Was wondering if it 's possible (and how) to flash a Raspberry PI 3 with OpenWRT and connect the...

[G+_Brad Veenvliet]

Was wondering if it's possible (and how) to flash a Raspberry PI 3 with OpenWRT and connect the PI to my home wifi to get on the internet. Then I'd like to plug in an older ethernet only device to the PI. So the PI is acting as a wireless extender I suppose...

[G+_Eddie Foy]

You just want to use the Pi to make a non WiFi device Wifi?

Basically a Ethernet to WiFi?

If so, basic Pi Linux should do that fine via ip forwarding

 

 

Should turn it on:

echo 1 >  /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

 

Should turn it off:

echo 0 >  /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

[G+_Black Merc]

Are their not Ethernet bridge devices designed for this on the market?

[G+_Ben Reese]

For a while I had my Pi setup as an Access Point, but didn't use it as that for very long. There's some instructions to put the WiFi into host mode and bridge it to the wired connection, but I don't remember what that takes. I'll see if I can find them.

[G+_Black Merc]

I understand that it can be done... I just think the pi is waisted being used as an ether-bridge.

[G+_Ben Reese]

Black Merc?

I agree... A TP-Link AP is <$50 and it would probably cost that much to get a Pi working as one.

 

The advantage to the Pi is that it could carry out other tasks too, like VPN server or garage door opener.

[G+_Jason howe]

I see advantages for wifi use or even lan integration would be a benefit though problem ensues when you start migration into accessing it a ip tool for ham radio deployment though realize this though with addition to wifi or other wireless cased services may lead to a flatter battery more often,,. wireless capacity might be your bees knee though battery life more or less dies if you don't have it on constant charge..

 

If you want to add wifi capacity across a network when power shits itself you are looking at specific gear that has the capacity to run on bother 110/240 vac and 12/24 vdc natively without the use of its wall wart for running purposes..

[G+_Keith Mallett]

Brad Veenvliet Why? What is so important that the older device NEEDs to be on wifi??? Can you use a powerline ethernet adapter?

 

Remember guys, all wifi is half-duplex unless you are using AC. That means it is not a phone conversation but rather a portable radio conversation - only one device can talk at a time. So even an N connections at 105 mbps is really on 53 mbps so a 100 meg ethernet hard line is still faster.

 

AC is the way to go if you have the ability but I suspect the older ethernet device is only a 100meg port possibly even a 10meg port. If the LED is yellow when you plug in the cable (on most consumer equipment) it is 10meg. If it's green you have 100meg. The powerline extender will give you 78-100meg.

 

One other issue (I haven't confirmed it yet as I'm still looking into it) but I don't think the PI processor was designed for the volume of traffic that it needs to compute routing protocols. Any device that changes the network single traffic or network protocol needs to do routing so it needs a processor to evaluate the packets and make a routing decision. Only the more advanced and expensive routers have table based routing that uses RAM and they get pricy. This means the processor on the PI is evaluating every single packet that comes through it. Not just the packet traffic you send, but every broadcast message, DHCP message and all of the other network traffic. This is the reason the consumer grade routers start to heat up and then stop working properly after a while. If you unplug it and let it cool it works fine again for a while but then heats up and can't process properly.

 

I think you would burn through the poor PI's quicker than you would like.

[G+_Steve Hogg]

I have this kind of setup but just using the normal raspbian image and enabled IP forwarding and a few other things. Of course everyone will have there own take on whether it makes sense or not, but it did for me since I already had the Pi 2 and was using it normally. Mine connects to the router over wifi and then I have an old 8 port switch wired to the Pi. Everything connected to the Pi is on a different subnet and the Pi serves dhcp to that subnet so it's all just plug and play.

 

...until you need to access one of this wired devices from a wireless connection. Since the Pi is not strictly bridging and wired network has its own subnet I have to add routing rules to any device trying to access the wired devices. No biggie for me since those devices are mostly just going out to the Internet and I don't need to access them from many devices. My main PC though does have a routing rule added. Someone had mass a script that did all the work for the set up. I'll post a link back if I find it.

[G+_Jason howe]

eop (ethernet overpower) is a bupkis idea because  no power no service.. and i doubt running it through an  inverter will not to much line noise,you could use a poe injector assuming the hardware supports powering via ethernet though you still have problems powering the injector when you loose power..

 

you be better sourcing hardware that be power 12/24vdc directly vs a 9-15 vdc 1-3.5 ma powerpak wallwart connected too 110-240 vac mains power..

[G+_Jason howe]

ifyou are going use a pi as a network extender you will likely need to check open wrt to see if there is a pi access point option..

[G+_Keith Mallett]

But Brad Veenvliet is not trying to use the PI as a network extending Jason howe, he wants to change a WiFi signal back into an Ethernet signal. That is changing 802.1x to 802.3. It needs a protocol change that is why he was looking at OpenWRT.

 

Brad Veenvliet this is a really good question. Here's an article that does what you want but uses an old router. I would suggest trying this first to see if it gives you what you want then looking at replacing it with the PI.

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/174419/how-to-reuse-your-old-wi-fi-router-as-a-network-switch/

 

Netgear has a product that does this but as you can see, they aren't cheap and I am pretty sure because of the processor that is needed.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Universal-Ethernet-Adapter-WNCE2001/dp/B003KPBRRW

[G+_Steve Hogg]

I found the link I was looking for. As I said before, it works for my environment since I'm super cheap and didn't want to buy anything. http://hackhappy.org/uncategorized/how-to-use-a-raspberry-pi-to-create-a-wireless-to-wired-network-bridge/