Wireless Bridging Clarification Request

[razorweb]

I am trying to figure out if wireless bridging is an option for me. I have a WAP (the BEFW11S4 if you're curious) attached to the cablemodem at a remote corner of the house, which cannot be relocated. The problem is that I need wireless access on the other corner of the house, where signal is weak to non existent. I thought of the following solutions.

1) attach a higher power antennae. Building one is a pain in the neck, and a single omnidirectional antenna (the WAP i have has two antenna ports) costs about 100$.

2) buy a second wap and use it as a wireless bridge. the only useful information i have found on this subject is at practically networked, here. I thought of getting the Linksys WAP11 and placing it in a central location.

My questions: will wireless cards which are connected to the newly placed WAP11 be able to use the BEFW11S4 as an DHCP provider? in other words, will using the WAP11 simply and easily extend the range of my BEFW11S4?

 

[JackMDS]

I am not familiar with the BEFW11S4. It can be done only if the WAP has a bridging mode.

Example for hardware that can Bridge:

EZ Connect? Wireless Access Point/Bridge

 

[razorweb]

Thanks! does that mean i need a WAP , a wireless bridge, and then a second WAP for the remotely located wireless card to connect to?

 

[ktwebb]

If your router won't bridge then yeah, you would need two AP's that do bridge.

 

[razorweb]

Hmmm... I just called Linksys Tech Support, and they said that I had to hardwire the AP bridge to the cablerouter in order to extend the range. Is that true? That kind of defeats the purpose of wireless bridging for me.

 

[ktwebb]

Not sure i follow. The cablemodem will have to connect to the near bridge somehow via a wired backbone (patch cable from the modem or hub/switch. How else are you gonna connect the bridge to your network? You already have the modem attached to one Acess point according to your original post. If that AP will bridge then you are already set. I dont know about the linksys but if it is like the 802.11b devices i install and use it should broadcast to clients as an AP and bridge to the other device at the same time.

 

[razorweb]

i wanted the bridge to work wirelessly. as in, the modem is connected to the wireless router, and then i place the bridge somewhere in the middle of the house, unconnected to anything, thus extending my range, becuase now wireless cards can connect to the router through the bridge. Is that possible?

 

[ktwebb]

um, the bridge is a wireless device. maybe we are on different pages alltogether. cablemodem to a AP/bridge either with patch cable directly or via a hub/switch. Local AP will stilll broadcast to local clients in the cell range as well as bridge to the remote wireless device (AP/bridge). the remote device will also broadcast to wireless clients in its RF range as well as any wired nodes if it has ports to do so. Thats as clear as I can be. Only question is can the SOHO AP's/Bridges bridge and act as an AP at the same time. That i dont know. I use and install Cisco AP's and bridges.

 

[genius99]

I am trying to do wireless bridging too, but I'm kind of confused. I was looking at the:

D-Link DI-713p Wireless Broadband Router
and the
D-Link DWL-1000AP 11Mbps Wireless LAN Access Point


The DWL-1000AP WAP operates with transparent bridging and roaming capabilities. So if I hook up a DSL modem to the DWL-1000AP WAP, will it transmit to the DI-713p Wireless Broadband Router???

 

[ktwebb]

Doesnt look like the router will bridge so no it wont work, unless they are just leaving bridging off the PDF data sheet. Not likely they would leave that feature out.

 

[nightowl]

razorweb: The way I understand the review of the Linksys at Pratically Networked is this; the Linksys will operate as a wireless bridge allowing you to connect to another wireless bridge. The secondary bridge can be another Linksys AP set to operate as a bridge but it will NOT be able to function as a AP also. This is why Linksys said that you would have to hard wire the 2 APs together. So, to do what you want to do you would need 2 bridges and another AP.

 

[Zorn]

Though I've never tested it, from what I've read, it's only the real highend (read: expensive) access points that will act as a wireless bridges AND transmit to wireless clients. Some low end units will act in bridge mode or client mode, but not both, meaning you have to buy several of them to actually extend your wireless network wirelessly (so to speak). In addition, it's unlikely either of the aforementioned solutions would work with your existing AP, though I could be wrong.

The reason I resurect this dead thread is to suggest a solution that I've always wanted to try but never had the opportunity.

As a little background, I've installed several wireless networks, (SOHO stuff, nothing commercial) the most recent at my sister's home over the holidays. Her home is large, around 10k square feet with a lot of electronics and steel beam construction. Hence, I knew one cheapo AP would not cover her entire house. Forunately, her home is new construction and, as such, has dataports in every room which feed to a hub in the electronics closet which is uplinked to a linksys router which is, in turn, connected to a cable modem. After reading literature on various "affordable" APs, I went with the D-Link AP1000 because it touted seemless roaming between access points and came with software that would manage mulitple APs. These suckers cost a mere $129 a piece. I bought two and put one at each end of the house, hardwired via the dataports to the central hub. I then fired up the AP manager, located the APs and configured them to act as two cells within the same network. Within minutes I was walking throughout the entire house with my sister's laptap, instanly and seemless switching between access points, indeed, the only indication was a milisecond of medium to low signal on the indicator before it went back to green as I passed between points.

Now, obviously I was benefited by the fact that the house was prewired with ethernet, as to my knowledge these very affordable APs would not have acted together wirlessly to extend range...ie, one in wireless bridge/client mode. But, and here's my idea (which is, I guess really a question): What's to stop someone from using a Home PNA connection between their router/hub and their access points via Home PNA bridges to acheive a setup similar to the one I set up at my sister's? Granted, it would cost a little more as you have to buy a Home PNA bridge fort each phone jack, but it would still be cheaper than a highend AP setup. For example, I've seen netgear bridges as low as $90 bucks. At that price, I could buy two for $180, place one at my routher/hub and one at a phone jack on the otherside of my house. Place an access point (or wireless router) at my hub and another AP at the remote phone jack. Configure the APs to act as two cells within the same network and now I have full coverage. Total cost for extending my wireless network is roughly $300 ($180 for the bridges and $129.00 for the additional AP).

Ok folks. Can anyone think of reason why this wouldn't work? Seems like a relatively simple and affordable way to cover even a large house with a wireless network. I may try this at another large house I'm setting up in a few weeks.