is roaming over wds possible?

Hi, everybody!

I'm in need of some expert advice. I'm trying to setup wifi coverage at
a health club which has a dsl connection in one of the offices. the club
has three big rooms and a couple of offices - seems too big to be
covered with one AP. requirements:

-one ssid
-ability to walk around the club while maintaining a connection (ie
continuously downloading something).

Since there is only one wired connection, ie one wifi router connected
to dsl modem, other APs have to repeat the signal wirelessly. which is i
guess what WDS is for (i'm using buffalo wireless wbr-54 routers).
however, with such setup each ap seems to have to advertise a different
ssid. that means the user, when walking from one ap's coverage area to
another, has to terminate connection to ssid and connect to another. is
there any way to avoid that? essentially, from user (laptop, pda)
perspective, i would like to have one ssid accessible from anywhere in
the club.

thanks a lot

-nikita

roam at home here.
same ssid,,, different radio channels
and connection drops for like 7 seconds when it switches over and associates
with the stronger radio channel - smart enough to stay on one channel if
signal is somewhat lower than best yet still acceptable,,, must have a below
x% threshold difference or something.

"Nikita Tovstoles" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:PW0Ac.3919$(E-Mail Removed) ...
> Hi, everybody!
>
> I'm in need of some expert advice. I'm trying to setup wifi coverage at
> a health club which has a dsl connection in one of the offices. the club
> has three big rooms and a couple of offices - seems too big to be
> covered with one AP. requirements:
>
> -one ssid
> -ability to walk around the club while maintaining a connection (ie
> continuously downloading something).
>
> Since there is only one wired connection, ie one wifi router connected
> to dsl modem, other APs have to repeat the signal wirelessly. which is i
> guess what WDS is for (i'm using buffalo wireless wbr-54 routers).
> however, with such setup each ap seems to have to advertise a different
> ssid. that means the user, when walking from one ap's coverage area to
> another, has to terminate connection to ssid and connect to another. is
> there any way to avoid that? essentially, from user (laptop, pda)
> perspective, i would like to have one ssid accessible from anywhere in
> the club.
>
> thanks a lot
>
> -nikita

Nikita Tovstoles <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:PW0Ac.3919$WV3.497
@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com:

> Since there is only one wired connection, ie one wifi router connected
> to dsl modem, other APs have to repeat the signal wirelessly. which is i
> guess what WDS is for (i'm using buffalo wireless wbr-54 routers).

FYI, WDS slows down transfer rates quite a bit.

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sectio...le78-page1.php

--
Lucas Tam ((E-Mail Removed))
Please delete "REMOVE" from the e-mail address when replying.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/coolspot18/

bumtracks,

that's interesting. how are the two APs communicating: are they wired
together or are they doing WDS? what brand/model are they?

also, i thought i saw someone post that it's possible to roam without
dropping connection at all. i.e. one'd start downloading a file while
talking to one AP, than walk to other AP's coverage area, and not
interrupt the download. is that possible?

thanks
-nikita

bumtracks wrote:
> roam at home here.
> same ssid,,, different radio channels
> and connection drops for like 7 seconds when it switches over and associates
> with the stronger radio channel - smart enough to stay on one channel if
> signal is somewhat lower than best yet still acceptable,,, must have a below
> x% threshold difference or something.
>
> "Nikita Tovstoles" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:PW0Ac.3919$(E-Mail Removed) ...
>
>>Hi, everybody!
>>
>>I'm in need of some expert advice. I'm trying to setup wifi coverage at
>>a health club which has a dsl connection in one of the offices. the club
>>has three big rooms and a couple of offices - seems too big to be
>>covered with one AP. requirements:
>>
>>-one ssid
>>-ability to walk around the club while maintaining a connection (ie
>>continuously downloading something).
>>
>>Since there is only one wired connection, ie one wifi router connected
>>to dsl modem, other APs have to repeat the signal wirelessly. which is i
>>guess what WDS is for (i'm using buffalo wireless wbr-54 routers).
>>however, with such setup each ap seems to have to advertise a different
>>ssid. that means the user, when walking from one ap's coverage area to
>>another, has to terminate connection to ssid and connect to another. is
>>there any way to avoid that? essentially, from user (laptop, pda)
>>perspective, i would like to have one ssid accessible from anywhere in
>>the club.
>>
>>thanks a lot
>>
>>-nikita
>
>
>

what would be an alternative? remember, i can wire only *one* ap to
ethernet connection....

