On 2/13/06, JIm Thompson <jim at netgate dot com> wrote:
>
> the "can't bridge LAN to anything else" makes it real tough to create a
> traditional AP
> with a single Ethernet and WiFi device.
>
> In particular, if you run the WRAP.2C board (single Ethernet) with a
> single 802.11 NIC, you
> can't bridge the two.
>

Yep.


> So consider this an "enhancement request".
>

I requested this quite a while back and got shot down by Bruce Mah
(FreeBSD committer), who wrote the bridging parts of m0n0wall.  The
reason you cannot is because, in FreeBSD 4.x, an interface that is
bridged cannot have an IP address.  There are "several reasons" that
the LAN interface needs an IP address, and "NIC's are easier to come
by than time" (true, except when you have a one-interface fixed
hardware platform).  Quotes are paraphrasing what Bruce said at the
time.

With FreeBSD 6.x, you can have an IP on a bridged interface, so this
is probably something that can, and should, be allowed in 1.3.


>
> assuming that the 802.1d (spanning tree) works,
>

There is no STP capability with bridging in FreeBSD 4.x.  6.x does
support STP though.

-Chris