Bridge across two Access Points (APs)

[tomek]

Hi All,

I have 2 devices that can only be in Access point mode.

I have GL-AR150 running OpenWrt.
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar150/

Can I use the GL-AR150 to bridge between those 2 devices?
So that they can talk to each other.

Something like this:

APdevice1 <---> GL-AR150 <---> APdevice2

thanks,
Tomek

[slh]

The problem here is that most wlan chipsets can only create a single STA (client) interface, besides the obvious restriction of being limited to a single channel. Adding a USB wlan card to the router might help there (but long term stability/ reliability in continuous operations of most USB cards is mediocre at best).

[tomek]

Thanks slh!

I think I see what you mean. Will have to do some research on STA.

I think I was able to create more than one client. But maybe it was not really 2 clients and that’s why I could not get it to work.

I think this is what I am trying to do: https://www.tp-link.com/us/faq-178.html

I will look into extending the device.

Maybe something like this: https://technicalexperiments.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/openwrt-and-wlan-usb-sticks-work-in-progress/

[tomek]

I guess a simple workaround would be to connect two of the routers using wired Ethernet.

Like this:

AP1 ((wifi)) GL-AR150 --wired connection-- GL-AR150 ((wifi)) AP2

What do you think?

[slh]

If you usually buy them by the dozen, that could also be an option.

[tomek]

I got it to work, thanks for the pointers!

I ended up getting this one: https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNet-GL-AR750-300Mbps-pre-installed-Included/dp/B07712LKJM

It has 2.4 and 5 ghz radios so that worked out great since one of my APs is 5 ghz and the other can work as 2.4.

So it can connect twice as a client, once on 2.4, and another as 5 ghz.

So I ended up only needing one device.

Then a simple iptables entry to forward a port and one AP is talking to the other AP.

Thanks again for the pointers!