Advanced WRT54GL Mesh/WDS setup

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m_elias
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 19:37    Post subject: Advanced WRT54GL Mesh/WDS setup Reply with quote
I'm wanting to install a WRT54GL on multiple farm tractors for the purpose of sharing IP camera streams between tractors on the same field. My thought was to use WDS to mesh the routers wirelessly. At first I was planning to have each tractor be its own subnet, wirelessly connect to Ubiquiti AP on the main yard tower but still wanting the dd-wrt routers to mesh wirelessly, is that possible? I couldn't get them to mesh. Now I'm thinking of having the dd-wrt routers on their own subnet all together, run them in AP with WDS but how can I have a dhcp server on each without interfering with each other?
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egc
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 19:49    Post subject: Reply with quote
For beter help I moved this thread to the appropriate forum.

See the forum guidelines, link in my signature at the bottom, how to get the best help and other useful pointers.

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d33b0_n4p41m
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 19:54    Post subject: Reply with quote
So, let me try to paint the picture here:

Each tractor will have an IP camera;
Each tractor will have a WRT54GL;
All will need to connect to the Ubiquiti AP;
You want to share the IP camera feed of each tractor throughout;
And perhaps somewhere else in a central location?
Will the IP cameras be wired or wireless?

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m_elias
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 16:07    Post subject: Reply with quote
d33b0_n4p41m wrote:
So, let me try to paint the picture here:

Each tractor will have an IP camera;
Each tractor will have a WRT54GL;
All will need to connect to the Ubiquiti AP;
You want to share the IP camera feed of each tractor throughout;
And perhaps somewhere else in a central location?
Will the IP cameras be wired or wireless?


There will also be a tablet in each tractor for viewing the IP cameras, most likely connecting wirelessly to its tractor's WRT. Most of the time the tablet will be viewing only the cameras on its own tractor.

It's more important that the WRT routers connect wirelessly to each other than connecting to the Ubiquiti AP, most of the time they'll be out of range of the Ubiquiti AP. I want some tractors to be able to view a camera on another tractor when close enough even when out of range of the Ubiquiti AP. In fact the desire to connect to the Ubiquiti AP is only a nice-to-have option.

Most of the cameras will be wired, possibly only one or two wireless in total.

I will be mounting external, high gain omni antennae.
m_elias
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 17:19    Post subject: Reply with quote
I'm thinking of just starting with a each WRT having it's own IP on the same subnet, each WRT running in wireless AP mode with WDS setup. How does the lazy WDS option come into play here? How can I have each WRT's dhcp server hand out IPs only to devices connected directly to it via ethernet or wireless and not try to assign IPs across the wireless WDS links?
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 19:10    Post subject: Reply with quote
Perhaps someone smarter than me and my former alter-ego can chime in and help you out. From my perspective, I think with WDS, you are using one DHCP server for the entire subnet and that cannot be changed (I could be wrong as heck!). On your main DHCP server, you *can* use static leases to ensure the cameras get the same IP every single time. Just a note, though. I don't think that WDS can be used with the wired ethernet ports on your station devices. Only Client Bridge or Repeater Bridge can.

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WDS_Linked_router_network

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/440/

https://kb.netgear.com/24106/What-is-a-wireless-distribution-system-and-how-does-it-work-with-my-Nighthawk-router

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/how-to-wds-bridge,review-253-2.html

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m_elias
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 19:43    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Just a note, though. I don't think that WDS can be used with the wired ethernet ports on your station devices. Only Client Bridge or Repeater Bridge can.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying this. From my experience, WDS wirelessly connects two routers logically as though they are connected with a cable.

I won't need DHCP for the cameras, but rather for tablets and phones connecting to the WRT for camera viewing purposes. I'm hoping there's a way to limit each WRT's DHCP server to directly connected devices only. I may just have to assign static IPs to the devices themselves as there won't be a "main" WRT in my setup to assign IPs dynamically.
m_elias
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 19:45    Post subject: Reply with quote
I should clarify further, there won't be a main/master WRT. At any given time, there could be any combination of active WRTs so I need the setup to be completely decentralized.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 20:23    Post subject: Reply with quote
You can't use WDS without a WDS AP AFAIK; same goes for MESH. There has to be a central WDS AP (i.e. your Ubiquiti AP).
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m_elias
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 0:23    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
You can't use WDS without a WDS AP AFAIK; same goes for MESH. There has to be a central WDS AP (i.e. your Ubiquiti AP).


I don't think my ubiquiti ap will be compatible with wrt/ddwrt wds, the wds page even states that mixing brands usually doesn't work and there's no wds settings for the ubiquiti. I think the only way I can connect them is as a wireless client.

I have two WRTs connected now according to the wds guide posted by you. Neither has any special setting to distinguish it as a main/master unit. Tomorrow I hope to add a 3rd (add its mac to the other twos' wds list) and see how that goes.
lexridge
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 15:34    Post subject: Reply with quote
You might consider using Raspberry Pi 4s running OpenWRT. You would need to use a USB wifi adapter with an external antenna connector probably to do this and an additional 4 port switch, depending on how many wired cameras you have. It would be much faster than the now very old WRT54GL routers, have more RAM and much more CPU power with 4 cores.
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