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MiFi with Bridge and Router

Folks,

We are out in the sticks (no broadband available), so I'm trying to get a MiFi 4620L on a wired network, but I'm having issues. It's set up like this:

Gigabit switch

- wired to -

Netgear WNR2000 wireless router (IP: 192.168.2.1 / Subnet: 255.255.255.0)

- wired to -

D-Link DAP-1522 wireless bridge (set bridge mode and set up for the MiFi SSID)

- wireless link -

MiFi (IP:192.168.1.1 /Subnet: 255.255.255.0)

The problem is that I seem to be getting IP conflicts, even though the starting network IPs are different (*.*.2.1 vs *.*.2.2). Have I done something wrong? Is there a setup guide somewhere that I've not seen?

The MiFi works ok when linking to directly, but I want the netgear wired router to do all my local wired stuff and the MiFi to do only the intenet access stuff. DHCP is turned on in the Netgear router, so I'm guessing that I'll have to turn it off on the Mifi, correct? I want to have pretty much unlimited wifi/wired home network access, which is why I want the Netgear router doing the DHCP.

Appreciate any input/insight.

Mark

Comments

John_Getzke

I am unfamiliar with your DLink bridge but I would assume that device is the problem. Instead of acting like a device capible of being on two networks, the bridge is acting more like a traditional access point or repeater. Since you are operating in Bridge mode, your bridge is accepting the DHCP of the MiFi and rejecting connections from the wired router.

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/connect/access-points-range-extenders-and-bridges/dap-1522-xtreme-n-duo-wireless-n-access-point

"Wireless Bridge Mode

Use the xtreme N™ duo wireless bridge / access point (DAP-1522) to connect up to 4 Ethernet-enabled devices such as Game Consoles, Digital Video Recorders (DVR), and Digital Media Adapters (DMA) to your wireless network."

"Access Point Mode

Connect the DAP-1522 to an existing wired network and easily enable wireless connectivity in your home. Use your new wireless network to stream HD multimedia content, play multiplayer games, or make Internet phone calls (VoIP)."

As long as your Router and MiFi are providing DHCP services at the same time I think you will have problems. Nowhere on the support website do I see any evidence that the Bridge is capabile of communicating between two different DHCP servers and bridging the networks togeather. Bridge mode works when conecting to a wireless DHCP and Access Point mode works when connecting to a wired DHCP. Depending on the mode the bridge will belong to the wireless or the wired network, but not both.

Couple of possibilities to try:

1. Disable DHCP on the MiFi, set bridge to Access Point mode, let the Router act as the Default Gateway of the network

2. Disable DHCP on the router, set bridge to Bridge mode, let the MiFi act as the Default Gateway of the network

I would test the connection from the bridge in each scenario to see which IP Address it is providing to your computer. That should set some light on the behavior of your bridge and point you in the right direction.

John_Getzke

Link with info on Bridge mode vs AP mode:

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/support/faqs/access-points-range-extenders/access-points/what-is-the-difference-between-ap-mode-and-bridge-mode-on-my-dap-15551522-mediabridge

Unfortunetly the link does not provide any input on how to accomplish the task of bridging two networks togeather. However it does suggest that what we want to do should be possible with Bridge mode.

Another link with steps to bridge two wireless networks:

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/support/faqs/access-points-range-extenders/access-points/dap-series/dap-1522/how-do-i-configure-my-dap-15551522-mediabridge-with-another-dap-15551522-to-create-a-wireless-bridge

Take a peek at the 2nd link and see if you can find any clues for configuring your devices togeather. These steps suggest that you have one 1522 setup in AP mode and the other in Bridge mode.

John_Getzke

One more great site I found on the subject:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Bridge

With the info we have learned about bridges in general we can conclude a few things about how your enviornment should be setup:

1. Only one DHCP service can be active at a time, MiFi or Router but not both.

2. Both the MiFi and LAN networks need to be on the same subnet. For example 192.168.1.x.

3. The bridge must be configured to Bridge Mode so that it can connect to the MiFi. Access Point mode will not allow the Mifi to connect to the bridge. This invalidates my first suggestion posted above.

Hopefully you do not plan to travel with your MiFi. As soon as you pull the MiFi off the network you will need to reconfigure something. Id suggest leaving the NetGear router as the DHCP server. That way when the MiFi leaves the network the rest of your equiptment will continue to work. A quick restoring of the defaults on the MiFi will bring that device back online and allow access while on the road. When you return back to your network you will have to disable DHCP on the MiFi again to allow it to hook back up to everything. It might be wise to create and save a few MiFi configuration files for the different scenarios.

I'm excited to see how this turns out. Please keep us posted with your progress and questions.

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