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Bridging Wi-Fi to Ethernet, post Airport Extreme

I ditched my Airport Extreme because Apple stopped supporting it. What steps can I take to accomplish bridging between my new Wi-Fi network and the home ethernet network? (Airport Extreme accomplished this by default.)

Posted on Dec 30, 2022 3:55 PM

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Posted on Dec 31, 2022 4:30 PM

i'm considering only these to have better hardware : netgear RBK50V RBK53 RBK52W RBK50.

( others, not-considered by me : netgear RBK43 , RBK40 , RBK30 , RBK23W , RBK23 , RBK44 ).


my short-time search is showing:

users are able to run openwrt & playing with routers with very similar hardware : here (RBR50).

i think, its similar to RBK50.


Tech specifications, & openwrt firmware:

https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_rbr50


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13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 31, 2022 4:30 PM in response to llee

i'm considering only these to have better hardware : netgear RBK50V RBK53 RBK52W RBK50.

( others, not-considered by me : netgear RBK43 , RBK40 , RBK30 , RBK23W , RBK23 , RBK44 ).


my short-time search is showing:

users are able to run openwrt & playing with routers with very similar hardware : here (RBR50).

i think, its similar to RBK50.


Tech specifications, & openwrt firmware:

https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_rbr50


Dec 30, 2022 10:08 PM in response to MartinR

Thanks. AT&T Fiber 1000, ARRIS BGW210-700, ethernet configured for DHCP, Wi-Fi off. Monoprice Wi-fi Mesh Router AC1200 Dual Band (both 2.4G and 5G) connected directly through ethernet to the router. The networks seem to perform robustly except that they function as two independent networks without any devices for either recognized from the other.

Dec 31, 2022 7:00 AM in response to llee

Verify that your Monoprice Wi-fi Mesh Router is set up in bridge mode and its built-in DHCP server is off (bridge mode itself usually disables DHCP).


Not being in bridge mode would explain what's going on. If it's not in bridge mode, it's acting as a second router and using its own DHCP server to provision IP addresses on top of the addresses your your ARRIS router provides. In a bridge setup you want only 1 device handing out IP addresses, in your case that would be the ARRIS router. Also make sure that your Monoprice is connected via its WAN port to one of your ARRIS router's ethernet ports.

Dec 31, 2022 12:59 PM in response to MartinR

This device appears not to have a bridge mode. My next idea was to enable the Wi-Fi on the Arris and use the Mesh system as extenders only, but now the Mesh system won't let me log into it even after a reset with the defaults, so I'm beginning to think it's mostly useless and I'll have to go back to the Wi-Fi store to find one that works. Thanks.

Dec 31, 2022 1:32 PM in response to llee

OpenWRT firmware (FW) based powerful WiFi router, can connect/bridge a sub-WiFi network under an existing WiFi home network, etc, via wifi or via wired connection, etc, etc.


OpenWRT has too many FEATURES to fit into this single post, or even 5 posts.


Not all router's firmware can be upgraded into OpenWRT, so you have to research in their site & forum, what router hardware-wise fits your necessity.


Some users also like DD-WRT firmware, its based on an older OpenWRT FW, but was heavily customized by it's devs to make the openwrt interface much easier for more newer users (aka: newbs) into computer-networking.



There are other firmware choices as well, see here in wikipedia, etc.

Dec 31, 2022 3:37 PM in response to llee

You will want the Wi-Fi configured as an access point or what Apple called "bridged"—this makes the Wi-Fi and wired networks appear connected and this with the appearance of no intervening IP router–or you will want to use an IP subnet for Wi-Fi and a second IP subnet for the wired network and with an IP router connected between those and with DHCP services provided by some box on each subnet.


If you want to run your own services on your network, not the least of which is DHCP services, and want a network that can have a couple of different Wi-Fi APs connected and active for better coverage—configuring each of your Wi-Fi boxes as an AP works well. This because an AP may or may not provide DHCP or other services.


If you choose to have a router between the networks, you will have to control what traffic traverses the router. You probably don't want it running as a firewall, for instance. Some network protocols and related network traffic such as mDNS are not (or are not, by default) passed through an intervening router. Whether and how a router can pass that traffic varies. Check the vendor docs.


Generally, you want exactly one box on your network providing NAT, and that is the box at the edge of your network, adjacent to your ISP. No other boxes within your network should be performing NAT. (This absent very unusual circumstances.)


I mostly run a mix of ZYXEL, Ubiquiti, and Synology gear on the networks that I'm managing, and some network services from Mac systems in certain cases. What D-Link and NETGEAR boxes had been around have all been retired.

Jan 3, 2023 8:02 PM in response to emde-ash

Configured a refurb Netgear ORBI RBK53 for bridging as instructed here. Very pleased, so far. Also persuaded AT&T to send their extender system at no extra cost, so I hope to compare the two, although I don't consider the reconfiguration to be precisely trivial. Many people on these forums probably would. I'll try to report back with results.

Jan 4, 2023 9:54 AM in response to llee

I'm replying to add that the AT&T representative I spoke to apparently misrepresented the intention to send a Wi-Fi extender. I called today about the status of the order and discovered that it had not been placed. This is the first time I'm aware that I've actually been subjected to mendacity on the part of AT&T personnel. I'm undecided as to what action I should take about that, but I remain quite satisfied with the Netgear ORBI configuration, so that mitigates my consternation to some extent.


Bridging Wi-Fi to Ethernet, post Airport Extreme

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