Question :

I have a Philips BluRay player which has the option to connect to the internet (for things like YouTube and Picasa), which I think would be interesting to every once in a while.  The BluRay player has two options to connect to the internet, either using an ethernet network cable or using the special Philips WiFi-to-USB-dongle that is very expensive.

Problem is the BluRay player is next to my TV (and my AppleTV), but I do not have an ethernet cable connection there, only WiFi… (and my AppleTV cannot share it’s WiFi connection through it’s ethernet port…)

My first thought was to use an Apple AirPort Express and connect it to the BluRay player’s ethernet-port to use it as a WiFi/AirPort-client… but since I do not have an AirPort Express (yet), buying one would even be a more expensive option than buying the official Philips WiFi-to-USB-dongle…

On the other hand… I do happen to have a mini/portable WiFi-router (a LogiLink WL0083) lying around, which should be able to act as a WiFi-to-ethernet-bridge also…

But… even after several tries, I did not succeed in setting the WL0083 up properly…

Any idea how that should be done ?

Answer :

Yes !

Actually it’s rather simple, you just have to setup the LogiLink WL0083 as “Client+AP” and use the setup-wizard of the web-interface, but there are 3 things to know :

-1- the default IP-address of the LogiLink WL0083 is 192.168.2.1 so you need to be sure that the network you want it to connect to does not use the 192.168.2.0 to 192.168.2.255 range of IP-adresses (so you might have to reconfigure your ‘entire’ network to use the 192.168.3.1 to 192.168.3.255 range…)

-2- to make it a “Client only” instead of a “Client+AP”, you should set SSID broadcast to “Hidden” and leave the additional (extender) SSID in default “Logilink” and “Disabled”

-3- and… when finishing up, do not forget to change the IP-address of your Mac’s WiFi and ethernet connection back to “DHCP”

in a step-by-step guide, that would be :

– make sure your WiFi network is not using the 192.168.2.0 to 192.168.2.255 range of IP-adresses (if it does, reconfigure your network router to use another range of IP addresses, and reconfigure all clients in your network that use Static IP addresses)

– then unplug your ethernet cable from your regular network

– disconnect from your regular WiFi/AirPort-network

– connect the LogiLink WL0083 to your Mac using an ethernet cable, and connect it’s USB-cable to a powered USB-port (e.g. on your Mac)

– then press the small “WPS/Reset”-button on the WL0083 for about 5 seconds (to reset it)

– then, on your Mac, go to Apple Menu (Apple icon top-left on the screen) –> System Preferences –> Network –> Ethernet and change it to “Using DHCP with manual address” and type the IP-address 192.168.2.100 in the input field

– then open Safari and type 192.168.2.1 into the URL-field ; for User Name and Password type “admin” (both the same)

– now the LogiLink web interface should open

– click on the “Client+AP” tab, then “Setup Wizard” on the left, followed by “Next” on the left

– on the next screen, start by clicking on the “Scan”-button, and wait for the list of SSIDs of local WiFi/AirPort-networks to appear

– then select your WiFi/AirPort-network from the list

– everything will then be automatically filled out, apart from “Pass Phrase:”, there you should type your WiFi/AirPort-password

– then click “Next”

– in the “Wireless Basic Settings”-screen that opens, set “Network Mode” to “11b/g/n mixed mode”, leave “SSID” as it is (probably “Logilink”), set “Broadcast SSID” to “Disable” and leave the rest as it is automatically set

– then click “Next”

– in the “Wireless Security Settings”-screen that opens, set “Security Mode” to “Disable”, and leave the rest as it is

– then click “Next”

– in the next screen click “Apply” and the WL0083 will reboot

– then, on your Mac, make sure that you are NOT connected to a WiFi/AirPort-network

– then go to Apple Menu –> System Preferences –> Network –> Ethernet and change it to “Using DHCP”

– then, in Safari, manually type the URL of any existing website that you do not often visit (e.g. the website of the city you live in) and see if it loads, to check if the WL0083 is properly configured as a WiFi-client on your network

– then disconnect the LogiLink WL0083’s ethernet and USB cable from your Mac

– so, go over to your BluRay player, and connect the LogiLink WL0083’s ethernet cable to it and connect the USB cable to a powered USB-port (or USB-poweradapter)

– now try and see if your BluRay player can use it’s internet services

– if your BluRay player needs any additional configuration, just set it to “ethernet” and “DHCP”

Enjoy !

Note #1 : the LogiLink WL0083 supports WiFi-N only at 150Mbps speed, even though the normal maximum speed of WiFi-N is 300Mbps (just like Apple’s implementation of WiFi-N in AirPort), most of the time you will probably not notice any decline in quality, but you might if you’re a heavy user…

Note #2 : if you want to adjust something small on your LogiLink WL0083 after you’ve configured it, you just need to temporarily switch your ethernet-connection from “Using DHCP” to “Using DHCP with manual address” and 192.168.2.100 as the actual IP-address ; then you can login to the LogiLink web-interface at the 192.168.2.1 URL (and do not forget to change back to “Using DHCP” afterwards)