• WiFi Bridge

    From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 14 17:43:38 2022
    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will
    spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up the
    WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been
    Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and refer
    to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    --
    Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
    There is absolutely no substitute for a genuine lack of preparation

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jan 14 22:58:12 2022
    In article <xn0ncva6u38liia007@news.individual.net>, jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk says...

    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up the WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been
    Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and refer
    to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    A lot of Wireless Access Points can be configured in bridge mode, which may be why you don't see dedicated bridges advertised now. Pick a WAP, find the manual, and see what modes it offers!

    --

    Phil, London

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From RobH@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sat Jan 15 09:30:55 2022
    On 14/01/2022 17:43, Jeff Gaines wrote:

    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up
    the WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and
    refer to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?


    You say
    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    Have you had experience of the said interference, or have you deduced
    that it would.

    I have a powerline adaptor here and AFAIK there is no interference to
    any of my other equipment or devices

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to RobH on Sat Jan 15 10:35:06 2022
    On 15/01/2022 in message <j4fiifF9ij2U1@mid.individual.net> RobH wrote:

    On 14/01/2022 17:43, Jeff Gaines wrote:

    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will >>spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up
    the WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been >>Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and
    refer to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?


    You say
    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    Have you had experience of the said interference, or have you deduced that
    it would.

    I have a powerline adaptor here and AFAIK there is no interference to any
    of my other equipment or devices

    I have had no interference but the radio amateurs aren't keen on
    powerline, I have just had quite a long discussion in the digital TV group about it. I am happy with WiFi, it's a small property, but I need wired connections for most of the kit in the HiFi cabinet.

    --
    Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
    Remember, the Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From RobH@21:1/5 to Marco Moock on Sat Jan 15 11:42:08 2022
    On 15/01/2022 11:23, Marco Moock wrote:
    Am Samstag, 15. Januar 2022, um 09:30:55 Uhr schrieb RobH:

    I have a powerline adaptor here and AFAIK there is no interference to
    any of my other equipment or devices

    Powerline creates interference on the shortwave radio bands and affect broadcast and also ham radio. The cables carry that signal to the neighborhood too. Also they act like an antenna and radiate.


    It's a problem either way I think, as ham radio signals also create interference on tv and radio stations. I know as I was a ham radio
    operator for about 15 years on hf and vhf, and had to supply filters to
    my neighbours who were affected by me when I operated on some HF bands.

    I didn't know that about powerline adaptors, as I don't have any ham
    radio operators in my local neighbourhood

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Marco Moock@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 15 12:23:35 2022
    Am Samstag, 15. Januar 2022, um 09:30:55 Uhr schrieb RobH:

    I have a powerline adaptor here and AFAIK there is no interference to
    any of my other equipment or devices

    Powerline creates interference on the shortwave radio bands and affect broadcast and also ham radio. The cables carry that signal to the
    neighborhood too. Also they act like an antenna and radiate.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Marco Moock@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 15 14:08:15 2022
    Am Samstag, 15. Januar 2022, um 11:42:08 Uhr schrieb RobH:

    It's a problem either way I think, as ham radio signals also create interference on tv and radio stations. I know as I was a ham radio
    operator for about 15 years on hf and vhf, and had to supply filters
    to my neighbours who were affected by me when I operated on some HF
    bands.

    Also a problem, but they don't interfere entire bands by design.
    Powerline is designed to use the shortwave bands, so you can't do
    anything against the inference by it without switching it off
    completely.

    I didn't know that about powerline adaptors, as I don't have any ham
    radio operators in my local neighbourhood

    But maybe shortwave radio listeners that are disturbed by your
    Powerline transmitter.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk on Sat Jan 15 12:47:02 2022
    On 14 Jan 2022 at 17:43:38 GMT, ""Jeff Gaines""
    <jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:


    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up the WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been
    Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and refer
    to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    Many 'mesh' wifi units have one unit wired to the router, then the
    others connected by their own wireless network. The units may have their
    own ethernet ports that you can hang a computer or switch from.

    Tenda units do this, just put a triplet of Tenda MW6 in at my sister's
    house - one cube connected to the house router, one cube upstairs, one
    in the attic, each with a PC or a switch hanging off them. Neat and easy
    and more reliable than powerline stuff in my experience.

    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    Remember, if something is on the news that means
    it's rare enough that you shouldn't worry about it.
    It's the things that _don't_ make the news due to
    being so common that you should worry about.
    -- Stephen Sprunk

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Vandenbergh on Sat Jan 15 13:33:09 2022
    On 15/01/2022 in message <j4fu26FbmfuU1@mid.individual.net> Jaimie
    Vandenbergh wrote:

    On 14 Jan 2022 at 17:43:38 GMT, ""Jeff Gaines""
    <jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:


    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will >>spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up the >>WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been >>Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and refer >>to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    Many 'mesh' wifi units have one unit wired to the router, then the
    others connected by their own wireless network. The units may have their
    own ethernet ports that you can hang a computer or switch from.

    Tenda units do this, just put a triplet of Tenda MW6 in at my sister's
    house - one cube connected to the house router, one cube upstairs, one
    in the attic, each with a PC or a switch hanging off them. Neat and easy
    and more reliable than powerline stuff in my experience.

    Cheers - Jaimie

    Many thanks Jaimie :-)

    I found a "howto" video here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LJdp5YmosI

    It seems to do what I want, connect one to my modem/router, put one in the lounge for the HiFi kit and one in the study for the computer kit.

    He does recommend only connecting one bit of kit to each module, I would
    want to connect a switch then several items to the switch. Did you do
    that? If so was performance OK? The reality is not everything is going to
    want to speak to the Internet at the same time but things will want to
    speak to each other - i.e. Computer to NAS or NAS to Roku box.

    Thanks again.

    --
    Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
    There are 10 types of people in the world, those who do binary and those
    who don't.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Philip Herlihy@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 15 16:59:13 2022
    In article <MPG.3c4c105b93a6da0598999c@news.eternal-september.org>, thiswillbounceback@you.com says...

    In article <xn0ncva6u38liia007@news.individual.net>, jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk
    says...

    I have now moved in to my new (to me) home and am hoping broadband will spring to life "before midnight" as promised by Plusnet.

    Wired networking will be a pain and it seems powerline networking may
    cause interference.

    A lot of my kit needs a wired connection, what would I need to pick up the WiFi signal and feed it to a device via a network cable? I have been Googling "WiFi bridge" but all the results are several years old and refer to kit that is no longer available.

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    A lot of Wireless Access Points can be configured in bridge mode, which may be
    why you don't see dedicated bridges advertised now. Pick a WAP, find the manual, and see what modes it offers!

    I see you're still considering options, so I looked on Ebuyer for a cheap Wireless Access Point, and looked up how to connect it in "Client" (seemingly now more common terminology for "bridge") mode. Looked up the manufacturer's site for a manual - found this neat little video (1:4):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioLArt5GZ44 https://www.ebuyer.com/974287-tp-link-tl-wa901n-450mbps-wireless-n-access- point-fixed-antennas-multi-mode-tl-wa901n

    You'll see that this model only has one Ethernet port - some (possibly not TP- Link's current WAP range) will have four, which might be enough for you.
    Either way, a simple switch (4, 5, 8 or above ports) will allow for more connections if you can't find a multi-way WAP you like.

    HTH

    --

    Phil, London

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ian Jackson@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 15 16:23:55 2022
    In message <20220115140815.45568254@ryz>, Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de>
    writes
    Am Samstag, 15. Januar 2022, um 11:42:08 Uhr schrieb RobH:

    It's a problem either way I think, as ham radio signals also create
    interference on tv and radio stations. I know as I was a ham radio
    operator for about 15 years on hf and vhf, and had to supply filters
    to my neighbours who were affected by me when I operated on some HF
    bands.

    Also a problem, but they don't interfere entire bands by design.
    Powerline is designed to use the shortwave bands, so you can't do
    anything against the inference by it without switching it off
    completely.

    I didn't know that about powerline adaptors, as I don't have any ham
    radio operators in my local neighbourhood

    But maybe shortwave radio listeners that are disturbed by your
    Powerline transmitter.

