Where are you finding the 802.11s settings? I have been looking for 15 minutes and cannot find anything labelled 802.11s under Wireless. I am running r47692 on an E8500, so perhaps I need a newer version?
EDIT: Nevermind, I found it. It's under Wireless Mode. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 16:59 Post subject: Help needed with WDS
It looks like my WDS setup with A7 as WDS Station is not working. I am using EA8500 as WDS AP and A7 as the WDS station. The main router seem to lockup and the 2.4GHz clients connected to the main router seem to lose connection once I set up WDS station (after it runs for some time). I have a couple of questions regarding that set up
1. Should both bands be set up on the main router as "WDS-AP" (in the "wireless" page) and on the station should both be set as "WDS-Station"? Or should this be set up as WDS AP/Station only for the band to be used as backhaul?
2. In the "wlan0/1 WDS"page, do I need to put the MAC address for each band for the other router as "LAN"? I only set up 5 GHZ as I wanted that to be used as the backhaul. Do I need to set up both addresses in wlan0/wlan1 tabs? I didn't want the communication to go through slower band.
3. As soon as I remove the WDS station from network and reset the wireless settings, everything seem to be back to normal. But that means WDS is not working with A7. I did multiple resets...
4. I was using DD-WRT as the firmware in advance settings. Should that be changed to VANILLA?
5. In the "setup-> advanced routing" what should the "operating mode" be set to for the WDS station? Currently it is set as "Gateway", but I had disabled "connection type" in the main page.
I checked all steps for atheros hardware a few times already and seem to have done everything correctly.
PS: When I put both MAC address in wlan0/wlan1 pages, the speeds slowed down considerably because it may have been going through 2.4 instead of GHZ. I am planning to switch both routers to "VANILLA" to see if that makes any difference
Flash r51288 and rebuild your configuration if necessary, or fall back to r50927 but this should be fixed in r51288.
Advanced settings firmware type should not matter DD-WRT or VANILLA use what is best for local network clients.
Thanks, I will try this next week as I don't want to disrupt anything right now in the network.
Could you confirm if in "basic wiresless" page both 2.4 and 5 GHZ to be set up as "WDS AP" and "WDS Station" on both routers?
also the wlan0/1-WDS - should the mac address be filled in on both? I am a little confused about that part as once I add 2.4G, it seems to slow the network speed. But when I don't add it, it looks like the 2.4G connectivity is lost after sometime.
WDS AP is access point host & WDS Station is client. Choose which radio will be host, set another router as client.
I do not know what you are with trying both radios choose 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz as backhaul so just one or the other.
Let us say I chose 5G as my backhaul, then I will choose "wirelesss mode" for 5G as WDS AP/WDS Station on the routers (and add the mac address of the other router to in wlan1-wds tab for each)
In that case, what should I set the wireless mode for the host and client for 2.4G band? Should that be left as "AP" on both host and client - i.e. no WDS?
When I look at the "wirelss" status page on the main router, I do see mac address for both bands appearing as wlanx.staxx though I am only using one for the backhaul.
Correct set 2.4 as AP. It has nothing to do with your wds.
Or disable if you like
Thanks @bushant. So does this mean that the 2.4g signal will be only from the main router (if 2.4g is turned off) or I need to have 2 different SSIDs for 2.4g (as I am assuming when 2.4g of the router acting as WDS station is set to "AP", it should use different SSID than the main one)? My network has a separate SSID for each band now(for easily configuring iot devices etc. in 2.4g). I don't want to add more in 2.4g as it appears to be very crowded.
My guest network is on 5G. I am assuming that will be automatically extended with 5g backhaul (the furthest room where I am trying to get wifi to is used as guest room).
I also noticed "802.11r (FT) Support" in the "wireless security" tab. Does this help with roaming across wireless node? As of now, it is disabled.
One more question - on the main router, for guest network, I set AP isolation and a separate ipaddress range. Can that be replicated on the WDS station since DHCP/dnsmasq are turned off? Or can it still manage as long as I give it a range outside the existing ranges?
Can someone here please advise me on my setup.
I have a rectangular house with ethernet at both ends.
At one end I have an EA8500 used as a Gateway, connected to the internet.
At the other end I have a second EA8500 currently set up as an AP, with DHCP/NAT disabled.
All my devices are assigned static leases.
Wifi security is WPA2+WPA3 on both routers.
They both use the same SSID + password, but different channel numbers.
Thus I can move devices from one end of the house to the other, with some switching over to the strongest signal on their own and others needing a disconnect/reconnect.
Should I be using AP mode for wifi as I am now, or change to AP WDS or AP Mesh? _________________ ------------------------------------
Netgear XR500 OpenWrt-23.05.3 (Gateway)
Linksys EA8500 OpenWrt-23.05.3 (Wired AP)
Linksys WRT3200ACM DD-WRT r55819 (spare Wired AP)
Netgear WNDR3700v4 DD-WRT r55779 (spare Gateway)
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickant44/albums
@nickant, I would think wired backhaul and using as an AP will be better than WDS as WDS may reduce the available bandwidth to half for the wireless backhaul.
I am having some issues with setting the guest network to work. I am wondering if I need to eliminate the separate ip range and net isolation to add it correctly to WDS station
[quote="mark74"]@nickant, I would think wired backhaul and using as an AP will be better than WDS as WDS may reduce the available bandwidth to half for the wireless backhaul.
/quote]
Ill leave them both as AP - thanks Mark. _________________ ------------------------------------
Netgear XR500 OpenWrt-23.05.3 (Gateway)
Linksys EA8500 OpenWrt-23.05.3 (Wired AP)
Linksys WRT3200ACM DD-WRT r55819 (spare Wired AP)
Netgear WNDR3700v4 DD-WRT r55779 (spare Gateway)
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickant44/albums
I think I figured out the WDS set up and defined additional APs with matching SSIDs on the client network for my 5GHZ as well as the guest network. Coverage has significantly improved, but the speeds are really bad. I get 5 Mbps instead of 100Mbps most of the time.
I was setting wireless mode to "mixed" on my 5GHz channel when it had slow speeds. If I switch the mode to "AC/N only", I get better speeds, but then none of the google home/nest hub devices will connect to wifi (as well as some smart TVs). All these devices are 5GHz N/AC capable devices, somehow they don't seem to work with DD-WRT routers running AC/N mode. I am running latest version of DD-WRT on both WDS AP and station.
If the speeds are so slow, I may have to look for other options that will play well with common iot devices.
Have you tried Vanilla Firmware Type instead of dd-wrt type?
(it's in Wireless - Basic Settings - Advanced)
I've also found some 5GHz channels over 64 are not correctly recognized in AC/N Mixed mode.
Some experimentation needed. _________________ ------------------------------------
Netgear XR500 OpenWrt-23.05.3 (Gateway)
Linksys EA8500 OpenWrt-23.05.3 (Wired AP)
Linksys WRT3200ACM DD-WRT r55819 (spare Wired AP)
Netgear WNDR3700v4 DD-WRT r55779 (spare Gateway)
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickant44/albums
