Connecting 2 separate Networks With Wireles Bridges

[shufordm]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for some insight on the procedures to connect 2 separate networks using 1300 series bridges. The networks are approx 2 kilometers apart and we have line of sight.

I have previously connected between sites that were only a few hundred yards away and all devices were part of the same network. The difference here is separate networks.

I know that I need to configure the root and non-root devices and assign an infrastructure ssid to the dot11radio. How should I go about assigning an ip address to the bvi1 interface at each location since they are part of different networks? Or does it matter. I know that when you link 2 routers together both interfaces must be in the same network but the bridges will be making their connection via the dot11radio and ssid which does not get an ip address.

Any help will be appreciated.

[shufordm]

Bump.

Any ideas are appreciated.

[scottmac · Accepted solution]

Well, the problem is that you can't really bridge two different subnets together. Hosts on one subnet cannot talk to hosts on another subnet without some kind of layer three process in-between.

Probably your best bet would be an intermediate network link, such that:

Side1(192.168.1.0/24)-router- middle net (172.16.1.0/30)- router- Side2 (10.1.10/24)

and in the very middle is the wireless link brodging the two sides of the same network together.

You could probably do something creative with SECONDARY addressing on the wireless side of the router, but it's also a huge security risk and really, really not trecommended.

The best way is to bracket the wireless bridges with some routers, or at leasdt one router on one side .. it's the only clean, safe, secure way to accomplish what you want to do.

Good Luck

Scott

[shufordm]

Thanks Scott. We are routing at both locations with layer 3 switches. I think creating a vlan common to both locations and attaching the bridges to the new vlan might work. That would put them in the same network. Then we could set up static routes to route traffic through the vlan interfaces from one site to the other.

[scottmac]

Yessir, I believe you have it.

Thanks for the points!

Good Luck

Scott