WDS with Skyrove and DD-WRT

(OpenWRT guide coming soon) This guide is based on the WDS article from the DD-WRT Wiki

Only the sections relevant to a Skyrove specific WDS installation are shown here.

Two or more WRT54G / WRT54GS / WRT54GLboxes

1. Installation Standard terminology for a two router setup

The client router is the router which does not have an internet connection. The host router is the router which does have the internet connection and is going to share it with other routers.

2. Setup
  1. Reset both routers to factory default settings so other settings will not have a possible conflict: Administration -> Factory Default – select yes – click “Save Settings” button.
  2. Give both the routers a different IP address, i.e. 192.168.1.1 (host/internet gateway) and 192.168.1.2 (”client router”) on the same subnet. Setup -> Basic Setup
  3. Change the Internet Connection Type to Disable on the client router. Setup -> Basic Setup -> Internet Setup -> Internet Connection Type -> Disable
  4. Set the Gateway IP address of the client router to the LAN IP address of the host router, typically 192.168.1.1. Setup -> Basic Setup -> Network Setup -> Router IP -> Gateway
  5. Disable the DHCP server on the client router(s), under Setup -> Basic Setup — Network Address Server Settings (DHCP)
  6. Disable Chillispot. Administration -> Hotspot (If you installed the original DD-WRT firmware, Chillispot is disabled by default)
  7. Turn off the firewall on the client router. Security -> Firewall -> Firewall Protection -> Disable
  8. Ensure both routers are in AP mode and on the same channel. Wireless -> Basic Settings
  9. Under Wireless -> Basic Settings, set the SSID to your Skyrove Internet. While setting up, having different SSIDs might help. E.g. “Skyrove Main” and “Skyrove Repeater”
  10. Open WDS configuration on both routers. Wireless -> WDS
  11. On each router, you will see its wireless MAC address at the top of the Wireless -> WDS page. Put each router’s Wireless MAC into the table of the other router, and select LAN for the type. Note that this MAC address is different from the one that may be printed on your case!
  12. There is no need to enable Lazy WDS or WDS subnet on either router.
  13. Test that you can ping the gateway from the client. Note that it may take a short amount of time for the WDS to be established, and you may need to reboot both the gateway and the client.
3. Notes

On the main Status page and the Wireless Status you can see the signal strength for any other routers in the WDS. If they are showing 0 then you’re not connecting to them for some reason (wrong MAC address or, for WPA links, wrong SSID).

In some cases it may help to put the IP of the client router as a DMZ’d machine in the host router. Of course, this only works with a WDS between 2 routers. http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=669&highlight=dmz

If you have G-only enabled, you must use channels 1, 6, or 11. http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=628&highlight=wds

The source material for this list comes primarily from the following DD-WRT forum posts: