How does Bridge Mode work?

[spit]

What is bridge mode?

Because I've recently moved ISP and received a new router with the move, but kept my old Asus wireless AC1200 router. I don't have an extender and not planning to buy one but some parts of the house the signal is weak and want to use the new router as an extender but the router can only do Bridge Mode and I'm not familiar with it and I can't find proper information when I Google it. Is there extra cost involve in doing this or something I need to know?

The router I want to use is a Zyxel vmg3625-t20a.

Thank you in advance.

 

[threegee]

Bridge mode works better than any extender mode. It just becomes a true extension of your main router. Just set it up as bridge mode and it should just take care of the rest for you.

 

[CrypticZA]

Actually set up a WDS this past week, had a spare router and signal at the back of the house was bad, so bridged the two routers and now get full line speed at the back of the house

 

[SauRoNZA]

Are you talking about bridge mode on the ROUTER mode? Or are you talking about a Wireless Bridge?

Fundamentally different things and I suspect you are referring to the router mode which don’t help here.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Bridge mode works better than any extender mode. It just becomes a true extension of your main router. Just set it up as bridge mode and it should just take care of the rest for you.

Very little in the way of difference.

It still consumes half of the bandwidth for the wireless bridge and the only real difference is that it works at the MAC layer.

Extenders do the exact same thing in a more easy to use manner.

Results are essentially identical, except you’ll lose a lot more hair doing the bridge manually, especially between different brands.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Actually set up a WDS this past week, had a spare router and signal at the back of the house was bad, so bridged the two routers and now get full line speed at the back of the house

You will however lose half the wireless bandwidth in the process.

Always run a cable between two access points whenever possible.

Even better throw all the old consumer router stuff out and separate your wireless with legitimate kit that is aware of each other and can deal with roaming and hand overs like Ubiquiti Unifi or Amplifi or many other mesh based systems.

 

[AdrianH]

You will however lose half the wireless bandwidth in the process.

Always run a cable between two access points whenever possible.

Even better throw all the old consumer router stuff out and separate your wireless with legitimate kit that is aware of each other and can deal with roaming and hand overs like Ubiquiti Unifi or Amplifi or many other mesh based systems.

Yo, long time no smell.

You know what I need to know, which mesh system will allow me to assign specific bands to specific devices. Not band steering, but explicit band assignment for a device

 

[CrypticZA]

You will however lose half the wireless bandwidth in the process.

Always run a cable between two access points whenever possible.

Even better throw all the old consumer router stuff out and separate your wireless with legitimate kit that is aware of each other and can deal with roaming and hand overs like Ubiquiti Unifi or Amplifi or many other mesh based systems.

I didn't I get 50/5 on both routers I did read up about losing speed but I did not

 

[SauRoNZA]

I didn't I get 50/5 on both routers I did read up about losing speed but I did not

Yeah your WAN connection at that speed would likely be safe from the bandwidth being halved as it comes in just under the threshold.

But if it was say 100/10 or 100/100 you’d likely not be so lucky.

Of course anything on your LAN will be limited.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Yo, long time no smell.

You know what I need to know, which mesh system will allow me to assign specific bands to specific devices. Not band steering, but explicit band assignment for a device

I don’t know about manually assigning bands to specific devices but Unifi supports a high performance mode where (assuming you use one SSID for both and don’t force it that way of course) it will put 5ghz devices on 5ghz only.

This however has its pitfalls if you haven’t super distributed AP’s due to 5ghz having lower range so in those select situations you’d want it to roam to 2.4ghz if it has the better signal.

For this reason I have it turned off in my house because of a Dell piece of kak in one room that sucks on 5ghz and struggles where every Apple device gets a 850mbps link in the same spot.

With it off though it does a better job in my mind of providing the best link. Generally these things are best left to auto pilot I’ve found.

Unifi also has a feature where it can scan in the middle of the night to change channels and signal strength to adapt to interference.

I believe the Amplifi range does all the same things but while it’s super convenient it is also more expensive.

 

[kiepie]

You will however lose half the wireless bandwidth in the process.

Excuse my ignorance. So if it is a 100mbps line, 50mbps will go to the first router and 50mbps to the second router?

 

[cpu.]

