TomatoUSB

Appreciate all the help I can get. Although I just registered here, I've been playing around with TomatoUSB for about a month, and love it.

I followed the tuts I read here and elsewhere, have read through the forums some, but can't seem to pinpoint the problem.

Here's my setup:

Cable modem (Scientific Atlanta DPC2203)
|
Netgear WNDR3300 (DD-WRT v24-sp2 (09/18/10) std-nokaid 15230M NEWD Eko)
IP 192.168.1.1
|
Asus WL500gU (TomatoUSB 1.28)
IP: 192.168.1.2
|
HP Deskjet USB

The main Netgear/DD-WRT router is a standard setup, using the G network. Both routers have identical SSIDs & security. Tomato is set to Wireless Bridge mode (tried client at first, thinking it would be a simpler setup, but could not get the printer working in this mode.) All settings in Tomato are as indicated in the how-to on this site. Everything seems fine when I'm wired into the Asus—the problem only occurs when I go WiFi, and then try to print - everything grinds to a halt.

Historically, my setup is rock-solid with the WNDR3300 DD-WRT and cable modem. Never a problem with speeds or reboots.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

eta:
Connection with just the base WNDR3300 active:

Connection w/ WL500gU live:

I'm trying everything I can, but not making any progress. Appreciate any pointers.

First of all, the router running in Wireless Ethernet Bridge or Wireless Client mode doesn't accept wireless client connections - it only uses wireless to connect itself to the main router. You still can connect wired clients to the bridge router though.

That mean that all your wireless clients are actually connecting to the main router (don't let the "Device List" on the bridge router to confuse you - you probably see some of your wireless clients in that list even though they are connected through the main router) - is that what you wanted to achieve? Maybe instead of the wireless bridge, the WDS is what you're looking for?

In your current setup the print jobs are actually getting sent over the air twice - once between your client and the main router, and then between the main and bridge routers. I never tried that exact configuration, but - although definitely not being optimal - I don't believe it should completely kill your wireless… Try to disable "Bidirectional copying" - that may help a little. Try your Asus in the regular AP mode (switch off Netgear temporarily) to make sure your printer works normally with it, and it's really the bridge mode that causes problems. If indeed the double wireless transfer of print jobs is the issue - consider different setup (either WDS, or connect your Asus WAN port to Netgear LAN by wire, and just use it as a wired print server).

Thanks for your patient and thorough reply, teddy_b.

Ultimately, I did want to be able to use the Asus as an expander/repeater/something-or-other to boost the signal to the kitchen and patio (my modem, router, and server is in the office/guest room at opposite corner of the house.) I'd hoped to find an alternative to WDS, which I understand effectively halves the transmission rate, but it sounds like that is the way I have to go (correct me if I'm wrong, but that would only affect devices getting their signal from the Asus, but not when they're on the base Netgear signal, right?) Wired isn't an option, as I'm trying to move the printer to a central location, out of the guest room.

The one thing I did not try was your suggestion to shut down the Netgear router and print direct to the Asus… I will try that tonight, and barring that, will begin my WDS experiment. Appreciate your help.

And while I've got you here, thanks for sharing your fine work on TomatoUSB. Love it.

And now I'm just starting to feel like an idiot. Didn't get a chance to play around with this yesterday, but am trying to get it off the ground now… and I can't even seem to get it to do as you suggested, teddy_b (just printing direct to the Asus/HP w/ my main router unplugged.) I'm trying to enable TomatoUSB as AP, Client, Bridge… can only print via cable. I wanted to troubleshoot this before trying WDS - even if it's just to learn the process - but am just frustrating myself.

Happy to report back that WDS setup was a relative breeze (I'm still curious how to get the Asus running strictly as a wireless print server, if anyone could point me in the right direction.)

So I've got the base WNDR3000 running the most recent EKO nokaid build working in harmony with the WL500gU running the most recent TomatoUSB k24 build with WEP enabled (I'd hoped to enable WPA, having read some conflicting info: WPA2 clearly doesn't work with WDS, but I'd read suggestions that WPA is possible.) All clients can connect to the internet, print to the now-wireless printer… just need to play around with it, tweak, check speeds. But all seems to be good so far.

Thanks again, teddy_b.

And…..

I spoke too soon.

I'm seeing the same behavior as in my first post with my connection speed… just ran Speedtest 3x, highest was 0.17Mbs up, 0.36Mbs down. Unlike before, I can continue to print, it's not choking out the printer… but connection speeds have just absolutely tanked.

As far as I know, the hardware is compatible… these are both Broadcoms. Much as I wanted to have a Tomato router again, I'm going to try flashing DD-WRT onto the Asus and see if that changes anything.

In the meantime, if anybody has any idea what would cause this behavior, do share. I'm not anywhere near well-versed with networking to make sense of this.