Bridge 5Ghz to 2.4Ghz... Our office building updated their network with APs but they removed 2.4Ghz in the process and some of our devices only have 2.4Ghz.
If I receive the 5Ghz into our WiFi router, can I bridge that to 2.4Ghz? Or would it be received to WiFi router via 5Ghz, out to Switch/Router via Ethernet, into a different WiFi Router to Bridge Ethernet to 2.4Ghz?
I don’t want to bother the landlord to get the third party company to “turn on” the 2.4Ghz, as we are positive they would charge for such a hard thing. (Sarcasm).
72 Answers
You cannot bridge an access point (AP) on 2.4 GHz to a station (STA) on 5 GHz, because by default your WLAN uses 3-address mode. so your building AP on 5 GHz doesn't work with MACs "behind" your STA MAC.
You can bridge LAN to an AP on 2.4 GHz, assuming you can connect your WiFi router somehow with a LAN to the building router (no WLAN in between allowed, it must be a LAN port on the building router/switch).
If bridging doesn't work, you can still route and NAT from the 5 GHz WLAN BSS: Your 2.4 GHz "private" WLAN BSS will have a different subnet, and will look like a single IP address to the building router. Which means you can establish connections from your WLAN BSS to the rest of the building, but the rest of the building won't be able establish connections to anything in your WLAN BSS.
It depends on the firmware of your router if you can actually configure it for any of the above scenarios. If you can install an alternative firmware on it, like OpenWRT, you'll definitely will be able to.
1There are three more options:
use a WiFi Extender that can send out a 2.4 GHz signal as well (not sure if they are still available)
bridge the 5GHz to LAN and attach a a 2.4GHz AP to the LAN (e.g. via an WiFi extender that has an Ethernet port or simple Windows machine that brides the the WLAN and Ethernet network card).
if you have access to a Ethernet port or the Ethernet switch itself just connect a regular 2.4GHz AP.
You don't need a router as a separate device unless you want to create a new subnet, use NAT etc.
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