Wireless Bridging with Buffalo

Everyone seems interested in routers these days. But often Bridging can be so much more satisfying. At home I run a Motorolla DD-WRT wireless router as the firewall and gateway to our cable provider. But how to connect wired Ethernet Computers to this Wireless network .. computers seperated by several hundred feet .. all the way across the house.

One way would be to run wired cables. .. too difficult. Another way would be to buy wireless adapters for each machine .. too expensive. But the way I finally came up with was to run a Wireless Bridge. It happens to be from Buffalo. They make good gear.

Buffalo-Technology-AirStation-Converter-WLI-TX4-G54

What wireless bridging does is create a virtual wire from a (network) - in this case my router -- to a wirelessly connected little switch. The you can plug in various computers into the switch portion of the wireless bridge. These computers that are plugged into the bridge act as if they were plugged wired straight into the router downstairs in the other room. The bridge in a way could be considered almost like a repeater. No routing necessary, or even desirable.

I have read that Buffalo routers will also do Bridging straight out of the box, but they need to be configured out of routing mode into Bridge mode. And Buffalo routers can run DD-WRT well. But The Buffalo Bridge was extremely easy to setup and run without installing new software. About 15 minutes of work.

Take out of box, plug in, use your browser to connect, select a wireless network (looks just like your pc based wireless adapter). reboot. check connection. done.

Enjoy - Happy Bridging.

Stephen .. http://www.wolfeservices.net/