I'm leaving the original message below in case anyone else has this problem, but here is the result:
The WZR-600DHP can join two LAN's together...sort of...but in either of the available theoretically appropriate modes, WDS or Client Bridge (Routed), it does not create a true network bridge, where two LAN segments are completely and seamlessly combined.
1) UPnP requests will not be relayed to the client "bridge":
This means that, for example, your XBox will say "You are under Moderate NAT Restriction".
2) Services that depend on network polling to announce available services will not work right between the two segments.
If you were expecting a network scan for a printer, shared hard drive, AV device, AirPlay, or so on, and you wanted the two halves of the network to nicely share this data, you probably won't get it.
Now, each half of the network will happily share this data with itself. The half that's on the client "bridge" (it's not; it's routing a second LAN into the same space as a larger one--call it a "brouter"?) will be able to get out to the Internet. If that's all you need for your network to be all that you need, then you're good.
However, if you want all your devices to operate on exactly the same LAN no matter where you are in your coverage area, go buy a real wireless Ethernet bridge. After haunting other forums and review sites, I wound up with a Netgear WNCE3001 for a bridge, and I plugged its lonely Ethernet port into an eight-port Netgear GS108 switch. Together, I paid less than I would have done for Buffalo's four port bridge/switch in a single chassis--I probably lost antennas and theoretical maximum bandwidth in the process, but this didn't appear to harm anything in my testing...and wow I was getting really tired of driving to my local electronics emporium (the name rhymes with Bry's, and there is an evil there that does not sleep).
The only hurdle to getting the bridge to talk to the WZR-600DHP was that I had had my wireless encryption set up to use TKIP only (thinking this may have presented a barrier to entry). The WNCE3001 wouldn't do TKIP, so if you buy this bridge based on my recommendation, make sure you have set the WPA Algorithms to TKIP+AES in Wireless > Wireless Security. AES is stronger, faster, and preferred, but older/cheaper hardware may only speak TKIP.
My lingering annoyance with the Netgear WNCE3001 is that I'm so thoroughly spoiled by dd-wrt that the extremely simpleminded web interface on the bridge won't even let me change it's name.
I'm very happy with the WZR-600DHP's performance as a router. I'm going to take the second one, blast it back to factory defaults, and give it to a friend who has problems pushing signal through her hundred-year-old wood-frame house. I'm hoping we can ditch her repeater, because the high gain antennas on this thing have greatly improved signal strength exactly where I needed it..
Best,
-- Lorrie
Original Problem (click to view):
Today, my husband and I bought a pair of WZR-600DHP wireless routers:
* "office", hooked up to the WAN and serving wired and wireless clients
* "living-room", to be a wireless bridge in the living room, serving wired clients, including an XBox and a stereo that can handle AirPlay from our iOS devices
We set living-room up according to the manual's instructions on how to set up a wireless bridge, and also turned UPnP on on both routers. I have turned off the firewall on living-room, as well. Both routers have the latest Buffalo-supplied dd-wrt firmware, build 20180.
Both the XBox and stereo can get out to the greater Internet just fine. However, neither are talking to the local LANs very well, and UPnP isn't relaying properly. Here's what I've observed so far:
The XBox:
1) The XBox complains about NAT settings, and it has every right to, as UPnP doesn't appear to be doing anything about it on either router.
2) Devices with wired connections to office are doing the right things to UPnP, so it's not an overall NAT problem.
3) If the XBox connects to the WLAN directly, there are no UPnP problems. Unfortunately, we can't leave it on the WLAN because the radio signal can't always cut through the interference caused by the rest of the stereo rack, our building's crowded airspace, and so on).
The Stereo:
1) The stereo doesn't show up as an AirPlay option on any iOS device (and it is configured correctly).
2) The stereo cannot be accessed by the manufacturer's own application (running on an iOS device on the wireless network).
The Routers:
1) Every few seconds, the MAC address of the living-room router shows up as a DHCP client on the office router with an IP address of 1.1.1.1.
In short, the devices with wired connections to the wireless bridge don't act like they're on the same LAN as the wireless devices, and reasonable requests to contact devices with wired connections to the wireless bridge aren't being accepted.
Is there anything that can be done?
Thanks in advance!
-- Lorrie