80211.b: bridging two wired LANs together

[MrHappyMonkey]

I have a section of my house (section A) that does not have the ability to send a CAT5 cable to. In this area, there will be 3 desktops. In addition, the other part of the house (section B) has two computers. Section B is already wired up and uses a D-link di704 router+4 port switch. Part A will be connected through a 10/100 switch. Since I can not get a CAT5 cable to Section A, I was thinking of using 802.11b to "bridge" these two sections togther. Section A and B are at opisite ends of the house (about 50 feet).

What is needed to set this up? I am looking for the cheapest method to do this.

 

[JackBurton]

You can get two of these if 11Mbps is adequate. Or you can get two of these. I don't know if the WAP54A can acts as a bridge so you'll have to do some research to see if it supports bridging. However, it will give you speeds up to 72Mbps in turbo mode (Turbo mode will NOT work on XP operating systems). I have the WAP11 and it works GREAT, but I'm only using it to access the net. If I were to integrate it with my 100Mbps LAN, I'd definitely have to go for a 802.11a solution. That 11Mbps for a LAN is too slow for me.

 

[JackMDS]

Buy two Linksys WAP11 (Dell has a sale, coupon etc. $117 each).

Plug one to the D-Link Router.

Plug one to the Switch of section A.

Set the two WAPs to Bridge mode.

Use the correct CAT5 cables, and enjoy the magic.

 

[MrHappyMonkey]

hmm not sure I can offord the two APs @$117 each. Will this D-link AP work for what I am trying to do? After doing a bit of searching around for Wireless technoligy I found a cheap source for Proxim's "Symphony HomeRF" stuff. This isn't 80211.x, but I think it might work. Though the bandwidth is limited to around 2mbs, I think it still might work. Most of the traffic will be from my 1mbs cable modem. here is the store with the Symphony stuff. Anybody personally use this technoligy? The reviews I found said it was pretty decent.

 

[blstriker]

I've done bridging using 2 wap11 and it's great. Don't use the home rf stuff from proxim/symphony, the range is very poor from my experience. You'll rarely get even 2 mbps. You'll love the 2 wap11's. Actually, if you do get WAP11, you can set one as AP and the other as AP client. This way, computers/laptops still can connect to one of the WAP11's that is set as AP. If you use the pure bridge mode, then you can't connect any computers/laptops to the wireless network.

Good luck!

 

[ktwebb]

Turbo mode will NOT work on XP operating systems

Is this something you have experienced? Perhaps something specific to the Linksys hardware. I haven't tested the Linksys stuff but have used Turbo mode on XP with Proxim .11a equipment and a couple of other Mfg's. While Turbo mode is not extremely effective, with anybody's hardware as far as I can tell, it definitely does work on XP as a technology, though perhaps not with mfg specific hardware like Linksys, although that seems highly unlikely.

 

[JackBurton]

Is this something you have experienced? Perhaps something specific to the Linksys hardware.

No, it came from Linksys themselves. That little detail shows up on Linksys' user guide. Since you were able to get another 802.11a AP to work in turbo mode, I'm assuming it is a Linksys issue.

 

[JackMDS]

>>>hmm not sure I can offord the two APs @$117 each. Will this D-link AP work for what I am trying to do? <<<

According to the spec. the D-Link should work as a Bridge. I never used the D-Link, and I saw posts of complain that it does not really work as a bridge. Call D-Link, and find what they say.

 

[MrHappyMonkey]

Well, It seems that I will be changing the confirguation of the setup. Instead of having two computers in section B, there will only be one. The proxim stuff seems pretty decent for what this machine will be doing (web surfing & e-mail; all bottlenecked by my 1mbs cable modem). The AP is $40, and the USB NIC is about $20. Thats less than the price of the D-link 802.11 AP. I can put the AP in a room that is about 25 feet away from Section B. Are there are other decent inexpensive options for wiring without CAT5? Phoneline or powerline?