Router connected to Client Bridge: Wireless still halved

[misfiringsystem]

Are you POSITIVE that the WR54s are on seperate channels. Main router and bridge need to be on the same channel to work, but then the access point should be on a seperate channel.

If this is the case and you are still getting halved performance compared to wiring to the access point (or directly to the client bridge), something else going on.

However, it SOUNDS like what is happening is co-channel interference with everything set on the same channel.

This is what I have set up.

ISP modem --wired--WAN Stock Asus N66U --wireless-- client bridge (WRT54G w/ DD-WRT) LAN--wired--LAN access point (stock WRT54G)

For client bridge, I followed the exact steps from here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridge

Asus is on channel 1, and access point is configured on channel 11.

After all the discussions, I can only conclude, there's something beyond my scope of knowledge (half/full duplex) and I can't fix, or the set up looks good on paper, but it doesn't work perfectly in reality.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure if the access point (stock WRT54G) can distinguish what is it being connected to, ie. can it tell whether it is connected to a client bridge, or just a regular router.

Anyways, thank you all.

 

[misfiringsystem]

Follow Up:

So my DIY Repeater works perfectly now, I don't see the 50% penalty on bandwidth when connected wirelessly to my AP.

So my primary router and the client bridge is on channel 1, and my AP, which is connected wired to the client bridge, is on channel 11.

The client bridge and AP is roughly 12 feet apart from each other.

I'm not sure what fixed it, but I reconfigured everything from scratch, and it seems to be working perfectly now.

Thank you for everyone's response.

 

[htismaqe]

Completely agree - they were great devices for their time - and core of the OpenWRT/DD-WRT development that has provided a strong foundation for 3rd Party firmware development.

Many of the older Draft-N devices run out of steam as well, once you pile on more than 10 on them, esp. for routing purposes, as the traffic models have changed.

The number of TCP sessions alone overwhelms them. Heck, the WNDR3700 N600 router I just retired could only handle 4096 simultaneous sessions. We have like 30 devices and if any of us would have wanted to use a bit torrent client, the router would have choked instantly.

 

[htismaqe]

SP modem --wired--WAN Stock Asus N66U --wireless-- client bridge (WRT54G w/ DD-WRT) LAN--wired--LAN access point (stock WRT54G)

Good to hear you got it worked out.

Just looking at your config, you have it all configured correctly. The key to avoiding any throughput penalty is making sure that the intermediate WRT54G is in client mode because then it's only communicating with the upstream Asus. The throughput penalty is only incurred when you have multiple, competing TX/RX streams, which you would have if the WRT54G were configured as a repeater instead of a client bridge.

Also keep in mind that the maximum one-way throughput you're going to see is about 22Mbps, since G wireless is only half-duplex. At any given time, the radio can only transmit OR receive whereas a full-duplex medium could transmit AND receive.

 

[sfx2000]

The number of TCP sessions alone overwhelms them. Heck, the WNDR3700 N600 router I just retired could only handle 4096 simultaneous sessions. We have like 30 devices and if any of us would have wanted to use a bit torrent client, the router would have choked instantly.

Yep... and it's probably a RAM limitation - the router SOC has more than enough horsepower.

I've been a bit surprised that most AC1750/AC1900 class routers are still stingy with 256MB of RAM...

sfx