can a wifi AP connect to a wifi router wirelessly??

I am sure the answer to this simple and common question is buried in
here somewhere. But I can't find it. can someone help.

Since my maiin wifi router doesn't hit the front of my house, I am
tryin to extend the range of my home WAN.

One suggestion is to setup an access point to hit the front of the
house. I've read and followed the Netgear instructions to do this but
their example shows a wired connectino between the main wifi router and
the AP, and then the PC connecting via wifi to the AP.

This kind of defeats the purpose of things. I am trying to stay all
wireless and avoid having to run a long ethernet cable across the house
(or worse, pull it through the wall.)

can an AP communicate to a wifi router via wifi?

so, is it feasible to do:
A) PC >wifi to> AP
and
B) AP >wifi to> main wifi router ??
so all connections wireless?

many thanks

here's the answer.
whoever this Jack fellow is, he's good.
Peter

Hi

In order to be capable to communicate with the Main Router you need a
device (Wireless Router, or Access Point) that can be configured to
work in Client mode (Regular Access Point Mode would not provide
communication between two Wireless Routers/Access Points).

Most new Access Points can be configured as a Client.

very few Wireless Routers can be configured as a client.

Of the Brand name Entry Level Cable/DSL Routers

Buffalo Tech., some of the Belkin, and some of the SMC, 802.11g models
have the capacity to be configured out of the box as clients.

Linksys WRT54g v.1-4, and WRT54L models can be flashed with 3rd party
firmware and work as Clients.

These pages include more info concerning these issues.

http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Modes.html

http://www.ezlan.net/bridging

Regards.

Jack
pstock wrote:
> I am sure the answer to this simple and common question is buried in
> here somewhere. But I can't find it. can someone help.
>
> Since my maiin wifi router doesn't hit the front of my house, I am
> tryin to extend the range of my home WAN.
>
> One suggestion is to setup an access point to hit the front of the
> house. I've read and followed the Netgear instructions to do this but
> their example shows a wired connectino between the main wifi router and
> the AP, and then the PC connecting via wifi to the AP.
>
> This kind of defeats the purpose of things. I am trying to stay all
> wireless and avoid having to run a long ethernet cable across the house
> (or worse, pull it through the wall.)
>
> can an AP communicate to a wifi router via wifi?
>
> so, is it feasible to do:
> A) PC >wifi to> AP
> and
> B) AP >wifi to> main wifi router ??
> so all connections wireless?
>
> many thanks

On 4 Aug 2006 15:40:42 -0700, "pstock" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>can an AP communicate to a wifi router via wifi?

A pair of routers running WDS can do exactly that. Each router can
simultaneouly act as an access point (for wireless client connections)
and as a transparent bridge to talk to the other router(s). See:
| http://www.linksysinfo.org/portal/fo...ad.php?t=47118
| http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2004/0...to_wds_bridge/ (10 pages)

One catch is that traffic through two WDS bridges has it's maximum
thruput cut in half (because only one transmitter can be on the air at
a time). This is usually not a problem if you're sharing a broadband
connection where the wireless is much faster than the broadband link.
However, it might be a problem for computer to computer transfers over
the WLAN.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Sat, 05 Aug 2006 06:08:06 GMT, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>| http://www.linksysinfo.org/portal/fo...ad.php?t=47118
>| http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2004/0...to_wds_bridge/ (10 pages)
>
>One catch is that traffic through two WDS bridges has it's maximum
(...)

One more gotcha. WDS bridging and WPA encryption are mutually
exclusive in most routers because WDS can only handle static
encryption keys. The best you can do in WDS bridging mode is WEP,
which is not at all secure. If you're worried about security, make
sure your WDS bridge can do WPA in WDS mode. I couldn't find any data
sheet pages that specifically claim that their product does this.

Implimenttng WPA over WDS links:
| http://expertanswercenter.techtarget...104925,00.html

WDS setup won't work when using WPA Enterprise
| http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302521


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On Sat, 05 Aug 2006 06:08:06 GMT Jeff Liebermann <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
| On 4 Aug 2006 15:40:42 -0700, "pstock" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
|
|>can an AP communicate to a wifi router via wifi?
|
| A pair of routers running WDS can do exactly that. Each router can
| simultaneouly act as an access point (for wireless client connections)
| and as a transparent bridge to talk to the other router(s). See:
| | http://www.linksysinfo.org/portal/fo...ad.php?t=47118
| | http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2004/0...to_wds_bridge/ (10 pages)
|
| One catch is that traffic through two WDS bridges has it's maximum
| thruput cut in half (because only one transmitter can be on the air at
| a time). This is usually not a problem if you're sharing a broadband
| connection where the wireless is much faster than the broadband link.
| However, it might be a problem for computer to computer transfers over
| the WLAN.

You get the same problem with an access point serving 2 or more local
machines, for the traffic between those machines.

--
|---------------------------------------/----------------------------------|
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (ka9wgn.ham.org) / Do not send to the address below |
| first name lower case at ipal.net / spamtrap-2006-08-07-(E-Mail Removed) |
|------------------------------------/-------------------------------------|