Wireless router as a wireless client?

[crazy888s]

I really do not think this is possible and cant find much about it on the web. But people here seem to know some crazy stuff sometimes....

Anyways, I have a Netgear 814v2 wireless router with all the new firmware and such. There is another wireless router nearby that is broadcasting a signal. If I use a normal wireless card with a laptop, lets say, I have privileges to use this wireless signal and to access the internet. Is there a way to use my router as a client like this (to this other wireless router) and receive a signal, establish an IP like a laptop would with a wireless card, and then allow wired computers to split this signal through the router? I'm not trying to rebroadcast the signal wirelessly and I know that cant be done with a router. I would just like the wireless part to work like the wired 'Internet' port does on the router to give access to the wired clients. I cant change any settings on the router that is sending the wireless signal. But anything can be done to the receiving one I stated above. There aren’t any settings in the firmware that Netgear makes for this option that I am aware of. And as a very, very last resort, would anybody know of a stable, non-Netgear firmware which would make this possible? I know there are other ways to do this, but I am only wondering if this implementation is possible. Thanks in advance!

 

[horizon2000]

Crazy888s,
Let me restate the question:
Basicaly you would like to use Internet connection that is accessible via someone's wireless router (router 1) to which you don't have admin rights. This connection you would like to share between your pc's, would be via your wireless router (router 2).
I'm sorry for that but I wanted to be clear about it.
If this is a case, then your router can work as an access point (I checked that on the netgear website, it does support that). The configuration should be fairly easy via setup wizard.
Since your router will be used as an assess point then its DHCP server needs to be shut down and you will recive necessary IP address from the router 1.
Hope it helps.
Robert

 

[crazy888s]

r1 = my router.
r2 = the other router that is sending the signal and that i do not have admin rights on.

i wish it was that easy. it appears the access point on r1 means it acts as an access point for wireless cards to use to connect to. When you turn it off, it disables wireless all together. When it's on, it works for local network cards, but i cant seem to get it to work with r2. I can get the IP address, the SSID, the subnet mask, etc. of r2 by connection to it with a wireless card. R2 works as a DHCP server and will assign a computer with a wireless card an IP. I can also statically asign a computer with a network card to an unused IP and get access to r2. It appears any setting for the internet in r1 will affect the 'Internet' port on the back of the router, which clearly wont affect the wireless stuff. The wireless stuff on r1 also obviously works with its LAN settings. Here's a list of info:

r2-
SSID: PAL
channel: unknown- a wireless card on a computer
automatically connects to r2 and I am unaware of how to
obtain the channel it uses. any place that i know to check does not show the channel.
ip: 192.168.1.1
subnet: 255.255.255.0

here's what i've tried with my router, r1.
DHCP: disabled
SSID: PAL, then some different ones
channel: various
ip: various unused ones on r2, such as 192.168.1.156
subnet: 255.255.255.0
Primary DNS: 192.168.1.1
Gateway Address: 192.168.1.1

computer wired behind r1:
static ip: another various one that is not used on r2, such as 192.168.1.201
subnet: 255.255.255.0
Primary DNS: 192.168.1.1 & tried r1's ip for kicks
Gateway Address: 192.168.1.1 & tried r1's ip

-----

it makes sense to me if it were possible. if i have a computer with a wireless card connected to r1, then turn on broadcast of SSID on my r2, then the computer will switch over to r2 automatically because the signal is stronger. however, when I have broadcast SSID off on r1, and the computer connected to r2 wirelessly, i cannot get a ping between anything on the the two different routers. i dunno.

 

[bcastner]

The firmware would have to support either:

. a specific client function; and most do not. or,
. a Repeater function, and some do.

Just disabling DHCP does not an Access Point make.

 

[horizon2000]

I don't have this router model, so I cannot test it myself, but the website states that this router can work as access point and that it can be either a DHCP server or client. So requirements for what crazy888s wants to accomplish are met. bcastner, what am I missing?

 

[bcastner]

In order to work as an access point, it needs a cable connection to the original wireless network.

Or, it needs to act as a repeater.

If it acts as a client, it would require an additional wireless router or Access Point to repeat the signals from the original wireless network.

What is missing is the key ingredients necessary to do it all in one box. Some products offer such a repeater role or WDS distribution role, most do not.

 

[crazy888s]

I dont want my router (router 1) to act as a repeater. I know that cant happen. It does not need to rebroadcast the wireless signal. I only want it to receive the Internet signal from the other router (router 2). The function of router 1 would basically be the same function as a wireless network card that someone would have in a laptop.

Here's a little diagram using the art of ASCII to the best of my ability....

router2 <--wireless--> router1
Internet---^ |---wired-->computer1
|---wired-->computer2
etc.

thanks!

 

[ashum]

I'm up against the same issue - trying to share a broadband internet connection with my brother's house across the street.

The best solution I can come up with (and I'll re-use your ASCII diagram) is (using a wireless bridge or client such as the DWL-G810, and showing router2's own home network as well) ...

| ---wired---computer-a
| ---wired---computer-b
|
router2 <--wireless--> bridge <--- router1
|
Internet---| |
|---wired--computer1
|---wired--computer2

Where the bridge/client is hooked into the WAN port of the router1. This way, router1 doesn't know any different than that its connected to a wired WAN (internet) source (via the bridge)

And router1 can serve its own subnet (say 192.168.1.xxx if router 2 is busy serving 192.168.0.xxx). And wireless/DHCP etc should all work for the home network served by router1

Of course, router2 will provide the DHCP IP on the 192.168.0.xxx subnet to router1 via the WAN port.

Should work, huh? I'm buying parts this week and will try this out thie upcoming weekend

 

[Frankenherder]

I had the same issue, this is how I solved it.

I bought 2 smc2870w.

Out of the box, they work as wireless bridges.

I renamed them (they are named the same) and reset their default IP's to static ones from my network. I also set them to ad-hoc on the same channel.

Basicaly SMC1 is wired into my network via a switch. SMC2 is located at an office in the middle of our warehouse (fibre to much$$$$) Here there were 2 options, the 2 PC's in the office could connect to SMC2 via wireless, or (this is what I did) I got a cheap 5 port switch and hardwired it to the PC's and plugged the access point into the switch as well. It simply passes through the DHCP settings from my DHCP server on my SMC1 side. What is good about this is that the 2 units will bridge via 802.11g (54mbps) as opposed to the old way where we were getting a weak 802.11b signal with one wireless device 200m away and the PC's using 802.11b PC cards with PCI adapters.

Hope this helps.

BTW Crazy888s, maybe your neighbor is blocking you, that is why it is not working??? I would have it set up that way

Matt

 

[pmf71]

if you cannot bridge the 2 routers, you can also define static routes to route internet traffic to the other router.