Need a little ddwrt bridge help

[Lazzer408]

Starting from the begining...

My neighbor is allowing me to connect to his wireless connection and charges me a small fee. Both him and I share shops in an office/warehouse complex.

Rather then have a half dozen wifi connections to his router, I built a bridge using a small Dell computer. The Dell's wifi card connects it to "Bob" and my router's WAN port connects to the Dell's NIC. Windows is bridging the connections. This way I have my own SSID and a few wired connections as well. My internal LAN is also faster.

What I'd like to do...

I have a few WRT54G v6 routers kicking around so I stuck DDWRT firmware on one of them. I'd like to set it up to be a bridge because it uses less power then the Dell computer. If I set the DDWRT router as a client bridge, it works. I can plug my desktop right into the DDWRT router so I will assume my other router can plug into it. Problem is, I can't configure the router because once it's in client bridge mode I loose my ability to assign it an IP or have any DHCP functions or even log into it. It's just forwarding me right to my neighbors router and using his DHCP.

So... In the DDWRT router I also have "client" mode instead of "client bridge" mode. My understanding is client mode would simply connect the DDWRT router's wifi to my neighbor and the DDWRT router would use it's DHCP on anything pluged into it including any computers and my other wifi router.

I hope this makes sense and someone can assist me.

EDIT - Here's a pic of what I'm trying to do.

 

[Zen_]

Starting from the begining...
So... In the DDWRT router I also have "client" mode instead of "client bridge" mode. My understanding is client mode would simply connect the DDWRT router's wifi to my neighbor and the DDWRT router would use it's DHCP on anything pluged into it including any computers and my other wifi router.

That is correct, you want to use client mode and then connect your other routers to it by ethernet and set them up as access points.

 

[digibucc]

corrent - a client takes the internet connection and creates it's own network with that as the gateway - a client bridge takes the internet connection and bridges the two networks into one, which is the network of the access point and not the client bridge.

 

[Lazzer408]

I kept trying client mode but couldn't get the DNS to work. Client bridge mode is working at the moment. The WAN side of my AP router shows I'm connected to "bob" and my AP has my own SSID so I guess that'll work for now.

As a client bridge, I believe my whole network is visable to bob. That's the other thing I'm trying to avoid.

 

[digibucc]

I like client-bridge mode simply because i want all machines to be able to see each other. if that's not what you want though, you should look for the ddwrt docs on client mode (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode_Wireless) instead of client bridged as i gave you before.

As a client bridge, I believe my whole network is visable to bob. That's the other thing I'm trying to avoid.

correct, so you do want client mode working and not client bridge. what is it about client mode that isn't working again? if client bridge works client should as well, so that's a little confusing.

 

[Lazzer408]

I think in client bridge mode his router is giving me the correct DNS. In client mode, windows is telling me there's a problem with the DNS server. Also in client mode the LAN is working and I can view his router's config page it's just that the internet isn't working.

I did use the step by step info off the DDWRT site but it didn't work no matter what DNS I enter.

 

[digibucc]

put static 8.8.8.8 as the dns, which is google's public dns server. i always do.

however, i doubt it's just the dns - change the routing mode to router, it's probably on gateway now.