dual wireless access points

[teckmaster]

I was asked this question over the weekend and thought it should work very easliy. Customer wanted to use 2 wireless access points, 1 on each floor of his house. The one access point would be hooked up directly to his cable modem. He has pc's on both floors. I figured that as long as everything is in the same IP scheme of numbers they should be able to interact.

The wireless point on the second floor would be 192.168.1.1, the wireless on the first floor would be 192.168.1.2. The pc's on the second floor would be told to go to the 1.1 address while the first floor pc's would be told to go to the 1.2 address. The wap on the first floor would be told to interact with the wap on the second floor.


Would this work?

 

[spidey07]

It would work if you had a network cable from the cable/modem switch to the second AP.

It is my understanding that an access point can either be an access point (providing connectivity to wireless clients) or a bridge (connecting to another access point) but not both.

I'm sure somebody can correct me on this if I'm mistaken.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: spidey07
It would work if you had a network cable from the cable/modem switch to the second AP.

It is my understanding that an access point can either be an access point (providing connectivity to wireless clients) or a bridge (connecting to another access point) but not both.

The above is the most prevalent mainstream option.

One more option.

Two Entry Level Access Points can work as a Repeater (the D-Link 900AP+ for one). I.e. they flip-flop between Client and Gateway modes; the client gets the signal from the first AP and flops to gateway to transmit the signal further.

Only one drawback to such an arrangement. The Client that gets the signal from the repeater get only half of the bandwidth (it the flip-flop thing). However no need for in-between floors CAT5e.

More here: Wireless Network - Configuration Modes.

 

[teckmaster]

Cool. The whole cat5e thing is why he wanted to do totally wireless. I think if its just between floors, that he could handle the drop in speed since it will be pretty high to start.

 

[JackMDS]

Just make sure with a repeater setting that a Wireless Client Card of the same Brand as the repeater is used. It might work with other Cards, but not with all of them.

The D-Link 900AP+ with the D-Link Airplus 650+ PCMCIA card is a good match.

 

[teckmaster]

thanks for all the info. You've been a great help.

 

[MatthewF01]

i think i scared too many people away from my thread because it involves 802.11g.

But heres my problem:

I have 2 D-Link 54G Access Points, and I am trying to configure them to communicate.

I am currently configured as such:

-my pc is internet connection server (DSL usb modem)
-my pc is in the basement, connected to a ethernet switch

-one floor up, theres a pc in the kitchen
-it has a cat5 running to the basement which then connects into the switch


so now i have added 2 AP's in the hopes of moving my computer 2 floors up from the basement, into my bedroom.

So my 'ideal' config would be that I am still internet connection server, and i have an AP plugged direct into my ethernet port.
Next, I have placed the AP in the kitchen upstairs onto a switch, along with the kitchen computer. this switch then connects downstairs to the switch in the basement.

question #1: is this correct in the first place, the way i have the hubs basically daisy-chained?


So as of right now, I have the APs HARDWIRED INTO THE ETHERNET LAN just to get things off the ground and configured. I have given them different IPs, and tried diff modes. Ive tried AP/Client mode, and AP-AP Bridge mode.

Neither seem to work after I disconnect the cat5 connecting the 2 hubs.

I am new to wireless, sooo....

in D-Link's config setup there are 2 MAC addresses. One is listed under an ETHERNET section, and another under WIRELESS section. Which MAC would I use?


Now i seem to be having the following problem:
from my computer, I can access the AP config through IE on MY half of the network, but I sometimes have trouble viewing the OTHER AP, even while its hardwired.
And it works both ways, the same thing applies vice versa from the other AP.



is this just too much to understand, and should I contact D-Link instead? I just dont know what to tell them... some idiot's gonna drool on his keyboard while i explain my setup..