Using network-manager-gnome to bridge eth0 and wlan0

[wnl]

Okay, let me explain one more time; I want to do this from the gui. (And yes, I have looked into the bridge-utils and many articles besides.)

Please focus your attention on this image from RedHat's tutorial. Notice that there is an on/off switch for the bridge. WHAT I WANT is for Linux Lite's nm-applet (the little gadget in the notification area which lets your manage networking) to show me the bridge and to allow me to enable and disable it like that. It's a missing piece of software!

[firenice03]

Hi,
You peaked my interest, givenn LL2.x is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Lots of stuff on this subject, this was the last I found, a response to another post. You have probably tried this...

@wnl - Wirezfree is great source for LL...
This link is in NO WAY for Linux Lite - but informational.. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Software_access_point Hope it helps...

UPDATE:
https://gist.github.com/jhjguxin/5750212 Refers to hostapd (in synaptic??)

[Wirezfree]

Hi,
You peaked my interest, givenn LL2.x is based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Lots of stuff on this subject, this was the last I found, a response to another post. You have probably tried this...

Originally Posted by myth-eeebox-ben  View Post
it seems a simple bridge interface will not work for wlan0 <--> eth0 because wi-fi packets aren't the same as ethernet packets.

Not true.
A simple bridge interface works fine, and I am using it now. The packets are the same.

* Install bridge-utils to be able to create network bridges:

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sudo apt-get install bridge-utils
* Edit /etc/network/interfaces:

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sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
The interfaces file should look like this after editing it:

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auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
#
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
#
bridge_ports eth0 wlan0
#
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
* Restart networking with:

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sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

[firenice03]

Sorry, I'm a little under the weather and was on my phone...
I think I get what your attempting.. It dawned on me..
I have this USB WiFi adapter.. http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-11_TL-WN823N.html

SoftAP Mode – Turn a wired internet connection to a PC or Laptop into a Wi-Fi hotspot

You'll notice that it has a built-in SoftAP app.. It takes a wired connection "bridges" to WiFi.. From here you use router 2 to connect to the SoftAP allowing use of ports...
WinXP does/did this on certain WiFi adapters (I think)...

This may start going out of my Linux expertize...
You may need to see if there is an updated driver or software to set up allow...

[wnl]

Can you when hardwired to router have the pc broadcast an SSID? And pick it up say a phone and access internet? Then maybe its something on the router, like a repeater for the wireless?? Wish my other router was here lol...

Sorry firenice03. I cannot follow you. Let me be clear. I have this working just fine in Windows XP so I don't need to do anything but do the same thing in Linux Lite. If Linux lite can bridge the two network interfaces, yay! If not, then fine. Only I think in that case it would be appropriate to remove the misleading settings and dialog in the applet.

[wnl]

Say, can anybody explain why Linux Lite's nm-applet allows one to specify a WiFi slave to a bridge given this statement which I have encountered several times:

"Note that a bridge cannot be established over Wi-Fi networks operating in Ad-Hoc or Infrastructure modes. This is due to the IEEE 802.11 standard that specifies the use of 3-address frames in Wi-Fi for the efficient use of airtime. "

(from: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Networking_Guide/ch-Configure_Network_Bridging.html )

Perhaps it means that you cannot have more than one WiFi slave, I can't tell because "bridge cannot be established OVER" is not precise enough terminology in this case. It also begs the question as to why Windows XP can do it. I suppose the statement is correct and that what is being done for both Windows XP and Linux Lite is something slightly different from true bridging or whatnot. Anyway, any clarification as to whether or not it is true for Linux Lite would be helpful.

[firenice03]

Can you when hardwired to router have the pc broadcast an SSID? And pick it up say a phone and access internet? Then maybe its something on the router, like a repeater for the wireless?? Wish my other router was here lol...

[wnl]

Yes this. This is indeed what I want to do ... only without buying anything. I have a perfectly good netbook (broken screen, iffy power switch) which can do this using Windows XP. I want to run Linux Lite in place of Windows XP so that I can rdesktop into it and for other reasons. (By the way, Windows XP Home Edition doesn't support rdesktop'ing in but the Pro edition does. There is a way to fake it, but I'm not going there either.)

My current state of affairs is trying to grok the man page for nmcli which apparently lies beneath network-manager-gnome. I feel I'm making progress and appreciate your kind help.

https://www.mankier.com/1/nmcli

[Wirezfree]

O.K,
If I understand correctly..??, you want wired ports available downstairs with out running cables..??
I had a similar situation.
I wanted to connect my TV, STB and media player to my network without cables back to my WiFi router ports.
I got a WiFi bridge with 4 ports that connects to my WiFi Router of ebay for about £15, works perfectly.
It is powered from a spare USB socket on the back of my TV, so no need for another power plug/adapter.

At the moment the only one I can find is this one , a new one.


There are one's that do the same, but run over the electrical house wiring,
but they generate interference on short-wave radio.

[wnl]

No, I couldn't do that.

I have some additional data though. I stuck a second NIC in one of the (already) wired machines. Then I tried to setup a bridge (using the network-manager-gnome interface) between the two NICs. I was unsuccessful in getting anything different. The question is, once a bridge entry is setup, how is it activated?

[firenice03]

Of course all this will depend on Models of Routers... And how much I recall
Couldn't you just connect the 2 routers via the Ethernet cable, segregate the two networks at the routers, Router 2 only having access to internet..??
I had something semi-similar, but I had a Linksys router and a version of dd-wrt along with ISP stuff.. Now that router resides in my camper ...
I had a separate network for working on other peoples virus ridden stuff

Some info/ideas
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-howto/24428-howtotwoprivlan?limitstart=0
https://brainwreckedtech.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/howto-set-up-a-segregated-home-network/

[wnl]

In Windows XP, a bridge is a separate concept from Internet Connection Sharing.

I'm trying to run eth0 (via a Cat5 cable) into a wireless router "modem" port. The wireless router then establishes a network of it's own. The netbook is simply connecting the upstairs DSL-modem/wifi-router to the downstair's router's WAN port. The upstairs unit is configured to know about the router at that node, i.e., so called router behind router.

The whole point of doing this is to get some wired ports (on the downstairs wireless router) for plugging older machines into the network without buying a USB wireless adapter for every machine. But it also offers some degree of isolation of upstairs from downstairs as I rent the space.

[Wirezfree]

Hi,

I remember a long time ago on WinXP doing some "bridge" type connection, I think that was for ICS..??
I have never found a need for it for years since connecting  device straight to router.
I don't have WinXP anymore, apart from a VM running an image of my last XP PC.

[wnl]

Yes Wirezfree, I have poured over many things appearing to address the issue on the web. In fact I just finished trying to get it to work by using the parprouted command. But all of that other manual configuration is EXACTLY what I'm trying to avoid by using network-manager and network-manager-gnome. If you think that the bridging in network-manager-gnone isn't able to do what it seems made to do, just let me know and I'll stick with Windows XP in that position.

Also, I'm curious, have YOU ever done this using the bridge-utils?

[Wirezfree]

Hi,

LL is based on Ubuntu 14.04, a quick google show lots of eth/wlan bridging
It involves configuration, and installing bridge-utils

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sudo apt-get install bridge-utils
Google: Ubuntu 14.04 bridge-utils
Things like this example