Creating a bridge between two ethernet ports

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
#1

Hello,
I am using a compex router with two ethernet ports and WLAN.
How can I create a bridge / switch between these ports?

Questions:

  1. is bridge and switch the same thing?
    I want to connect my laptop and be able to ping a device, connected to the second port.
    It has an IP in the same subnet.

  2. in the web-gui, section interfaces-LAN I see the follwing devices:
    Ethernet Switch: "eth0"
    Switch VLAN: "eth0.1" (lan)
    Switch VLAN: "eth0.2" (lan)
    I checked creates a bridge over specified interface(s), but it doesn't work.

Are eth0.1 and eth0.2 the two hardware interfaces?

Why are these devices called VLAN? I don't want to create a VLAN if I don't have
to. Everthing, WLAN, and the two hardware ethernet ports shall be in the same
network, using WDS.

Any hints appreciated!

Uwe

#2

No....a bridge is a logical interconnection of two physical (e.g. eth0 and a eth1) interfaces...a switch is a device with Ethernet ports...and you must make sure that what you're referring to is A REAL ETHERNET PORT and not just a SWITCH PORT.

No, it's only one Ethernet interface, called eth0. The 1 and 2 you see are VLANs.

Because they are VLANs.

You do have to, one VLAn should be your local network (eth0.1) and the other your WAN (eth0.2). That's how it's configured by default. Your CPU is likely eth0 itself.

#3

Go to the switch settings and put both ports in the same VLAN, untagged. They must be only in that one VLAN.

The switch section of the router works like a bridge, but in hardware. Thus it is better because packets going from one Ethernet cable to the other do not tie up the CPU.

1 Like
#4

The "v" stands for virtual, or software based (same with a vSwitch).

  • vLANs allow you to extend a physical port, or ports, into an infinite number of virtual subnets, allowing a single port to have multiple subnets assigned to it.

Almost all routers operate with vLANs and vSwitches in the firmware, as the actual ethernet ports [eth0, eth1] are CPU ports.

  • Some routers only have a single CPU ethernet port (LAN & WAN traffic are handled by the same physical ethernet port in the CPU), whereas others have two CPU ports (1 each for LAN and WAN)