Joined: 17 Dec 2015 Posts: 13 Location: Northwestern USA
Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 20:30 Post subject: 2 access points on single WRT54GS v4 router, but br1 slow
I have worked many hours trying to set up a single Linsys WRT54GS v4 router using dd-wrt.v24_std_generic, r14929 to provide a private access point on one bridge, br0, and a public access point on the other bridge, br1. The clearest set of instructions that I could find for this was on another Web site, howtogeek.com, titled "How to Enable a Guest Access Point on Your Wireless Network". URL: http://www.howtogeek.com/153827/how-to-enable-a-guest-access-point-on-your-wireless-network/ After going through the set up steps I have the two access points working as they should, with br1 (public) users not being able to see anything on the br0 (private) bridge. There is one main problem; Internet access through the br1 bridge is painfully slow - so slow that some pages never load, included speedtest.net and yahoo.com. On the other hand, the speed through br0 is excellent.
Here are some of the technical details:
QoS - I have tried this with QoS enabled and disabled, but br0 speed is slow whether QoS is enabled or disabled.
Chip revision - I used telnet to test the Broadcom chip in the WRT54GS v4, and it is revision 9, which is supposed to both support separate SSIDs and true separation between bridges.
Most of the detailed settings are exactly the same as in the howtogeek.com article that I referenced above.
Does anyone have a suggestion to increase the speed on the public bridge (br1) ?
I'm using newer hardware, but I used http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Multiple_WLANs for a friend's setup with br0 (openvpn for kids), br1 (VPN), and br2 all working perfectly. I'm not at all familiar with your device, but 14929 is pretty old. Unless there's a specific reason not to, flashing a newer build may also help.
Joined: 17 Dec 2015 Posts: 13 Location: Northwestern USA
Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 15:20 Post subject: Which firmware revision to use?
I'm going to try mwbuss8's suggestion when I get time -- probably in about two weeks. I'm new to dd-wrt, but recognize from reading these forum pages that some revisions of dd-wrt firmware are considered more reliable than others. Which of the more recent dd-wrt revs do you think would be most reliable at this point for a Linksys WRT54GS v4 (Broadcom chip) router?
Joined: 17 Dec 2015 Posts: 13 Location: Northwestern USA
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 0:30 Post subject: wiki article was helpful
mwbuss8,
I decided not to try newer builds of dd-wrt firmware because I could not find any that support my old WRT54GS v4 router.
However I did read the wiki article that you referenced, and compared the settings to the settings I already had on my router. The initial settings to create multiple WLANs were identical, but not the recommended firewall restrictions. I removed the restrictions that I had entered in the Administration > Commands > Firewall section. I immediately got good speed test numbers in both the public and private WLANs.
One at a time I then added and tested firewall restrictions listed under the Restrictions headline in the wiki article. I did a few more tweaks, and I believe that the router is now ready to be tested in a public retail environment.