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I'm trying to bridge my laptop's wireless internet connection to my PS4 (the PS4 has spotty wireless while my laptop does not), but every time I bridge the wireless adapter's connection with the wired adapter, the laptop immediately loses connection to the internet. Any thought?
Mark Dengler
Posted 2014-06-14T00:12:36.960
Reputation: 13
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Your problem is likely caused by Windows preferring to use the wired connection for internet access despite having both configured. You can find a workaround to force Windows to prefer the wireless connection at Can't bridge WIFI and ethernet, because wireless disconnects when I connect ethernet cable (also there is a Microsoft KB article somewhere that says it sometimes doesn't work when the wifi adapter doesn't support promiscuous mode).
Failing that. You could use the "Internet Connection Sharing" feature:
First, on your laptop, wifi must be enabled and connected, and wired must be enabled and the cable must be plugged in and the connection active.
Right click the wireless adapter, choose properties -> sharing -> allow other users to connect through this computers network connection. Everything will then be set up once you press OK on these dialogs.
Now on your PS4 configure it to use DHCP (or obtain IP settings automatically, or however they word it). Your laptop is now acting as a router. You will have to configure any port forwarding for incoming connections just like on a normal router; you can do this back in the properties -> sharing -> settings window of the wifi adapter.
When you want to stop, just disable sharing again in the wifi properties and your laptop will return to normal.
See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783558(v=ws.10).aspx for more information on network bridging and internet connection sharing.
Jason C
Posted 2014-06-14T00:12:36.960
Reputation: 8 273
thank you. That worked like a charm. I'm still confused as to why my laptop's internet connection cuts out as soon as I click bridge connections, and won't come back. But that's irrelevant now that ICS is working. – Mark Dengler – 2014-06-14T02:05:43.583
@MarkDengler If you have time, try the normal "bridge connections" and adjusting the connection metric described in the linked answer; it could be that with bridging, Windows is still preferring the wired connection for internet access. Give your wifi connection a low value and your wired one a higher value; curious to see if that solves the problem. – Jason C – 2014-06-14T02:07:56.827
@MarkDengler Because your laptop is connected to the access point as a client. That permits connecting only a single hardware address. ICS works because it's a form of NAT that requires connecting only a single hardware address. Bridging requires connecting more than one hardware address to the access point, and a WiFi client connection cannot do that. (It is specifically prohibited by the WiFi spec.) – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T02:09:58.530
@DavidSchwartz, I understand what you're saying but that doesn't explain why it drops the internet connection on the host device (laptop). Also, I don't know as much about networking as you do but I do know that bridging does work as I've used it before to share an internet connection. If you search bridge connections on google, it should come up with a whole bunch of links where people do just that. – Mark Dengler – 2014-06-14T03:42:49.347
@JasonC, I'll try out that link in the morning to see if that fixes the issue with bridging. – Mark Dengler – 2014-06-14T03:43:54.250
@MarkDengler It works if you're not bridging to a WiFi client connection or if you're using NAT. – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T04:34:34.713
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I had the same issue when attempting to use my laptop as a bridge, such that the PS4 is plugged into the laptop via LAN, and the laptop is connected to the wifi. It turns out that there is a setting in the BIOS called "Wireless Radio Control", or something similar. After disabling the feature, I am able to use both LAN and Wifi connections and setup a bridge. I still haven't gotten the PS4 to use it correctly, but that's a different issue.
user1453634
Posted 2014-06-14T00:12:36.960
Reputation: 11
Hey, cool. Do you know what that feature does? Also what inspired you to try that? – Jason C – 2015-11-29T19:44:03.410
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How could this possibly work? Think about it -- when the laptop receives a packet from the PS4 and needs to send it to the access point, what source MAC address should it use? If it uses its own, how would it know to route the reply to the PS4? If it uses the PS4's, how would the access point know it was receiving a packet from one of its clients?
You can't bridge a WiFi client connection. If you could, there would be no need for WDS to be configured on both sides, you could just connect as a client and bridge. What you're attempting to do doesn't make any sense -- an access point will only send packets over the air to its clients, and you only have a single client connection and thus only a single client.
Probably the most sensible thing for you to do is to get a good wireless client adapter and use it to connect your PS4 to your wireless network. Alternatively, you can set up Internet connection sharing on your laptop. But you can't bridge into a wireless network when you're only connected to an access point as a client.
David Schwartz
Posted 2014-06-14T00:12:36.960
Reputation: 58 310
I'm trying to do what this video is showing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFLtw0uxDYY
– Mark Dengler – 2014-06-14T00:56:13.650@JasonC You are incorrect. Bridging will not work for precisely the reasons I explained. (In fact, your answer tells him that he can't use bridging and that it won't work, but fails to explain why.) You need NAT and DHCP (which is what Internet Connection Sharing is) precisely because bridging won't work. Your statement about how WiFi works is simply incorrect. That's how Ethernet works, not WiFi. An access point learns its clients because they sign onto it. It does not learn like a switch. (If you were correct, why would we need WDS?) – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T01:41:08.780
@JasonC You're really confused, and I can't quite educate you in this format. WDS is for connecting more than one device to an access point with a single other endpoint, whether you call that endpoint an access point or not. That is precisely what the OP is trying to do, though he is doing it with a laptop that can also act as an access point rather than a device that says "access point" on its label. We need WDS because you cannot bridge to a WiFi client connection. If you could, the second access point could just connect as a client and bridge, but that won't work. – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T02:09:17.423
@JasonC An access point can connect as a client, or it can connect some other way. The point is, you need WDS because an access point that connects as a client cannot bridge. (And, I assure you, it is you that are misinformed and confused. There's nothing magical about a device that says "access point" on its label. It behaves just like a PC with a typical WiFi adapter.) – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T02:12:19.630
@JasonC I have no idea why you think that's relevant. And I know how wireless bridges work (they either don't bridge to a client connection or don't actually bridge but instead do NAT). It is a simple basic WiFi fact that you cannot connect more than one hardware address to an access point through a single client connection. This is precisely why when he tries to connect two devices, only one works. – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T02:17:06.290
@JasonC Sometimes when you do things that aren't guaranteed to work, strange things happen. Those strange things might happen to be what you wanted to happen. But you can't rely on them. You can't be surprised when other people don't have similar luck. Likely some component is violating specifications or doing something unexpected and "helpful". Do you agree that a WiFi client connection only supports a single hardware address and that this is what the WiFi specification says? – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T02:24:16.033
That is, can you make a coherent argument that it should work? Or can you find a flaw in my argument that it shouldn't? Okay, I'll take your word for it, for some reason, in your case, it happens to work unexpectedly. But it definitely should not work. (If it worked reliably, there would be no need for WDS -- everyone would just do what you did to expand their wireless networks. And lots of people have had the experience of finding that only one hardware address works behind a WiFi client connection.) – David Schwartz – 2014-06-14T02:26:59.090
Possible duplicate of http://superuser.com/questions/241997/cant-bridge-wifi-and-ethernet-because-wireless-disconnects-when-i-connect-ethe?lq=1.
– Jason C – 2014-06-14T02:02:24.443