Making use of 2 (or more) wireless APs in home?

rpeters83

rpeters83

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Jan 11, 2009
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I have a couple wireless G access points that I can use. Three really, but I wanted to see if I could make proper use of 2 - one upstairs and one downstairs in my house. WRT610N is upstairs, a WRT54G is downstairs.

Using these, is it possible to configure the SSIDs and/or my clients to transition between these seamlessly? Either by using the same SSID for both or just having both the APs configured for my client machines? Thanks.
 
Depending on who makes them and how high end they are, most consumer grade AP's have roaming capabilities built in. In theory, as long as the SSID's are the same, roaming will kick in automatically, but being different models, consumer grade, it may not be as magical as you will like.
 
Note just same SSID. Exactly the same security settings too. I know that should be obvious...

Also, to help make sure you don't damage your coverage rather than help it, turn off whatever automatic channel selection the APs have and set them manually using channels that don't overlap (1, 6, 11). Unless you have close neighbors who might already be using 1, 6 or 11: if you are just using two APs, set one to channel 1, the other to channel 11. If you are using all three, set the third one to channel 6. That way you limit interference. Sniff it first though - if there is already strong signal on one of these channels then use the other two.
 
Both are Linksys routers, though models are different. They currently have the same settings, aside from the SSID (which I can change). The channels are non-overlapping as well.
 
I wonder if there is any software that can be run or used to create a mesh network.
 
PigLover said:
Note just same SSID. Exactly the same security settings too. I know that should be obvious...

Also, to help make sure you don't damage your coverage rather than help it, turn off whatever automatic channel selection the APs have and set them manually using channels that don't overlap (1, 6, 11). Unless you have close neighbors who might already be using 1, 6 or 11: if you are just using two APs, set one to channel 1, the other to channel 11. If you are using all three, set the third one to channel 6. That way you limit interference. Sniff it first though - if there is already strong signal on one of these channels then use the other two.
Click to expand...

im not sure this would work good with out dropping the connection for a moment, wouldent each router have it's own ip address ? When you switched to a different router you would get a different one? Unless you had some kinda other firewall running these AP devices, and cloned a ip address to your wireless card mac address so you got the same ip address where ever you were. ?
 
To do roaming the right way, you need to have a centralized architecture where the core knows who is connected at what AP and what state they are in. When a client connected to AP A moves to AP B, the client only has to authenticate to AP B. After authenticated, AP B knows that the client is already associated and immediately lets the client fully connect and the client doesn't have to re DHCP. This is similar to what Cisco and others offer with their managed solutions.

In a home solution, the best you can do is set the SSIDs to be the same on different overlapping channels (1,6,11). Then, it's all up to your drivers to do the hard work and choose when to roam and to what AP. Even in a managed solution, most of the roaming is left up to the decision of the client device.
 
dashpuppy said:
im not sure this would work good with out dropping the connection for a moment, wouldent each router have it's own ip address ? When you switched to a different router you would get a different one? Unless you had some kinda other firewall running these AP devices, and cloned a ip address to your wireless card mac address so you got the same ip address where ever you were. ?
Click to expand...

You might lose a packet or two due to stale ARP data, but these are layer 2 devices, their IP address doesn't matter. As long as they're connected to the same network segment it will be pretty much completely seamless.
 
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