EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Computers => Networking & Wireless => Topic started by: Halcyon on April 14, 2021, 03:19:43 am
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Does anyone know of a consumer device that has an Ethernet port and connects to an existing wireless network? I'm not after a Wifi range extender or anything like that, essentially I need to connect a non-Wifi device, to a Wifi network.
I know I can do it with Ubiquiti access points but that would be extreme overkill for the application.
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Sure, there are lots of those, many WiFi range extenders have a bridge mode, or you can install Tomato, DD-WRT or OpenWRT on almost any supported router to get this functionality. I use old obsolete routers running Tomato where I need a bridge.
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Sure, there are lots of those, many WiFi range extenders have a bridge mode, or you can install Tomato, DD-WRT or OpenWRT on almost any supported router to get this functionality. I use old obsolete routers running Tomato where I need a bridge.
I don't have any consumer routers, but that's an interesting idea. I do have some spare Raspberry Pi's... :-)
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Bearing in mind a real bridge requires a different frame format which your AP won't support. So you're left with some pretty ugly hacks.
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I don't have any consumer routers, but that's an interesting idea. I do have some spare Raspberry Pi's... :-)
I've always been able to find a suitable router at the local thrift store for ~$5, I've had people give them to me too. It depends on your needs but for the times I've needed to connect some old wired device to my wireless network it has worked for me. It's pretty much plug & play, just select bridged mode from the dropdown selector and configure the SSID and passphrase.
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well.. hardly I can find a device with "just" this..
But it happens when I want to convert for example
USB printers to WIFI
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001803322894.html (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001803322894.html)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000627945248.html (https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/4000627945248.html)
.. or just to add a ETH RJ45 port when only USB is available.
There are other devices indeed
that simple WIFI USB dongle which just do WIFI to any usb port should fit...
Paul
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I don't have any consumer routers, but that's an interesting idea. I do have some spare Raspberry Pi's... :-)
There's a way to install OpenWRT on a Pi. Granted, it's unlikely to be a great choice since they're not the best on the networking side (only a 3+ or 4 will support 5GHz) and the CPU/memory side is likely to be massive overkill for OpenWRT.
https://openwrt.org/toh/raspberry_pi_foundation/raspberry_pi
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But it happens when I want to convert for example
USB printers to WIFI
<SNIP>
.. or just to add a ETH RJ45 port when only USB is available.
Paul
Take a look at the Netgear PS121, preferably the V2.
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What about Octoprint? Or more generically, USB/IP?
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There's a way to install OpenWRT on a Pi. Granted, it's unlikely to be a great choice since they're not the best on the networking side (only a 3+ or 4 will support 5GHz) and the CPU/memory side is likely to be massive overkill for OpenWRT.
https://openwrt.org/toh/raspberry_pi_foundation/raspberry_pi
A Pi 3 or later is more valuable than most old routers. Old routers are cheap and widely available, RPis are in high demand and I don't recall ever seeing a bargain on a used one.
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I think these will work.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=402699270827&_sacat=0 (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=402699270827&_sacat=0)
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I don't think they're made anymore, but a "wireless gaming adapter" is the exact commercial product you desire. Connects to an AP and spits out a connection on a single ethernet jack. Used back when game consoles didn't have wireless built in.
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I don't think they're marketed as wireless gaming adapters anymore, but many wireless extenders have a wireless to wired bridge mode as one of their features.
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Dont buy wifi extenders, they are overpriced.
Buy a cheap router, that does this. Anything that can be set to bridge mode can do this. I have a RT-AC57U for this.
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@Halcyon - Do you want a 10 minute easy solution with a plug into the mains wifi extender used in client mode/an AP like the TPLink WR810N? Or something more of a technical challenge? You can find perfectly good used extenders and APs for ten bucks on ebay.
If you want to try out any firmware settings before you buy, check out the manufacturer's live emulator pages. For example:
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/emulator/ (https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/emulator/)
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If you want to try out any firmware settings before you buy, check out the manufacturer's live emulator pages. For example:
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/emulator/ (https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/emulator/)
Wow.
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But it happens when I want to convert for example
USB printers to WIFI
<SNIP>
.. or just to add a ETH RJ45 port when only USB is available.
