On 21 Dec 2006 12:54:49 -0800, "dave" <bonanzaman@gmail.com> wrote:

>Is there a good non-WDS repeater out there?

No. I think they all suck.

>I tried to add a Dlink DWL-800AP+ to an Ambit 60740EUW wireless cable
>router with WEP and it didn't work at all.
>Not sure what the problem was, but it worked with a linksys
>non-encripted AP.
>
>Any suggestions?

I just left todays nightmare installation. Local hotel that has a
fairly large "campus". The underground conduit got flooded by the
rain, soaking the CAT5, and taking out the wired part of the network.
So, someone installed a Linksys WRE54G which actually worked quite for
for some (not all) users. The problem was only for users that could
see both the repeater and the connected access point. Users that
could only see the repeater worked just fine with tolerable thruput.
Some creative antenna juggling got most of the users working.

Then came the next problem. The QoS setup in the router had a rule
set for the repeater. The result was that the total traffic for the
repeater was configured for the same as a single user. The result was
terrible thruput through the repeater. I didn't get to fix this
because the dingbat that setup the repeater also changed the AP
password and immediately left town for vacation. Next week, maybe.

Bottom line: I've never seen a store and forward repeater (including
WDS and mesh networks) that work for all clients and under all
conditions. Be prepared to do some tinkering. The only ones I've
been able to make work reliably are with two radios back to back. One
acts as an access point on perhaps channel 1. The other is a client
ethernet bridge on Channel 1 and with a different SSID as the
connected access point. CAT5 cable between them. Users can select
whether they connect to either the main AP or the aformentioned AP.
Ugly, messy, complex, expensive, but it works.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS