Hi,
I use an Asus RT-n56u as the router for the house. That's wired to a few computers downstairs. I have a 500mpbs homeplug connection up to my office which goes into a 1gbps switch. Into that switch go my laptop, my desktop, and my XCP server which runs a few different virtual machines as web server, game servers, fileserver, DNS cache server etc.
The problem is my office (which has all the important stuff in that I spend all my day using) is connected to the rest of the world only over the homeplug which is a bit intermittent - maybe once and hour, or every few hours, the homeplug connection drops out for maybe 1 - 3 minutes. This effectively disconnects my office, kicks everyone off game servers, stops the rest of the house accessing file servers, and interrupt my browsing and drops any connections I may have to the outside world. It's definitely the homeplug connection that's going down - I can still ping the outside world wirelessly or elsewhere in the house, and I can still ping other computers within the office through the switch.
I'm not sure what causes this - I'm assuming it's something to do with the wiring in the house - possibly some other device in the house causing some kind of surge that's just enough to interfere with the homeplug connection (maybe the compressor on the fridge/freezer, or even something in the central heating.)
Is what I'd like to do is have a wireless connection also that goes from the 1gbps switch down to the main router that steps in when the homeplug drops out. I know wireless is just as, if not more, unreliable than homeplugs, but the chances of both the homeplug and the wireless going down at the same time are minimal. My original intentions were to put a wireless USB stick into the server, and do the bridge through linux. Problem with this is the server is an old rack server, and I'm running XCP which has a pretty heavily tweaked and stripped kernel (e.g. no wireless support built into it.) I can't find the drivers for my kernel, and I can't find the source code for my kernel to be able to compile in the wireless modules.
What I'd like to do is use the Plusnet branded Technicolor TG582n (which has been lying round spare doing nothing until now) and plug that into the 1gbps switch with a cable and then link it up wirelessly as a transparent bridge down to the main router for when the homeplug drops out. I don't think I'd be able to prioritise the connections, but if I understand correctly, if I can get a wireless connection there too, the network will send the packets over any available route.
Can I do this with the plusnet router? I'm quite certain it can't be done through the web interface (not from what I can see anyway) so will probably need doing through telnet. I've had a look and been made aware of the telnet commands here (http://wiki.aa.org.uk/images/3/33/TG582n_CLI_Guide_v1.0_public.pdf) and had a play with a few of them, but the documentation explaining what the commands actually do is pretty terrible.
Can somebody give me some hints as to which commands I'd have to use in order to connect the plusnet router via wireless to my Asus rt-n56u as a transparent bridge if it's even possible?
Thanks in advanced,
Dom.
