Wireless AP Repeater/AP Modes

ericthompson

I am doing a network with a central DHCP router, containing 2 WAP200G's as access points, wired back to the router. It will have a third and fourth WAP200G in repeater mode providing a double hop to give greater range in a specific direction. I was just reading a page on Tom's hardware about AP's and repeating. He mentions to make sure that each AP is on the same channel. Isn't each AP supposed to be on a different channel to maximize bandwidth?

With the NXA-WAP200G, in repeater mode it has to be on the same channel. Is that correct? Does the AP in repeater mode or AP mode have to have the same SSID? If yes, how can you tell which AP you are connected to?

DHawthorne

In repeater mode, you use the same channel and SSID. As I understand it (and I confess, it is not an area of expertise) they will then act like a single WAP. They all listen for each other, and repeat what they hear, and handle duplicate packets internally so they aren't passed on to a connected device. I asked someone at AMX tech support about this, and they said my understanding was correct, but the tech was sufficiencly enough lacking in confidence, that I do wonder about it. If you have a utility that tells you the MAC of your connection WAP, I suppose that would be the only way to know which you were actually getting signal from.

I only tried repeater mode once with a set of AMX WAP's, and it proved to be unuseable in that application. All my panels were continuously disconnecting and reconnecting; probably switching on and off the various WAP's in range. I thought I was setting it up exactly as documented, but clearly there was an issue and I had to get it working fast so I ditched the approach and just used seperate SSID's and channels.

wcravenel

All above is my experience also, I have had trouble with MVPs hopping - only because I have come to expect them to be online always, I think - I set WAPs for the primary room for that TP, set a different channel and set up prioritized profiles on client laptops, and tell clients what their guests need to do.

This also prevents an even more frustrating problem with TPs - connecting to the room on the other side of the house by accident, with a really flaky signal - just tell the TP to go to a specific MAC for the AP. If it is down, get it fixed, don't rely on signal 100 feet away.

Bill

ericthompson

WAP can't directly to router or DHCP server

Okay, I think I have a better hold on this, but please enter any other opinions. I was trying to figure out how a WAP in repeater mode would speak to the router (Linksys) or any other DHCP server for that matter. It seems that in order to do a double hop in theory, there must at least be one WAP hardwired to the DHCP server and/or router (with built-in DHCP). Then and only then could you tie the MAC addresses from one WAP to another in order to chain them. This is because even if you enter the MAC address of the DHCP server/router, the WAP has no communication protocols to do it.

Now I have heard of a WDS service being incorporated into many routers including Linksys. So a) am I right so far with the above conclusion? and b) would the WDS system in a router be able to talk to the WAP's?

NMarkRoberts

Avoid wireless repeating if you can

If you can possibly avoid it, unless you have considerable expertise in this area, I suggest you avoid using a wireless repeater. I do not have that expertise and with due respect to the folk I was recently working with, neither did they.

The job was a nightmare because panels just kept losing contact for minutes or days, the client would press buttons at random, random things would then happen, and it always looked like a software fault. I went back onsite three times and never did find any significant software bugs, but my colleagues progressively simplified all of the clever wireless stuff until it stopped playing up. I think the last thing they did was change from 192.168.x.x to something else entirely, after a suggestion that neighbouring wireless nets with the same address range would fight with it. Sounds dodgy to me but no calls since.

(This was also the job where I kept telling the local AMX distributors that sometimes I would press a button on an MVP8400 and an entirely different button would react. They probably thought I was losing my marbles. Guess what, 6 months later out came a firmware patch to fix it.)

Joe

It is my understanding (not an expert here) that WDS needs to be incorporated in both units. I've tried using my WAP200 as a repeater, but my NetGear router does not have WDS, so the units will not communicate wirelessly. The whole idea of using a repeater is having an access point in an area where it would be difficult to run an network cable. If you can wire the access point to the system, then just use the same SSID and different channels.