Paul
Take a look at the Netgear PS121, preferably the V2.
Thanks.. a nice tip for Win clients..
They claim support *only* up to WinXP (98,2000 and XP)
looks like they crammed some sort of MS LanManager print service..
I really try hard to have *REAL* LAN printers
using port 9100 or port 515/tcp via inetd
which allows every sort of *normal* service (not just MS-Win)..
for that some special devices must br hunted down..
today they are appearing as ETH or WiFi alternatives..
and necessary to have a "normal" setup not restricted to Windows stuff
It is hard to get rid of this MS SHIT CARTEL..
Paul
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@Halcyon - Do you want a 10 minute easy solution with a plug into the mains wifi extender used in client mode/an AP like the TPLink WR810N? Or something more of a technical challenge? You can find perfectly good used extenders and APs for ten bucks on ebay.
If you want to try out any firmware settings before you buy, check out the manufacturer's live emulator pages. For example:
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/emulator/ (https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/emulator/)
I want the 10-minute plug-in easy solution. It is literally going to be used to grab telemetry off a solar inverter/battery system. Wifi extenders where I can disable the repeater function would suffice. It just needs to act as a client.
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There's one I used at our cabin for a while as a range extender but I remember it also had a bridge mode. I don't actually remember the brand but it was a little white box with a pair of antennas on it. I'm not using it anymore so I'd give it to you but it would cost much more than the value of the thing to get it there. I think I only paid around $20 shipped when I bought it used off ebay a few years ago, it should not be hard at all to find something.
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It looks like a lot of the new TP-Link's don't have bridge (or client) mode any more. It's either "Wifi extender" or "Access point" modes. I'll have to find an older model by the looks of it.
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It looks like a lot of the new TP-Link's don't have bridge (or client) mode any more. It's either "Wifi extender" or "Access point" modes. I'll have to find an older model by the looks of it.
No, they just don't have a button which says 'bridge'. They do, however, have one for turning off the 'extender'.
The little Mikrotik units like the hAP and mAP can be configured to do a half-arsed bridge as well.
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If you want to consider used equipment I've used loads of Linksys WET54G which is pretty close to "just works". In fact I have one knocking about which I'd let you have if you weren't the other side of the planet.
I don't think I'd touch TP-Link again after some pretty woeful experiences of one of their powerline adapters. Really flaky firmware, no upgrade although there is some (superior) community provided FW so at least they're not crashing every week or so like they used to >:(
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I just did this last week. I used an 11 year old router running DD-WRT in client bridge mode. Took a little bit of fiddling, but it's up and running and has been solid.
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged
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This one says you can set it up as a Bridge. I never used this one before. So, I can't comment on this.
https://www.amazon.com/Repeater-Access-Point-Bridge-RP-N12/dp/B013LKLK2M/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=wifi+media+bridge&qid=1619919786&sr=8-1 (https://www.amazon.com/Repeater-Access-Point-Bridge-RP-N12/dp/B013LKLK2M/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=wifi+media+bridge&qid=1619919786&sr=8-1)
On the other hand, I have a bunch of these WiFi bridges from Trendnet. They worked very well for me for years. They don't make these anymore. So, I flashed my old Cisco E1200 with DD-WRT. Best bridge I have ever had.
Trendnet Tew-640MB
Trendnet Tew-647GA
URent N300
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I found another one. This one supports 2.4 and 5 Mhz.
https://www.amazon.com/BrosTrend-600Mbps-Adapter-Wireless-WNA016/dp/B0118SPFCK?ref_=ast_sto_dp (https://www.amazon.com/BrosTrend-600Mbps-Adapter-Wireless-WNA016/dp/B0118SPFCK?ref_=ast_sto_dp)
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I confirmed that the one I have is a TP-Link TL-WA801ND and I know for a fact that it supports wireless to wired bridge (client) mode because I used it like that for a while.
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Pretty much any MikroTik router that has wifi can do this. They make a couple that can be powered from DC or by 5V USB and are a small as a mouse.
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Different units allow you different features. I have 3 devices I put openwrt on and it allows you to do pretty much whatever you want. If you literally want to bridge a physical network from a wireless server, that may or may not be doable, but there may be some MAC issues because the wireless client has a single MAC.