Wireless Bridging with AP?

[blueswitch]

Hey everyone, I just moved into a new apartment about a month ago and the landlord provides free internet (yay!) but it's done over wifi (boo!). Which makes it tough to have a LAN.

I've done a little testing and if I use my W7 desktop to bridge it's wireless and wired adapters and plug that into my wireless AP's WAN port I can broadcast my own wireless LAN with what seems to be acceptable internet performance.

So here are my two questions...

Is there any wireless router on the market that will enable me to do this so I don't have to run it through my desktop? As in I can join my landlords wireless network with the AP as a WAN input and then have it turn around and broadcast it's own wireless network? I was looking at this Dlink router but couldn't determine if it could do that or just extend a wireless network.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127268&name=Wireless-AP-Bridges

Second question: I noticed when I ran my desktop as the bridge...since it sat between my landlords network and my own network I couldn't access it remotely by any machine that was on my network. If I add a third NIC to my desktop and plug that into my router will I then be able to access that desktop again from within my network?

thanks...

 

[Xtreme Barton]

What type of wireless AP do you have now ? Also have you looked into alternative firmware for your current AP ?

most new routers have all these options available. some older ones have that too ( thats why I ask about your current hardware in use)

 

[blueswitch]

What type of wireless AP do you have now ? Also have you looked into alternative firmware for your current AP ?

most new routers have all these options available. some older ones have that too ( thats why I ask about your current hardware in use)

It doesn't, it's an older Dlink from like 6 years ago. It doesn't support DD-WRT flashing either. In fact it might be time to replace it because I feel like I'm not getting the throughput I should be on local transfers in testing this and it's not 802.11N but I probably won't spend $120+ on an AP that can't do the wireless bridging that I need.

EDIT: It's a DI-524

 

[Xtreme Barton]

Ok, thats to bad about the old AP. That would have saved some some dough.

I have one of these for 45.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704049&name=Wireless-AP-Bridges.

they even have another router version for cheap too.


second question is hard telling cause I dont know how you setup your bridge etc... which probably wont matter cause if you get your new AP that issue will be no longer.

 

[blueswitch]

ok and that can take a wifi signal..use it as WAN input and then broadcast it's own wireless network? I'm seeing all these routers that talk about bridge mode but I don't know the consumer marketing phrase they use to do what I want and I'm not familiar with TPlink as a brand.

EDIT: now that I think about it for a router to do bridging on wireless and then spit out another wireless network it would probably need dual wireless radios. Which seems like something particular that I'm not likely to find. Most routers I've looked at bridge but they do it from wireless to a wired connection. Or they show you need two of those routers.

Maybe this is my best bet to keep costs down.
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys...qid=1350959186&sr=8-4&keywords=linksys+bridge

Just let that guy pick up the wireless signal and output it to my current wireless routers WAN port. It's the same thing I'm doing now with my windows desktop but I don't need to power a full tower all the time.