thanks


-nikita

Lucas Tam wrote:

> Nikita Tovstoles <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:PW0Ac.3919$WV3.497
> @newssvr27.news.prodigy.com:
>
>
>>Since there is only one wired connection, ie one wifi router connected
>>to dsl modem, other APs have to repeat the signal wirelessly. which is i
>>guess what WDS is for (i'm using buffalo wireless wbr-54 routers).
>
>
> FYI, WDS slows down transfer rates quite a bit.
>
> http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sectio...le78-page1.php
>

"Nikita Tovstoles" ...
> that's interesting. how are the two APs communicating: are they wired
> together or are they doing WDS? what brand/model are they?
>
> also, i thought i saw someone post that it's possible to roam without
> dropping connection at all. i.e. one'd start downloading a file while
> talking to one AP, than walk to other AP's coverage area, and not
> interrupt the download. is that possible?

Downloading large files ... walking out of range and things slow down &
sometimes pause/stop/start otherwise why would you need that second AP.

Compex NP26gusb routers
Not well known and lacking in certain areas but has some features that are
ummm.... simply different WDS ! , vLan isolation, SAT - static
address translation(i love this). Multi loadsharing Wan capable. Can add
routing tables(thumbs up). Converts to&from a usb webcam server. An
unpaid sales pitch but I like and use their unusual features. www.cpx.com
Nice bang for the buck at online etailers. and none of the reset/reboot/etc
problems of the dlink/linksys user although I seldom have any problem
sometimes I think the majority of wifi/router problems are users lack of
understanding how things work. I'm rambling .

Nikita Tovstoles <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
newsF6Ac.3980$(E-Mail Removed) :

> what would be an alternative? remember, i can wire only *one* ap to
> ethernet connection....
>
If it's a health club, there's gotta be a way to run more wiring around...
because with several WDS APs, your network will slow down to a crawl.

--
Lucas Tam ((E-Mail Removed))
Please delete "REMOVE" from the e-mail address when replying.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/coolspot18/

Nikita Tovstoles wrote:
> I'm trying to setup wifi coverage at
> a health club which has a dsl connection in one of the offices. the club
> has three big rooms and a couple of offices - seems too big to be
> covered with one AP. requirements:
>
> -one ssid
> -ability to walk around the club while maintaining a connection (ie
> continuously downloading something).

this is what roaming is about - you have multiple WAPs, all with the same SSID,
all on _different_ channels. As you walk around the client will hold it's
current
connection till it gets too weak to hold and then will drop it and search for
another
WAP. So the changeover doesn't occur till the signal has got too weak to use.
It would be nice if the changeover occured when a better signal was found but
that's not the way the drivers have been written. With some drivers the new
WAP is found automatically, with others you have to search for a new connection.
In the case where changeover occurs automatically, you maintain your connection,
but I've never been downloading a file while doing it. I've just maintained an
idle connection

Joe

--
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!

mack,

correct. however, wds seems to require that APs be set to _same_
channel, which contradicts roaming requirements. that's why i was
wondering whether roaming over WDS is possible. to recap, i have 2 APs,
but only one of them will be ethernet-wired. so the second AP will have
to communicate using WDS.... and i still want to roam between the two.
enter same channel for wds/different channels for roaming paradox... is
it the case that roaming over WDS is impossible?

-nikita

mack wrote:

>
> this is what roaming is about - you have multiple WAPs, all with the same SSID,
> all on _different_ channels. As you walk around the client will hold it's
> current
> connection till it gets too weak to hold and then will drop it and search for
> another
> WAP. So the changeover doesn't occur till the signal has got too weak to use.
> It would be nice if the changeover occured when a better signal was found but
> that's not the way the drivers have been written. With some drivers the new
> WAP is found automatically, with others you have to search for a new connection.
> In the case where changeover occurs automatically, you maintain your connection,
> but I've never been downloading a file while doing it. I've just maintained an
> idle connection
>
> Joe
>

Nikita Tovstoles wrote:
>
> mack,
>
> correct. however, wds seems to require that APs be set to _same_
> channel, which contradicts roaming requirements. that's why i was
> wondering whether roaming over WDS is possible.

I'm sorry then. I missed your point. I don't know what wds is and I replied
about how to roam, not how to roam with wds.

Joe

--
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!