Saturday, June 15, 2013

Sony wireless adapter UWA-BR100 alternative: TP-Link TL-WR740N wireless router (without DD-WRT)


If you have a Sony BRAVIA HDTV without a built-in wireless adapter, you may have checked out the Sony wireless adapter UWA-BR100. This wireless adapter is too expensive but we are left with no other options if we want the wireless capability because BRAVIA does not recognize other wireless adapters.

How can a router be an alternative of a wireless adapter? Please read my story and see if it fits your situation. (Disclaimer: as my system may not be identical to yours, the following information may cost you a risk of $20 or more and hours of your precious time. Use with your own discretion.)

My Sony BRAVIA TV has also a LAN (RJ-45) port which enables the wired connection. It allows me to connect the TV wiredly to a wireless bridge. The wireless bridge can then replace the wireless adapter to relay the data from/to the wireless router. After some research, I found out there are many cheap routers that can be used as a wireless bridge with a third party firmware from DD-WRT. TP-Link TL-WR740N router is one of them in the DD-WRT supported devices list. It is a $20+ cheap router and almost all versions (v1.x to v4.x) are supported by DD-WRT (version 5.x is not supported but it seems that this version is only available in China.) (Note: besides the Model, the hardware revision is also very important when checking the list of the supported devices.)

I decided to go with TL-WR740N + DD-WRT solution.

When I was reading the manual of the TL-WR740N router, I found it has the WDS Bridging capability. It is a big bonus from this cheap router. After all, I did not need to flash its firmware to get what I wanted. Now I am connecting the Sony TV to internet with these simple steps:

(Note: The modem from my ISP has a built-in wireless Access Point.)

1. Start a browser and login to the modem's (or the primary router's) configuration page. Mark down the IP, MAC and DHCP range of the modem's Access Point.

2. If the modem's AP (Access Point) is using Auto channel, change it to a fixed channel. (See this post for the consideration of selecting a channel.)

3. Power on the TL-WR740N router. Disable the wireless on the computer and connect the computer to the TL-WR740N router with an Ethernet cable.

4. Start a browser and input http://192.168.0.1 in the browser's location bar and press Enter. Login to the TL-WR740N router and change the password.

5. In TL-WR740N router's menu, go to Wireless | Wireless Settings. Uncheck "Enable SSID Broadcast" and check "Enable WDS Bridging". Fill in the information from the modem's AP (alternatively, we can press the Survey button to let the router scan the broadcasting routers and select the one we want to connect. The information will be automatically filled and we will only need to input the Password). The BSSID is filled with the MAC of the modem's AP.

6. Go to menu DHCP | DHCP Settings. Disable DHCP Server. This allows the clients (the Sony TV or computers that are connecting to the TL-WR740N router) get their IP's from the modem's AP.

7. By default, TL-WR740N disables wireless security. We want to turn it on by going to the menu Wireless | Wireless Security.

8. Go to menu Network | LAN, change the IP to a new and fixed one that is in the same subnet of the modem's AP and outside the DHCP range of the modem's AP.

9. Reboot the router... The computer is now connected to the internet through the TL-WR740N router.

10. Connect the Sony TV to the TL-WR740N router with an Ethernet cable. Set up the wired connection on the TV and enjoy the content from internet.


25 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

This worked like a charm for me. Thanks a lot!

Thijs said...

Great, bought the router and your instruction works! Smile!!

Thijs said...

Great, works wonderful!!

Anonymous said...

hi there could u pls elaborate point number 8?

Zen said...

Hi aba10, the 8th step assigns the router a static IP within the modem's subnet. So the TPLink router won't need to get an IP from the modem by DHCP. For example, if the modem's subnet is 192.168.1.* and its DHCP range is set as 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.255, you can choose 192.168.1.10 for the router.

Unknown said...

Hi Zen
I have a TPlink ASDL-2 modem with WIFI & individually have aUWA-BR100. It appears that the UWA needs to be paired by disconnecting the wifi of the TPlink.

How to link the UWA to TPlink modem & computer on the same network.

Unknown said...

Thanks. Worked like a charm :)

Anonymous said...

