[msignor]

Hey guys,

I have for a long time had the intention of adding a second AP and using WDS so that I could cover my upstairs with wifi.. I have CAT-5 drops throughout the house so this made the most sense. My main router is in the basement (3 floor townhouse) and I get barely any signal in my room.

However, I came upon some recent reading regarding WDS and the Linksys e3000 .... it appears that there are some issues with actually getting it to work at all.

I have read the reports of some people, but they had to use regular WPA instead of WPA2, which the guys here have deemed necessary for full throughput of N wireless.

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So I did some more research and I got the impression that I don't even need WDS.. I can simply have both AP's, and the secondary AP be configured for no routing, dhcp forward etc, and if it's the same SSID with a different channel assigned.. I should be able to roam freely???

I was under the impression that I needed WDS since a client would need to re-negotiate with each AP since the channels are different from one to another (hence the need for wds). If the client did not re-negotiate the link automatically it would just stop working until you re-connected manually.

I am pretty sure that WDS is still the answer since I would like to have two separate AP's (each with their own LAN connection) and not a repeater, bridge, etc.

Any comments are appreciated. (BTW: I have played with power settings in the past and burned out way too many cards. I prefer to do this properly with the right hardware and setup)

Thanks!

-Matt

[jrronimo]

If you have Ethernet drops for each access point, then you don't need WDS. Each AP should be set up as a bridge to your network -- connecting to your AP connects you to the rest of your network. (and, presumably, the network's 'main' DHCP server -- probably a cable or DSL modem).

My understanding from when I used WDS is that WDS accomplishes a similar task to having a second router act as a repeater, it just handles it in a different fashion: it creates a bridge between two APs to extend the range of wireless coverage. WDS was a minor pain to get it up and running, but once it was I didn't have any problems.

Having the house wired up makes things much simpler. :)

tl;dr: Set each AP to bridge mode and connect them to your extant network.

Oh, and yes: Set them to the same SSID and different channels. Ideally your client (computer/iPhone/etc) will pick the AP with the strongest signal.

[msignor]

Thanks for that reply. I guess you are right and just setting the other AP up as an AP is just the best route to go -- for simplicity sake.

I guess I was being a little picky with the prospect of being able to use a wifi VoIP phone throughout the house and not have the call drop when going from one AP to another.

Actually, I think the main thing about WDS is that it provides a means for the AP's to pass ARP (MAC) information between each other so that a client does not really need to "re-associate" at all.