I finally got this wireless bridge working tonight. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what I did right tonight that I didn't do the last two nights. I think it was enabling SSID broadcast on my wireless router, disconnecting the bridge from the router (via the LAN connection), manually switching the bridge to "bridge" mode and then connecting them using the automatic Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) feature that requires nothing but a button push on the router and then the bridge. I tested the bridge by connecting it directly to my laptop and suddenly it had Internet access.
Yesterday when I tried this, I kept getting pop-up error messages on my Apple saying that the IP address was already in use. Then my netcam stopped working. Then my PC indicated a duplicate IP address conflict. I think there was some conflict between the router and bridge, like both were trying to act as routers and both assigning IP address. Last night was a bad night for wireless and wired connections in my house.
So the next step was to take the bridge into my living room and connect it to my Blu Ray player and see if it could get to the Internet - and it did! I tested this first by checking for firmware updates. Yesterday when I tried this the player indicated it failed. Today it said no new updates available, so that indicates it was able to check on the Internet.
So then I loaded the new X-Files movie, I Want to Believe, and during the very slow load process, it displayed a screen asking me if I wanted to update the BD Live feature. So I clicked "Yes" and it downloaded 2 MB of data to by 2 GB SD card. After another few minutes, I got to the main menu and navigated to the special BD Live feature that I'm still not clear what it does. Something about some agents files where you can create your own profile, or something. At this point I was happy enough and turned the player off.
My next step, tomorrow, is to see if the bridge still works after I disable the router's broadcast of the SSID. I don't like having the broadcast on, because then anyone nearby can see I have a wireless router, and even though it is protected with wireless security, they might still try to hack in.
Overall, I'd say the process of getting the D-Link bridge working was very difficult. I used a combination of the manual for my router and the manual for the bridge, plus many searches on the Internet looking for help. I found many other people trying to do what I was attempting, some with success, some not. Hopefully both the router and bridge will continue to work without any more help by me.
Added 01/23/09: I forgot to mention that the new wireless router I connected the D-Link to is a Belkin N+ which I reviewed here.
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4 comments:
Hi Homer,
The same issue happened to me where the WAP-1522 bridge cannot connect to my wireless router. I have confirmed that this is due to the SSID not in broadcast mode on my WL router. everytime I make it invisible, it will just disconnect the bridge.
I'm searching Forums to see if there is any workarounds to this.
Thanks for the comment, Anon. From what I've read, the SSID has to be broadcast, however, "they" say turning off your router's broadcast really does not help you computer's security, because there are many programs than can see any signal being transmitted. Still, I'd like to hide my SSID from would-be sniffers.
The cannot connect issue while SSID is not in broadcast has been resolved with the latest Firmware 1.20, although it now works, the streaming is bad when the main wireless SSID is invisible... Looks like D-Link has more work to do with the next firmware release
Steven
I have not updated the firmware yet. I'll do that this weekend and see what happens.
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