# Wireless client bridge ... stuck...



## Cede (Aug 18, 2010)

Hi all,

I'm playing with old wrap boards and I'm trying to build a wireless link betwwen 2 LANs.

The setup is like this


```
INET<--->Router<--->AP(bridge0(sis0,ath0):192.168.0.1)<----wireless---->Client(ath0,sis0)<--->PC_garage(192.168.0.x)
```

I took an old minibsd I did a few years ago, BSD 6.4.
The AP and the client have the same hardware, wrap board, SR9 radio card.
The AP is running fine with whatever client I use.

My trouble is at the client, which I intend to turn into wlan to lan bridge.

I want to be able to reach the other PCs on the network from the PC_garage.

I read on bridging interfaces and tried to bring up a bridge on the client, but this does not work.

Any idea on how to setup the client ?

Regards,
Cedric


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## Cede (Aug 18, 2010)

*Partial solution*

I managed to get something working but not exactly as fast as it should in terms of bandwidth.

On the AP side:
sis0: 192.168.0.1
ath0: 192.168.10.1
vpn server in p2p, udp, tap mode 
no ip for tap0
tap0 bridged to sis0

On the client side:
sis0: 192.168.0.2
ath0: 192.168.10.2
vpn server in p2p, udp, tap mode 
no ip for tap0
tap0 bridged to sis0

This way it's runing in EoIP.

I tested troughoutput between AP and client using a minihttpd on AP and wget on client: download runs at about 1.5MB/s, not bad considering the link betwwen house and garage

I did that setup:

```
PC1(192.168.0.5)<--->AP<--- wireless --->Client<--->PC2(192.168.0.10)
```

PC1 can ping and reach PC2
PC2 can ping and reach PC1

When I copy a file from PC1 to PC2 or PC2 to PC1, it's done at around 470KB/s.... slowwww

On both wraps, openvpn WCPU runs over 50%.


I tried openvpn with tun, aka IP over IP but even with bridging it's not working and didn't investigate further on, as I had a working link.

Is there's a way to maximise troughoutput or any other way to do this transparent bridge faster ?

Regards,

Cedric


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## aragon (Aug 19, 2010)

Unfortunately running a wireless client bridge is not so simple.  It's not possible due to wifi spec.  You need to be able to run in WDS mode, or you need to implement a layer 3 bridge (aka proxy arp).


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## SirDice (Aug 19, 2010)

aragon said:
			
		

> Unfortunately running a wireless client bridge is not so simple.  It's not possible due to wifi spec.


No, it's not possible because not all wifi drivers allow spoofing of a MAC address. This is required for a bridge to work. It has nothing to do with the Wifi specs.


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## Cede (Aug 20, 2010)

*OK, I'm done*

I looked at proxy arp.... too much trouble for my single neuro

I grabbed vtund and thrown it at the wrap boards

Ap is configured like a vtun server, and tap0 is bridged to sis0 (the local network)
Client is configured like a vtun client , and client tap0 is bridged to client sis0 (the other part of the local network)
I use no compression as well as no cyphering.
ath0's are configured as AP and client with their own subnet

The result is that I can see both parts of the networks from either side of the wireless link.
Plus the bandwith in the tunnel is close to the wireless bandwidth and that's what I was looking for.

Need to backup the FreeBSD install on wrap boards and put the antennas in place.

Regards,

Cedric


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