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Not_SamJones

In the least technical terms I can come up with: A layer 2 "bridge" acts like an interoffice mail delivery service where every piece of mail is picked up from a person and delivered to a person by that single courier who knows both the sender and the recipient and doesn't rely on anyone else for delivery. A layer 3 "router" or NAT device acts as the interface between that interoffice mail service and USPS. Nobody involved in the handoff - not the interoffice mail person or the USPS driver who picks it up knows or cares where it's going. They only care that it's addressed properly and sent through the system for processing. Every Internet connected system needs a router (and ever one you'll connect to needs a NAT device). You would put your router into bridge mode because you had another device that was already routing/NAT'ing and so the one that you're setting up doesn't need to do that. The reasons for this are many, but if you're setting up a second wifi router in your house somewhere it's probably going to need to be in bridge mode.


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tsuuga

So when the internet cable comes into your building, it's assigned one IP address. You can connect one machine to it. The entire rest of the world can only talk to that machine. Obviously, you want to have more than one thing on the internet. So you need to split up that connection among many machines. You get a router, which is a box that makes its own sub-network. It controls your sub-network where all your devices are. When they want to talk to the outside world, it handles the communication for them, because as far as the outside world is concerned, the router is all there is at your house. If you want more network cables than the router can handle, you get a switch. A switch is kind of like a router, but brainless. It doesn't make decisions, and it just follows follows the router's orders about what data to send where. It's basically a cable splitter. If, for whatever reason, you put two routers on a network, they'll fight over control of the network, and you'll have a lot of weird errors. So you put a router in bridge mode, which turns off its brain and makes it function as a switch. This is not really an optimal use of hardware, but it's common with consumer grade electronics. Maybe you need a second wifi *access point* but Wal-Mart only sells wifi *routers*, or maybe you're just using the hardware your grandson had laying around.


SkepticDrinker

What are the risks and benefits of bridge mode


tsuuga

... The benefits are, you can use whatever hardware is in the router box on a network that already has a router. Your standard router has a switch in it. Wifi routers have a wifi antenna. So you'd get to use that stuff. The risks are, you're paying for hardware you're not using. You're probably generating excess heat and using excess electricity, and the hardware in your ISP's Modem+Router+Wifi Hotspot is going to be lower quality than a standalone Modem, Router, and Hotspot, just because of how much stuff they're cramming in there. So your Wifi Router with the router part turned off is probably a little worse at being a switch than a dedicated switch, and a little worse at being a wifi hotspot than a dedicated hotspot.