Works well with the remote that came with the TV - then I downloaded the Sideview app to get better remote functionality. When I run Sideview, I get message "Device not found". Any ideas on things to try?

Anonymous said...

Works well with 32W600A with my TP-Link 702 n travel router. Thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I think I must be doing something wrong.

I've got a TP-WR740N v3 router and went through the listed actions. When the router reboots after step 9 it gives a message "You aren’t connected to a network". The wired connection says "Unknown Network". This seems to be the case regardless of whether I set wireless security or not. I can't then access the router using the new IP address (192.168.1.10), and have to do a hardware factory reset. Even if the internet didn't work I assumed I should be able to get back into the router's setup pages via LAN.

The System light flashes on the router, indicating it's working.

Any thoughts?

many thanks

Jon

Anonymous said...

Before you buy a second router, try to link your Bravia TV (wifi-ready, i.e. you need to buy wifi dongle) to the Internet using WiFi. I have Bravia Kdl32W600ABAEP and it requires a Wifi dongle. I decided to to see how it will look like to connect to Wifi, and my TV connected without the Wifi dongle to my Wireless router. Even though my TV requires wifi dongle (according to the specifications), it connected to Wifi without a wifi dongle. Amazing!

Unknown said...

Any other possibilities ?

Anonymous said...

Why "DD-WRT" thing is important? Shouldn't any wireless bridge in market work?

Unknown said...

I've successfully created the bridge as I have internet access on my laptop when connected to the bridge via wire. However, when I connect the TV via wire, the network setup process on the TV fails. Any ideas?

Unknown said...

I believe NetGear also has products available that will work. The WNCE2001,N300 router and the WNCE3001, N600 should also work instead of the Sony dongle. I think that I am going to use one of these.

Anonymous said...

2 queries - Could you please tell:

1) Does the Wifi-Direct feature of Sony Bravia work using the TP-Link method?
It worked earlier through UWA BR-100. Now UWA has failed, hence I need other options.

I used to view images/media from my android phone on the Sony Bravia TV earlier using Wifi Direct feature.

Now UWA BR-100 has failed within warranty, ( I had to force them Sony gave me a Full Refund of the product) but they don't have a new replacement product in stock plus no plans for repair. Customer like us are left with no choice.

- $1000 Bravia Internet TV with no support and no accessories.
- You Tube App on Bravia has also been stopped by Google and again Sony has no answers.
- Internet pages load really slow on Sony TV as compared to my Notebook PC. It implies that Bravia is not really designed for internet access. YouTube does not work on the Bravia Browser too, as expected ( less/slow memory in Bravia Hardware).

2) Does the Renderer feature of Bravia work? (using the Android Phone as a remote control with TP Link wifi).

UWA-BR100 at Sony Retail is around $50.00; surprisingly online upto $120.
If the above 2 features work then I an go ahead and buy TP Link - cheaper option.

- Techie2000

Unknown said...

This router not receiving data from my Lumia 720&730. Plz suggest how to receive data & work in my ex 720

Unknown said...

Have you guys all tried the "screen mirroring" feature with this method? Pls let me know if it works. Thanks

RAGHAVENDRA said...

Please Any one tell that is screen mirror option works with wireless bridge, thanks in advance

Dipesh Parmar said...

Screencast will work once the device is registered on Android phone, for that you will need the dongle to enable wifi direct

PankajD said...

Didn't work on KDL-46EX700. I tried doing WDS bridge. My new router connected fine with primary router and I tested it connecting ethernet cable from new router to my laptop and the internet came well on laptop. I then removed it from my laptop and connected to the TV. did wired set up - auto as well as custom, it didn't work. same error - network status says OK but when I refresh the content, it says 'Configuration failed while connecting' with error code 0. Pissed off with this. Any idea if this is to do with region? I originally bought TV in US and trying internet connection now in India.

Unknown said...

After connecting router to tv can i isr my mobilr hotspot for internet?

Faiza Jee said...

I was reading some of your content on this website and I conceive this internet site is really informative ! Keep on putting up. 192.168.0.1

Anonymous said...

Nekem is ilyen. Kdl-46ex719. Én is eddig jutottam el. Nem értem miért. Hálózat jó, kép és zene át megy XZ2-ről, videó nem tamogatott.

 
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