bridged wireless access point in FreeBSD 8.2p2

[perryh at pluto.rain.com]

Paul Beard <paulbeard at gmail.com> wrote:

> After some more head scratching, it sounds like what I want is a
> bridge. Reading if_bridge(4), the first example looks a lot like
> what I am trying to do.
> ...
> Did I misread this?  Does sending packets between two physical
> interfaces require a bridge?

It requires either a bridge or a router.  Which one you need depends
on your and your ISP's setups.

One thing to check is your "terms of service" (or whatever your ISP
calls it).  Unless you're paying commercial rates, they most likely
limit you to a single IP address, in which case you _have_ to have
a router* -- and almost certainly NAT -- somewhere between your LAN
and the ISP.  A bridge connects two (or more) segments of a single
subnet:  from an IP-addressing standpoint it's not much different
from a hub or a switch.  BTW, for your own protection, you also need
a firewall.

Home gateways like the WRT54G are usually set up to provide NAT,
routing, and firewalling.

* unless you have only one IP-addressed device on your LAN, in which
  case it can just go ahead and use the one IP address.