Repeater modes in the dd wrt firmware work exactly as the client modes do plus they give the added advantage of extending your primary wireless range to the linksys wrt54GL and as far again

#note , before you follow this tutorial , you need to set up your linksys wrt54GL in client bridge mode and get it working correctly , only then do the changes to repeater bridge mode, as trying to go from ap mode to repeater bridge mode directly is problematic at best and almost never works , first plz follow the client bridge tutorial below and come back here once its running

Client mode , WRT54GL , DDWRT firmware

Introduction

there are 2 modes – repeater bridge mode , and repeater mode ( again not recommended as network sharing will not work correctly )

repeater mode – as with client mode , repeater mode uses its own subnet and ip range ( thus an issue with sharing ) . this could be used if you want to segment your lan for security purposes , but in general for home lan its not needed

repeater bridge mode – as with client bridge mode this uses the same subnet and ip range , allowing devices connected to it via wired or wireless to obtain ip addressing from the gateway routers dhcp server and thus all comps will be the same subnet and ip range and sharing will work without issue

setup

Step 1
If you have got this far we assume you have your linksys wrt54GL working in client bridge mode as instructed in the link above and have tested it works

next we change from client bridge mode to repeater bridge mode

Open your gui 192.168.1.200 ( as set with client mode ) and go to the wireless section

change wireless mode from client bridge to repeater bridge mode

scroll down to the Virtual Interfaces section and click add

wait a second and some more text boxes appear below

Wireless Network Name (SSID) – this you can name anything as its the ssid of the extended range , for ease of identifying i usually call it myssid1 ( where my gateway wireless ssid = myssid )

Wireless SSID Broadcast – enable

AP Isolation – disabled

Network Configuration – bridged

once done scroll down and click save then apply and wait for restart

Step 2

go back to the wireless section

select wireless security tab

you should now have a second Virtual Interfaces wl0.1 SSID

this is the wireless security for the extended range , you need to also secure this as well

for ease of use i use exactly the same security and passphrase as the gateway wireless

Security Mode – same as your gateway wireless

WPA Algorithms – same as your gateway wireless

WPA Shared Key – same as your gateway wireless

Key Renewal Interval (in seconds) – 3600

save and apply wait for restart

Step 3

ok time to check if its working

go back to the gui and go to status and wireless tab , you should still see the mac address and signal info as we did in client bridge mode , if its there then you are set to connect a wireless client laptop to myssid1 ( the ssid we just set up ) and test if you can access the internet

thats it you are now using a linksys wrt54GL as both a transparent bridge and a wireless extender at the same time