Turning an OpenWrt router into a wireless bridge with relayd

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:41:37 -0500

I had a spare TP-Link Archer AX21 running a plain OpenWrt snapshot, and a room with a couple of wired-only devices and no ethernet run to it. I wanted the router to join the existing WiFi and hand that connection over to its ethernet ports, so the wired devices show up on the main network like they were plugged into the main router. Basically, a wireless bridge.

The OpenWrt relay configuration docs cover what relayd is actually doing under the hood. Here’s the full set of commands on a plain install with no LuCI.

Openwrt on Aatish Neupane

Turning an OpenWrt router into a wireless bridge with relayd