Re: [PLUG] slight OT, dd-wrt in wireless bridge mode

[Will Dyson <will.dyson@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 11:49 PM, Michael Lazin <microlaser@gmail.com> wrote:
> I installed dd-wrt on a linksys wrt54g v2.2 and am using it as a wireless
> bridge (client bridge mode) with the free public wifi in my building.  My
> ubuntu laptop works great with it's atheros chipset with the public wifi,
> but my desktop which is tethered to the linksys "wireless bridge" is
> painfully slow.  I know there are a lot of tweaks on dd-wrt.  How can I make
> this faster?

I'd like to start by pointing out that the "client bridge" mode is an
outright abuse of the 802.11 standards that just happens to work most
of the time (on broadcom chips). Which is not to say that you
shouldn't use it, but to restrain your expectations for it. If it
breaks, you get to keep both pieces. Is there a particular reason to
use this mode instead of regular wireless client?

I would start the troubleshooting by looking at the wireless
transmission rate reported by the router. Also the tx/rx error counts.
Perhaps the router is just sitting in a bad location for interference.

If you don't see an obvious problem with the wireless signal basics, I
think the next step should be to switch the router into regular
wireless client mode. Your upstream AP may have a chipset that does
not play well with the client mode bridge hack.

Other questions to help narrow down the source of the problem:

How is the ping latency from your desktop to the upstream AP? How
about from the router itself? If you telnet into the router and run a
download speed test (I typically use wget -O /dev/null somefile), is
it any better than on your desktop?


-- 
Will Dyson
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