Weird internet access

[jury]

I have moved couple days ago. At the new place there is an access to internet through some Sagecom router (wifi + 4 rj45) which works ok and I can connect fine with my notebook (not Salix)
But my main machine (Salix), which is a desktop and does not have a wifi card (and I do not want to buy anything like that) is placed where its almost impossible to use ethernet cable. I'm totally noob if it goes networks and stuff, but after doing some reading I found a solution which would suit me just fine.
I took a TP-Link router from my last place so I decided to do something named "WDS bridge" witch is supposed to be a range extension.
So I have bridged those 2 routers, connected eth cable from the second router to my desktop, but it is working just weird and my absolute zero knowledge and understanding of networks makes me struggling last few days and I have not done even a small step forward
The problem is, that internet access on this desktop works mostly 2-5 minutes and than stops. ifconfig shows that eth0 interface looks exactly the same when internet works and when it does not work. And when it stops working I have not found any solution to get it back. Sometimes its enough to restart the router and put eth0 down and up, but many, many times it does not help so I just drop surfing the web and when I come back after an hour or more it works for couple of minutes again, but only after router restart and/or putting eth0 down and up. This drives me crazy, need help

[gapan]

A guess would be that you have an IP conflict between two devices, that is two devices (either wired or wireless) use the same IP. When you seem connected to one, the other one is disconnected. Check if your router has a page where it lists all connected IPs and edit your desktop's settings to use a new IP that isn't used by anything else.

[jury]

I think I have carefully set IP addresses of those 2 routers, setting the DHCP range for other devices outside that narrow range which I reserved for routers, but a good point. I will check all the configuration again today and hopefully its just that.

[jury]

I have checked configuration again and to my knowledge/understanding all is fine if it goes for distinct IP for all devices.
I have even changed IP in the desktop machine to some manual value. Also I have added some PCI 3Com network card in case the built one just got loony. Nothing helped and I would even say that its worse, now internet works 2 minutes at most (sometimes even shorter)

As for a list of all connected IPs - all that is connected through the second router is just shown as 1 entry on the list (if I recall corretly, its something like "WDS Bridge")

Any more clues are welcome.

(if nothing helps, tomorrow I will buy 25meter ethernet cable and I will try to somehow traverse it through 2 floors to my room [I do not see it yet, its impossible, but I will have to do this somehow ]

[gapan]

What is your laptop's reception when you put it next to the TP-Link router? Maybe it's just that the TP-Link router doesn't have good enough signal?

Also a few more ideas:
* Check that the cable from the TP-Link router to your desktop is not damaged. Try another cable if you have one
* Does the TP-Link router have any logs? Anything showing in there?
* From a PC connected to the Sagecom router, try pinging the IP of the TP-Link router. Do you get dropped packets?

[jury]

Thanks for the tips, but hopefully those will not be needed. Yesterday I had internet on my main machine all the times when I tried.
... but today morning I did not have it even for a minute, but just now I started wandering through router configurations again and I found out that Channel on Sagecom was set to 5, so I permanently changed it to 11 (as this is what is set on TP-Link) and after a router restart my Salix machine got connected instantly
I hope this was the problem with the WDS bridge and all is going to work now!

[gapan]

Ah, yes, that is a common problem too. I even have an app in my Android phone to find which channels are more crowded so I can avoid them. Got it from fdroid, it's called WiFiAnalyzer.