    These days, any interference caused by amateur radio transmissions to TV
    and radio (and also audio and all sorts of other electronic equipment - including internet) is almost always a result of some inadequacy in the affected equipment. Nevertheless, amateurs do have to take reasonable precautions to minimise the possibility of such interference.

    Powerline and phone-line internet use frequencies that were already
    allocated to radio etc, and for the interconnecting wiring not to
    radiate rely on the cables being well-balanced RF-wise. With mains
    wiring this is rarely (even never) the case, and it is truly a
    fortuitous act-of-God if radiation does not occur. However, whether in
    practice such radiation causes an actual problem essentially depends on
    whether there is anything near enough to be interfered with, and whether
    the level of interference is bad enough to cause a problem.
    --
    Ian

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jan 15 19:42:37 2022
    On 15/01/2022 in message <MPG.3c4d0dc11e4f414798999d@news.eternal-september.org> Philip Herlihy
    wrote:

    You'll see that this model only has one Ethernet port - some (possibly not >TP-
    Link's current WAP range) will have four, which might be enough for you. >Either way, a simple switch (4, 5, 8 or above ports) will allow for more >connections if you can't find a multi-way WAP you like.

    Many thanks, Philip, much appreciated :-)

    --
    Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
    Those are my principles – and if you don’t like them, well, I have others. (Groucho Marx)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Gaines on Tue Jan 18 13:28:33 2022
    On 14/01/2022 in message <xn0ncva6u38liia007@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    My broadband sprung to life last night so I followed Jaimie and put a
    triplet of Tenda MW6 cubes in. Caused me some panic because I think I
    connected an input from my router to the main node whereupon all the
    lights went out on the router. Worse every time they started to come on
    again they went out. I reset it and managed to get it going again and this
    time it worked.

    I have put it in bridge mode so security, DHCP is. is provided by my
    router. Since I am now using the mesh WiFi presumably I can turn off the
    router WiFi? I'll have to reconnect some kit but it won't be a bad thing
    as I recently ran out of places to allocate MAC addresses max is 32) and
    I'm sure a lot of the kit died a long time ago!

    Anyway all seems to be OK, many thanks for all the input, if it continues
    to be OK it will save a lot of hassle.

    --
    Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
    Every day is a good day for chicken, unless you're a chicken.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jaimie Vandenbergh@21:1/5 to jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk on Wed Jan 19 23:28:37 2022
    On 18 Jan 2022 at 13:28:33 GMT, ""Jeff Gaines""
    <jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

    On 14/01/2022 in message <xn0ncva6u38liia007@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    Can anybody give me a steer as to what I need to look for please?

    My broadband sprung to life last night so I followed Jaimie and put a
    triplet of Tenda MW6 cubes in. Caused me some panic because I think I connected an input from my router to the main node whereupon all the
    lights went out on the router. Worse every time they started to come on
    again they went out. I reset it and managed to get it going again and this time it worked.

    I have put it in bridge mode so security, DHCP is. is provided by my
    router.

    Ideal.

    Since I am now using the mesh WiFi presumably I can turn off the
    router WiFi?

    Yep! Or keep it as a backup I guess, but it only takes a moment to turn
    back on if you ever needed it.

    I'll have to reconnect some kit but it won't be a bad thing
    as I recently ran out of places to allocate MAC addresses max is 32) and
    I'm sure a lot of the kit died a long time ago!

    Anyway all seems to be OK, many thanks for all the input, if it continues
    to be OK it will save a lot of hassle.

    Hurray! And to answer your other question, the middle floor Tenda at my
    sis' has a full 8 port switch hung off it.

    Cheers - Jaimie
    --
    "History repeats itself. Has to. No one listens."
    -- Steve Turner

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Vandenbergh on Thu Jan 20 08:37:17 2022
    On 19/01/2022 in message <j4rl55Fjdf0U1@mid.individual.net> Jaimie
    Vandenbergh wrote:

    Hurray! And to answer your other question, the middle floor Tenda at my
    sis' has a full 8 port switch hung off it.

    So does the one in my HiFi cabinet, the one in the study only has three connected devices :-)

    --
    Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
    Every day is a good day for chicken, unless you're a chicken.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)