Excuse my ignorance. So if it is a 100mbps line, 50mbps will go to the first router and 50mbps to the second router?

No.

(As far as I understand it) The halving is on the router, not the modem. Line speed is the connection to the internet, handled by the modem. The router do connections to your devices (wifi or lan) and will halve the wifi speed in wireless bridge mode between 2 routers. If both the routers can do 300Mbps each, they will now provide 150Mbps.

Your question: 150Mbps is the theoretical wifi speed you can get if your next to the router all day. However, you will realistically only get +-54Mbps (to 100 or so), but less than 150. If you get an internet connection speed of 80Mbps (from the 100Mb line), but only have a wifi connection of 60, then you are capped by the router until you move closer.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[threegee]

Very little in the way of difference.

It still consumes half of the bandwidth for the wireless bridge and the only real difference is that it works at the MAC layer.

Extenders do the exact same thing in a more easy to use manner.

Results are essentially identical, except you’ll lose a lot more hair doing the bridge manually, especially between different brands.

I've had much better performance with bridge modes versus repeater / ap modes. Especially if the extender router is hard wired to the main router.

 

[StoneCold]

I've had much better performance with bridge modes versus repeater / ap modes. Especially if the extender router is hard wired to the main router.

Like wise.
Had a repeater setup first, but then switched over to bridge mode. Have a wifi extender set to bridged mode in one of my rooms which in turn is connected via a PoE adapter to my main router in the office. Works like a charm.

 

[spit]

Thanks for your feedback, will attempt it this evening and let you know if it's working or not!

 

[SauRoNZA]

Excuse my ignorance. So if it is a 100mbps line, 50mbps will go to the first router and 50mbps to the second router?

No no, nothing to do with your line speed.

Your wireless bandwidth.

If it’s a 144mb wireless link it will effectively become half of that which could mean you get less than your 100mb on a speed test.

The 144 is of course never real to begin with.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I've had much better performance with bridge modes versus repeater / ap modes. Especially if the extender router is hard wired to the main router.

If it’s hard wired then it’s not the same thing which explains your results perfectly.

When we say bridge we refer to the wireless bridge being a problem as it consumes half the bandwidth to make that bridge.

If it’s cabled then that bridge is Ethernet and wireless is full speed which is what I recommended in my earlier post.

AP mode should ultimately have the exact same result.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Like wise.
Had a repeater setup first, but then switched over to bridge mode. Have a wifi extender set to bridged mode in one of my rooms which in turn is connected via a PoE adapter to my main router in the office. Works like a charm.

Again that’s hard wired so not a problem.

The issue with repeaters is the wireless bridge. And WDS is the same thing just more complicated.

 

[Totempole]

If it’s hard wired then it’s not the same thing which explains your results perfectly.

When we say bridge we refer to the wireless bridge being a problem as it consumes half the bandwidth to make that bridge.

If it’s cabled then that bridge is Ethernet and wireless is full speed which is what I recommended in my earlier post.

AP mode should ultimately have the exact same result.

When I think of bridging I've always thought of it as hard wiring two routers together. I had no idea you could do Bridge Mode wirelessly. I've been living under a rock for some time now.

 

[SauRoNZA]

When I think of bridging I've always thought of it as hard wiring two routers together. I had no idea you could do Bridge Mode wirelessly. I've been living under a rock for some time now.

It’s a bit of a weird term that gets throw around mostly incorrectly.

In a perfect sense “bridge mode” is meant to meant to mean that the device disabled it’s routing and firewall modes and instead is open for other devices to connect “through” it transparently as if it doesn’t exist.

So in the case of a Router with a built-in modem “bridge mode” would normally mean you can make a PPPoE connection to and through it.

On a normal LAN device it means that you won’t have routing applies to it but also normally means things like DHCP server will be disabled etc so that it can be a “client” on the network sharing the same subnet and IP etc, for the purpose of “bridging” one part of the same network to another part of the same network.

So ultimately it’s more about disabling function than enabling them. You can put just about any old router or access point into bridge mode manually by setting the correct things, but some just make it simpler with a preset.

The bridge itself can then be wired or wireless. It literally just means a link between one “intelligent” device and another on the same network without any routing.