Purchased two NetGear WAG102s and I must roam!

I've read posts regarding this request and I just can't accept that
this hardware is so customizable and works in so many modes and still
cannot allow users to seamlessly move between WAPs without
re-connecting.
I understand that AutoCell would do this for me IF all the Wi-Fi
adapters that my office used were compatible but this is life. We have
Toshiba laptops, Tablet PCs and PDAs with built-in adapters and that
can't be changed. I'm hoping that someone out there can help me set
this up because I know that this equipment and not all the tricks to it
are documented. Thanks in advance!

(E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:

>I've read posts regarding this request and I just can't accept that
>this hardware is so customizable and works in so many modes and still
>cannot allow users to seamlessly move between WAPs without
>re-connecting.

Roam was not built in a day.

>I understand that AutoCell would do this for me IF all the Wi-Fi
>adapters that my office used were compatible but this is life. We have
>Toshiba laptops, Tablet PCs and PDAs with built-in adapters and that
>can't be changed. I'm hoping that someone out there can help me set
>this up because I know that this equipment and not all the tricks to it
>are documented. Thanks in advance!

The problem is that 802.11b/g have no provisions for roaming. There's
no provision for magically selecting the "best" access point, scanning
for better access points, or even selecting a specific access point by
MAC address from among those from a specific SSID. Eventually,
802.11r (fast roaming) will solve the problem, but that's not going to
be approved until perhaps Mar 2007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11r
http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/1..._Timelines.htm

Meanwhile, different vendors have applied various proporietary tweaks
and fixes. Intel Proset has adjustable "presistence". Cisco has WCS
for roaming. Some others are available, but none are a universal
solution.

Autocell is not designed to impliment seamless roaming. All it does
is dynamically change RF channels to minimize interference. This
allows you to deploy access points without the usual careful channel
planning.


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

I haven't tested extensively, but try a program called "WiFiHopper."

--
Remove -NOSPAM- to contact me.

Thanks Jeff. That was a good one! =) (Rome. Ha!)
Your response has answered more questions than three hours of Googling
and searching through NetGear's site.
I hope you have a good day.

On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 07:51:44 -1000, "John Keiser"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I haven't tested extensively, but try a program called "WiFiHopper."

See:
http://wifihopper.com
$20 to register. No mention of roaming anywhere in the docs or faq.
It does show access points by MAC address instead of just the SSID.
This is good progress. Unless I missed something, it's just another
wireless client manager.

The "hopping" part really seems to deal with open access points, not
individual access points with a common SSID. See:
http://wifihopper.com/doc/hopping.html

I also note that it only runs on Windoze XP and requires:
"WiFi Hopper cannot run correctly if Intel® PROSet/Wireless
Software is installed. Please uninstall any other OEM WLAN
management utilities before using WiFi Hopper."
Since all my laptops are W2K or Linux, I guess I can't try it.

--
# 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