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Cannot enable bridge mode on R6220
I searched previous posts on this topic, and the response was not what is desired for a 'bridge' configuration. A WIFI <-> Ethernet bridge is what is desired, where the WIFI is essentially transpa...
I think the confusion lies in the term 'bridge'. I tend to use 'bridge' to mean 'collecting a set of interfaces' into an effective unit, as in the following on a linux system command line.
brctl addbr br-lanbrctl addif br-lan eth0 -- wired interface
brctl addif br-lan wlan0 -- wireless interface
... etc...
For a WDS 'bridge', I'd use the phrase 'WDS bridge', which would be two AP connecting two segments of the network.
From what I can tell setting up this device, the ETHERNET ports and and the wireless interface are in fact 'bridged' in the first sense, which was not clear from the documentation.
Initially I was using the WAN port to connect to the rest of the wired network. Upon realizing that the wired interfaces where in fact bridged with the wireless interface, I move the cable connecting to the rest of the network to one of 'lan' ports, disabled DHCP on the AP, and the DHCP clients received their IP config from the DHCP on the wired side of things.
So problem solved.
I think the confusion lies in the term 'bridge'. I tend to use 'bridge' to mean 'collecting a set of interfaces' into an effective unit, as in the following on a linux system command line.
brctl addbr br-lan
brctl addif br-lan eth0 -- wired interface
brctl addif br-lan wlan0 -- wireless interface
... etc...
For a WDS 'bridge', I'd use the phrase 'WDS bridge', which would be two AP connecting two segments of the network.
From what I can tell setting up this device, the ETHERNET ports and and the wireless interface are in fact 'bridged' in the first sense, which was not clear from the documentation.
Initially I was using the WAN port to connect to the rest of the wired network. Upon realizing that the wired interfaces where in fact bridged with the wireless interface, I move the cable connecting to the rest of the network to one of 'lan' ports, disabled DHCP on the AP, and the DHCP clients received their IP config from the DHCP on the wired side of things.
So problem solved.
Am I right in thinking that your "solved" tag is down to a revelation that you were barking up the wrong tree and that any confusion about "bridge" is at your end ?
Wouldn't want anyone to stumble on the Solved flag for this conversation and think that you have managed to get this R6220 to achieve the impossible.
Or maybe you have. That would be even more useful for fellow victims.
The 'revelation' was that rather than using the WAN port for connecting the AP to the wired network, to use one of the LAN ethernet ports, and turn off the DHCP server option in the AP.
Then packets from the AP client via the wireless interface, get bridged to the LAN wired network, and the WAN interfarce is not used.> The 'revelation' was [...]
For a different "revelation", you might try the (should-be) obvious
thing: Visit http://netgear.com/support , put in your model number, and
look for Documentation. Get the User Manual. Read. Look for "Use the
Router as a Wireless Access Point".That, of course, assumes that what you really wanted was a WAP, not a
"bridge".The following is the initial setup diagram for using the R6220.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/Cannot-enable-bridge-mode-on-R6220/m-p/1903277#M156208
There is a yellow cable connecting The Modem with the R6220 WAN port, and other devices are depicted as connecting to the R6220 ETHERNET or WIFI interfaces.
In that diagram depiction, I believed that I needed to bridge the WAN port with the LAN ports, and WIFI, to allow for clients of the WIFI interface to access the 'local' network beyond the R6220, in a 'transparent' way.
But the WAN requires an IP address, different from the LAN side, hence my question about bridging the two interfaces.
Upon further investigation, I found that if I ignored the WAN interface altogether, put the wired connection to my Modem/Router and the rest of my local network, disabled the DHCP server on the AP, and gave it a static IP address in the existing local network IP address space, things worked as I expected.
The various pages associated with WDS bridging of separate ETHERNET segments, are not what I was looking for.