Repeater-Bridge Question

[Wyndru]

I'm using DDWRT on a netgear primary wireless router, repeat-bridging to a linksys (also DDWRT). It seems to be working fine in the sense of handing out the ip's from the primary router and reaching all of the areas, but my laptop and tablet do not automatically "jump" from one router to another when I move from one part of my house to another.

Is a repeater-bridge not designed to do this, or do I have it set up wrong? At my job we have cisco access points that when you move from one location to another it automatically jumps from one ap to another, but that is a managed wireless network with controllers, so I figure it is a whole different beast than consumer products.

I do notice that when I reboot the device, it will automatically connect to the fastest SSID on boot, but if I walk away from one and closer to another, it doesn't automatically make the jump over.

 

[postmortemIA]

I use wireless access point for same purpose, and clients seamlessly jump between APs.
-routers are connected with each other via ethernet
-both have same SSID, but different channel to not interfere with each other
-first router has DHCP
-main advantage is that communication between two routers is not wireless which increases performance of wireless clients
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point

 

[Wyndru]

I use wireless access point for same purpose, and clients seamlessly jump between APs.
-routers are connected with each other via ethernet
-both have same SSID, but different channel to not interfere with each other
-first router has DHCP
-main advantage is that communication between two routers is not wireless which increases performance of wireless clients
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point

Hmm, I wonder if I'm having this issue because I'm not using ethernet between the 2 routers. I didn't think it would matter if it was wired or wireless.

I tried with both the same SSID and different ID's, and I got the same results. It will connect to the faster router initially, but if you move around, it doesn't jump from one to the other.

Is there some kind of limit it needs to hit before it jumps? I have 2-4/5 signal strength on both routers pretty much throughout the house, maybe that is why it's not jumping? Does it need to be a really low signal before it switches? I was hoping to have it jump before I see too much degradation in connection speed.

If I power down one router, it will jump automatically, but that is the only way.

These are the instructions I followed:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge


Reading up on it, I guess I need to use WDS to get this to work and allow roaming.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WDS_Linked_router_network

Yup, WDS works. It has to drop to a really low connection before it actually jumps, but it works.