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!

 

[crazy888s]

here's some more info:
r1 = my wireless router
r2 = the other wireless router that i do not have admin rights to.

ok, 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.

 

[lui3]

what you are referring to is somewhat of challenge with your gear especially since you are trying to hop on the other wap and don't have access to it. the channel settings can be determine using a program called

http://www.networkstumbler.com

network stumbler

this will scan the air and give you the channel and ssid you desire from the other access point

in cisco gear one router is configured as the root switch and other is configured as an infrastructure device that then connects to it in repeater/bridge mode. check out ciscos site for infrastructre ssid settings to get some examples of how this is done.

another option is to do the following.

set up and PC with a wireless card and network card LAN installed in it. essentially creating a network access server here.

connect this new pc to the wireless network of the non-admin rights routers. connect the ethernet cable from this access server to the wan port on your netgear router. setup a bridge connection between the wireless card and the ethernet card. then all traffic from the wireless unknown router will pass through the access server wireless card over the bridge to the ethernet LAN card and out to the WAN port on the netgear router. now your netgear router will get the ip address from the r2 and then you will get an ip from your router and should be able to surf. the other option is to setup bridging from the WAN port to the LAN ports on your router. that way you have a full wireless to ethernet to wireless bridge.

maybe that will work. otherwise try and go the cleaner ssid infrastructure route. the problem with that is the uncontrolled router must have an ssid configured that will allow other aps to connect to it.

 

[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