Support for Media Bridge mode started with r2021.6.

Media Bridge is a mode in which your FreshTomato router connects to another router over Wifi and passes network connections to LAN devices plugged into the FreshTomato router's LAN ports with a physical cable.

As an example of why you would do this, simple media devices might have an ethernet port but not a wifi radio built-into the device. Therefore you would need to run a long cable between your primary router and the media device. Instead, Media Bridge mode lets you place the FreshTomato router by your device, use a short cable between the FreshTomato router and device, and then the FreshTomato router connects wirelessly to your primary router on-behalf of the device, acting as a “relay” between the device and the main network. You can plug multiple devices into the FreshTomato router's LAN ports and they all will be relayed to the main network. Some examples of devices could be network-attached storage, personal computers without a Wifi radio, printers, etc.

The devices plugged into the FreshTomato router obtain their IP address from the primary router and appear to be on the same subnet as other devices in the network.

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The initial setup can be done with the following steps:

1. Go to the Network menu.
2. Scroll down to the section for whatever wireless module you wish.
   For example: “wireless eth2”.
3. From the Wireless Mode dropdown menu, select Media Bridge.
   After doing this, WAN options will be hidden.
   Now, configure the settings there as follows:
4. Set Wireless Network Mode to: Auto (all possible WiFi protocols).
5. Set SSID to the SSID of the primary wifi router's SSID. For example, if the primary Wifi SSID is WIFI-5G, you will put WIFI-5G here so that FreshTomato can find your existing router.
6. Set Channel to: the channel your existing router is broadcasting on. You can find this in your primary router's admin panel; alternatively, you can click “scan” and watch to see if the scan reveals your SSID alongside one of the channels in the list. Sometimes you might see “4 AP” instead of the SSID name because of congestion-multiple other routers in the area using that channel. The number indicates how many SSIDS are found on the given channel. You might want to go to your primary router's admin panel (usually found in the Basic wireless settings) and change to a less-congested channel with less interference if this affects you.
7. Set Channel Width to: 20 MHz, 40 MHz or 80 MHz. Preferably find this value in your primary router's settings and match this value to your primary router's value.
8. Set Security to: WPAx (Usually WPA2 Personal for home users or small,
   informal offices), where x is the encryption protocol. As of 2026, WPA2 Personal is the most common option for home use, however this needs to match your primary router. (In a home network, your primary router is probably using WPA2-Personal). Your primary router might also refer to this as WPA2-PSk (Pre-shared Key) which is just another term for WPA2.
9. Set Encryption to: AES. This also needs to match your primary router. Again, it's likely already running AES in 2026 on home network equipment.
10. Set Shared Key to: the WiFi password of your primary router. Check spelling and case match your primary password.
11. Set Group Key Renewal to: 3600 seconds.

Still in the Network menu, under LAN Settings:

• Configure bridge “br0” with an IP Address in the LAN you want
  to connect to. (For example: “192.168.1.50”).
• Configure the Default Gateway. In our example: “192.168.1.1
  (If main router's address is: “192.168.1.1”).
• Enter a Static DNS value of 192.168.1.1 (assuming if the main
  router's address is 192.168.1.1).
• Since r2022.6, selecting “Automatic IP”, will make the router
  obtain IP/Gateway/DNS via DHCP.

Click Apply at the bottom of the page to proceed with the changes. FreshTomato will show a screen reminding you of the new IP address. Be sure to reset any custom network settings applied to your PC network settings so that the DHCP server of your primary router can correctly find and assign an IP address to your PC. If successful, you can now plug devices into the FreshTomato router and your primary router will detect them.

Media Bridge (MB) mode has several advantages over wireless Ethernet Bridge mode:

• MB mode will work with SDK7 ARM routers like the AC3200
  or the R8000
  (wireless Ethernet bridge mode isn't possible).
• MB mode will work with SDK6 MIPS routers like the Asus RT-AC66U,
  or the D‑Link DIR‑865L
  (wireless Ethernet bridge mode isn't possible).
• MB mode will work with SDK6 ARM routers like Asus RT-AC68U,
  or Netgear R7000.
  (Wireless Ethernet Bridge mode is also possible).
• IPv4 and IPv6 communication will work.
  (Wireless Ethernet Bridge supports only IPv4, except
  dual-core SDK6 ARM models, which support IPv6).

Do NOT use Virtual Interfaces, such as Virtual Wireless networks or VLANs when in Media Bridge mode.

Media Bridge mode (MB) will work for:

• SDK6.30 [MIPS RT-AC] (for example: RT-AC66U, D‑Link DIR‑865L)
• SDK6.37 (ex. RT-AC68U, R7000)
• SDK7 (ex. RT-AC3200, R8000)
• SDK714 (ex. RT-AC5300, RT-AC88U)

Wireless Ethernet Bridge (WEB) mode will work for:

• SDK5.10 (ex. WRT54GL, RT-N16)
• SDK5.110 (ex. E4200v1, RT-N66U)
• SDK6.37 (ex. RT-AC68U, R7000)
• SDK714 (ex. RT-AC5300, RT-AC88U)

1. Once you complete the settings, make sure you adjust your PC's IP address back to that of your primary network. Clear any static IP and set DHCP back to 'auto'.
2. The media bridge FreshTomato router will rely on the primary router to handle the firewall and DHCP.
3. Media Bridge mode is primarily for home network use. If you are attempting to connect to an untrusted Wifi network, “ethernet bridge” or “wireless bridge” are better options to keep your trusted devices on their own sub-network separated from the untrusted network.

In case of issues such as connectivity loss:

1. Try lowering the Wireless Client connection check time (affects Media Bridge mode, Wireless Client mode and Wireless Ethernet Bridge mode). The default is 30 seconds. Adjust this to 15 seconds via the command prompt:
   
   

   root@FreshTomato-WlClientMode:/tmp/home/root# nvram set sta_chkint=15
   root@FreshTomato-WlClientMode:/tmp/home/root# nvram commit
   root@FreshTomato-WlClientMode:/tmp/home/root# reboot

   
   

2. Additional improvements exist. See this Media Bridge mode commit that started with r2023.4
   Media Bridge Mode (SDK6/SDK7/SDK714): add ARPING (default 180 sec cycle) and improve stability .