Bridge from Wifi to Ethernet not working (Windows 10)
I attempt to share a WiFi-Internet connection with an Ethernet port. The Wifi is secured with an enterprise 802.1X authentication (so there is no preshared password like in home Wifi's).
Whenever I bridge the WiFi adapter with the Ethernet adapter, the Internet connectivity breaks (right click -> bridge in Windows 10 system control panel).
As soon as I remove the bridge, the WiFi adapter restores the Internet connectivity. Configuring any static IP addresses does not work.
It appears to me that the bridge destroys the wireless configuration. How can I configure a Windows 10 bridge that leaves the wireless configuration unchanged? (note that I do not care about the Ethernet configuration as long as I have a working Internet gateway)
Solution 1:
Wi-Fi cannot be bridged to Ethernet. This is not a Windows limitation in any way. There’s a good explanation on why that is in the old OpenWrt wiki.
Instead, you should use Internet Connection Sharing (ie. make your PC a router):
- Go to the Network Connections control panel (where you’re currently trying to create the bridge)
- Open your Wi-Fi connection’s properties.
- Switch to the “Sharing” tab
- Enable it, selecting your Ethernet connection as the “Home networking connection”.
Everything should automatically work after that.
Solution 2:
Wi-Fi CAN be bridged to Ethernet on Windows 10.
- Connect to Internet via WiFi.
- Take note of your private IP settings
(e.g. IP:192.168.1.44 SM:255.255.255.0 GW:192.168.1.1 DNS:192.168.1.1) - In Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections, highlight WiFi and Ethernet (use shift click or Ctrl Click or shift arrow key). Rt-click on highlighted area and choose "Bridge Connections"
- At this point, hosting PC will likely lose Internet especially if you connect a device on the Ethernet port.
- To correct this loss of Internet on "host PC", go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections, and double-click "Network Bridge" to open Network Bridge Status dialogue.
- Click Properties button (might be slow to populate, be patient)
- Highlight WiFi in top box
- Double-click IPv4 in bottom box to open IPv4 Properties
- Select "Use the following IP address" and manually fill in settings recorded from step TWO.
- OK your way out
- Enjoy Internet on both your "host PC" as well as add-on device connected to host PC via Ethernet (extension of your WiFi network).
Note1: This also works with LAN-LAN bridge
Note2: I disabled IPv6 on "wireless bridge" but probably unnecessary.