> Can I assume, from that datum, that once the spare router connects to a
> home router AP as a wireless client bridge, this connection disables the
> home router access point from connecting to anything else in normal mode?
>
> Or could it possibly be that the home router access point is just bad?
SOLVED! (maybe)
Moral: (perhaps) *Don't buy a home router that uses a Broadcom chipset!*
Details:
As you know, I really hate when I don't understand a computer problem.
It bothers me even when the workaround works fine.
Because, to me, the problem shouldn't have existed in the first place.
That's just my nature (which is why I solve almost all computer problems).
Often, with your help!
The situation above was a case where it seemed the instant I created a
"wired client bridge" between the upstairs Window desktop with only
Ethernet to the downstairs WNDR3400 v2 2.4GHz access point, that 2.4 GHZ
access point stopped connecting to other wireless clients only when
encryption was involved.
What seemed odd (to me anyway) was the clue that the downstairs WNDR3400 v2
2.4GHz access point connected to other wireless clients if I turned the
encryption off, and, what also seemed odd (to me anyway) was that the 5GHz
access point was unaffected.
This inability to use encryption on the 2.4GHz access point only was also
seen when I flipped the switch in the upstairs dd-wrt wireless client
bridge (aka "client bridge" in dd-wrt) to convert it to a "wireless client
bridge repeater" (aka "repeater bridge" in dd-wrt).
That seemed so odd to me that the 2.4GHz encryption would stop working, but
everything else worked, that one of the Occam's Razor options was simply
that it was "broken", but that just didn't seem logical to me, which is why
I asked this question in the first place (to get down to what's going on!).
Digging into the problem on the dd-wrt web site, I found this reference:
<
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridge>
Which says in the "Client Bridge (Broadcom)" section, the following:
"Broadcom ARM: dhd driver models (e.g. AC5300 routers) cannot support
"client bridge" nor nor "repeater bridge" modes since the Broadcom
driver is controlled by wireless firmware internal to the Broadcom
chipset. This makes it impossible to implement fake bridge modes,
and is not fixable in dd-wrt. While "client bridge" & "repeater bridge"
modes can sometimes work without encryption, there is no guarantee
nor official support. The driver will usually crash when in these
"client bridge or "repeater bridge" modes. If "client bridge" or
"repeater bridge" will not work on your hardware, use "Client" mode
instead, where the primary and secondary routers must be on separate
subnets, and NAT is used between them.
I wasn't sure which chipset the downstairs WNDR3400 v2 router contained,
but when I looked it up, it does contain a Broadcom chipset apparently.
<
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_wndr3400_v2>
CPU: Broadcom BCM5357
Switch: Broadcom BCM5325
WLAN Hardware: Broadcom BCM5358UB0, Broadcom BCM43236
I'm not yet totally sure, but the seemingly strange oddity that only the
encryption was broken, and, only when in client bridge or repeater bridge
connections, was what stuck out to me as an oddity of the first order.
Since I switched the dd-wrt from being a wireless client bridge to a
wireless repeater bridge (so as to make further use of the upstairs access
point for wireless devices such as a cellphone or iPad), the oddity of the
2.4GHz access point's encryption no longer working continued unabated.
Looking up the details for the "wireless repeater bridge", I found this:
<
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge>
The first suggestion didn't apply to me, but might apply to others:
"To use dd-wrt "client bridge repeater" mode, your primary router must
be able to support encryption that works with DD-WRT (use WPA2-AES,
not TKIP)."
That's useful to know that TKIP won't work; but I was using WPA2-AES.
The next suggestion seemed more down the line of what I was seeing:
"Broadcom dhd driver models (e.g. AC5300 routers) cannot support
wireless repeater bridge (nor wireless client bridge) modes
since the Broadcom dhd driver is controlled by wireless firmware
internal to the chipset. This makes it impossible to implement
fake bridge modes, and is not fixable. While it can sometimes work
without encryption, there is no guarantee nor official support."
One issue is I don't really know what a "dhd" driver is, nor if
the Netgear WNDR3400 v2 router contains it, but the first quest is
to figure out what "DHD" stands for, which apparently is:
"Broadcom Dongle Host Driver (DHD)"
Now I have to figure out if the Netgear WNDR3400v2 implements dhd.
<
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Netgear_WNDR3400v2>
Where I haven't confirmed if the router implements DHD or not yet.
In summary, the issue that struck me as an oddity of the encryption
no longer working for an access point when it's connected in a wireless
client bridge mode "may" be simply due to the substandard Broadcom
DHD drivers since that type of oddity is known to occur elsewhere.
The future solution may be to never buy a router made using Broadcom
chipsets, but a statement that severe would need a lot more research
to say that for sure - so - for now - take it as an advisory only.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which, in this case, is to supply a summary solution so that the next
person with this problem may find this solution in the permanent Usenet
archives, which, since immense detail is provided, may help them solve the
problem far sooner, easier, and more efficiently, than it took me & you.