SOLVED CAT5 Cable inadvertently damaged

[tenriquez]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a temporary solution to bridge a few phones via WiFi to the PIAF Box. I can’t run a replacement cable without getting access to areas I don’t control. I would be connecting to an existing WiFi AP, and bridging the network back to the phones.

I have an extra PC with a wireless card and Ethernet port and was not sure if the Travelinman2 is the solution to my dilemma. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Happy 4th!

Tony

 

[jmcman]

Consider making the old PC a simple wireless bridge.

Edit: found this in my saved links... http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17702
Debian and Pi, but the method is basically the same.

 

[myitguy]

What type of damage are you talking about? If it's an issue on the ends, you could just put new terminators on it...if its cut somewhere in the middle you might be able to splice the cable back together using terminators, adapters or keystone jacks. Not the greatest solution, but better than introducing latency via wireless.

 

[tenriquez]

Consider making the old PC a simple wireless bridge.

Edit: found this in my saved links... http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17702
Debian and Pi, but the method is basically the same.

Thanks jmcman, I'll give it a shot.

 

[tenriquez]

What type of damage are you talking about? If it's an issue on the ends, you could just put new terminators on it...if its cut somewhere in the middle you might be able to splice the cable back together using terminators, adapters or keystone jacks. Not the greatest solution, but better than introducing latency via wireless.

Cut in the middle. We were planning on running new cable late next week. I'll take another look when I get the chance...

 

[phonebuff]

Another solution that I have used on numerous occasions is get a WRT router and use the Tomato firmware to make it be a WiFi Client / Bridge instead of an access point. DD-Wrt may also work but I have only done it with the Tomato.

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

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[tenriquez]

Thanks jmcman, I'll give it a shot.

It seems that the WiFi adapter I have does not support bridging:

can't add wlan0 to bridge br0: operation not supported

 

[tenriquez]

dd-wrt is supposed to do this as well, but the only time I ever tried it I was unsuccessful. Also consider using a pair of those power line connectors that allow you to run a network connection over power wiring. I used a pair recently in a house to extend wifi and for a $40 consume product, I found they worked remarkably well.

I think I have a pair of Powerline Ethernet Adapters. Thanks for the idea!

 

[jmcman]

Bummer! Powerline ethernet does work, albeit a little slow. It should do the trick!

 

[rossiv]

I have successfully used DD-WRT as a client bridge. It pulls wireless from my main house network and puts out all five (4 LAN + WAN) ports on the repurposed router.

 

[MyKroFt]

if you have access to where the cut is, just crimp ends on and use a coupler for a temp fix

 

[phonebuff]

For those in the group with a ham license you might want to look at this project --

http://hsmm-mesh.org/

 

[tenriquez]

Bummer! Powerline ethernet does work, albeit a little slow. It should do the trick!

The power line ethernet adapters worked almost as soon as I plugged them in. I'm glad I did not throw them away...

Tony

 

[magna.vis]

dd-wrt is supposed to do this as well, but the only time I ever tried it I was unsuccessful. Also consider using a pair of those power line connectors that allow you to run a network connection over power wiring. I used a pair recently in a house to extend wifi and for a $40 consumer product, I found they worked remarkably well.

I've got it to work, but there are several limitations (or at least, there were 4 years ago). It's not an invisible bridge, and I had a lot of issues getting VoIP traffic to behave properly behind my bridge.

I use a PLE adaptor for the far side of my house, and aside from having to reboot the devices once every few months, I really like the solution. I don't have anything essential behind it, so it's never mattered much, but was much better than running a line.