the wireless/wired connection, then feed the router the internet connection it's looking for? I tried to set this up, but I couldn't get it to work. I'm thinking this might be crossover cable territory, but I wanted to check in with the helpful folks here before I went out and bought a bunch of stuff.

I'm attaching a diagram of what I'm trying to accomplish in case it's not clear.

Anyone have any idea if this is possible?

Thanks so much!
Ian

 

[Zen216]

maybe you can enable internet-connection sharing on the laptop?...

 

[Lemon13]

a crossover cable and ics on the xp pc should do the job.
the ics pc will get ip 192.168.0.1, dhcp enabled.

 

[gbaughma]

you may also want to look at DD-WRT, which allows for bridging and vlans and all kinds of really cool stuff.



Just my 2¢
-Cole's Law: Shredded cabbage

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[IanGlinka]

If I perform the DD-WRT mod to a linksys router, it can act as a multi-port wireless bridge (that would be perfect)

 

[stduc]

Are you saying that if you go to "Network Connections" and select both the LAN and the Wifi connections, right click and select bridge, it doesn't work?

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[IanGlinka]

when I bridge the connections and use a crossover cable, it DOES give the VoIP phone the internet access it needs, however, the problem I'm facing now is ... I need to connect to a VPN on the laptop in order to get to my remote office. Once I establish that VPN connection, the VoIP router (which has a site-to-site VPN built in) gets confused and stops working, so the phone loses its connection to the phone system.

I bought a Netgear wireless print server / bridge, but it's not working AT ALL. I'm wondering if it's because I'm trying to have it interface with a Linksys router.

UGH!

This doesn't seem like this should be this complicated...

I'll try to find a Linksys brand physical multiport wireless bridge today, but I don't know where I will be able to track one down.