WDS Setup for my Router
03/09/2019
3 minutes
This is a rather unusual post. It is not going to deal with software development .net or C#, but it solves a networking issue.
Problem
My landline Internet Service Provider has increased the cost of the service by 30% while given no additional value. As I had unlimited mobile Internet connection already, so I decided to cancel my landline and depend on my mobile connection only. This was a smart move from my point of view, because I spend less-and-less time in the apartment in question with the landline. For this though it meant I need to run my Android mobile phone in hotspot mode, and all other devices would connect to it.
Solution
As I still have a couple of devices like my primary laptop, secondary laptop, old mobile phone, printer, etc. I do not want all of them to connect to my mobile device at the same time. One solution was that I could share the mobile Internet to my router, and I would connect the devices to the router as it all worked previously. It turns out I have a pretty old router (TP-Link) but it still has a capability of doing this task through a feature called WDS Bridging. This is a step-by-step, that walks you through the configuration: partly because it is not that obvious as in the linked document and partly because I will forget it, and it will be useful for the next time when I reset my router by accident.
Step 0 - Login
Log in to the router and reset the previous WAN connection.
Optionally, make sure your firmware is up-to-date.
Step 1 - WDS
Enable WDS bridging. Select your mobile hotspot by clicking the survey button and Connect to your phone's SSID. Note the number of the channel belonging to the network.
Going back to the wireless settings, change the WDS mode from Auto to WDS1. Without this step, the connection and the network will be set up, but the Internet will not be available for the devices.
Change the Channel to the same as your hotspots.
Step 2 - LAN
Go to the LAN settings and set an IP address to your router, which will be needed when you want to connect to it the next time.Make sure you hit the same subnet as your hotspot is using. In case of Android devices, it will be 192.168.43.x
Step 3 - DHCP
Finally, we need to disable the DHCP Server feature of the router. Therefore, it is important to have a LAN IP address set, so you can easily find your router. After this step restart your router, and connect to it again, but this time use the LAN IP Address set in Step 2.
After login the WDS will initialize and switch to Run status:
At this point you can connect to the router with your PC on WIFI. Navigating to the hotspot settings of your phone and validate that only 1 device is connected: your router.
Why this took 3 times longer than it supposed to be?
Mostly the WDS Mode in Auto was not sharing the internet, Mode WDS 1 had to be selected.
When restarting after the DHCP setting disabled, you can easily lose your router, and to find it again, you might end up hard resetting it.