[clug] Extending wireless range

[Peter Lavender]

On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 11:33 +1100, Doug Palmer wrote:

> > My guess is that a more powerful antenna attached to the router might improve
> > the situation, but some advice on what to buy would be helpful.  My guess is
> > that it's going to need to NOT look like an antenna...
> 
> D-Link does a number of access points that can be configured to act as a
> repeater, such as the DWL-900+. You could use one in the garage to boost
> the signal. Caveats:
> 

That's interesting.  My experience in setting up WDS (Wireless
Distribution System) with all DLink ( 2 AP's DWL-2100 ) wasn't that
great.  In the end I'm still wired where I don't want to be wired, and I
have a spare AP doing nothing.

I had a lengthy email dialog with a Dlink tech, who while helpful,
really never got to the bottom of the problem, hence the spare AP.

My problem manifested in the repeater cycling (rebooting) constantly,
which then left the client searching and sometimes finding the master
AP, with degraded connectivity, until the repeater came up.

It was mostly blamed on interference, but even line of site about 5
meters apart didn't make any difference.

I didn't want to loose what little protection of WEP you get so it was
never really tested with out it.  Of course the testing they did in the
lab didn't replicate the problem.. "flawless" they said.


> * It's way more expensive than a simple antenna.
> * It only works with specific other access points. DI-614+ is listed as
> one of those, but check it out carefully.

Typically I found it was recommended that using the same model and make
of AP to prevent any issues of compatibility.  But I can show that's not
the case.  :)

> * It's an utter bitch to configure. Once you have it set up, the
> repeater vanishes into the wireless network and is not addressable over
> the air. Instead, you will need to take a laptop and plug it into the
> ethernet port on the repeater.

Really?  Not in my case, I was able to access the AP via it's IP
address.  Just have to make sure the MAC address of the client was in
the filter list on all AP's.


> * I've been involved in setting one up at a child care centre. I'm not
> sure if the problems we've encountered should be sheeted to D-Link,
> inexperience on our part or the usual finikiness of wireless. But you
> should be aware that it won't be easy and you should probably do a bit
> f Googling before playing.

Did you find the tomshardware link on setting up WDS?

I found it to be a handy starting point.

http://www.wi-fihelp.com/Sections-article78-page1.php


-- 


Regards,

Pete.