Re: Airport Extreme Base Station & Linksys WRT54GL

cbermudez11 <cbermudez11.32a84b@no-mx.wirelessforums.org> hath wroth:

>I have a few MacBook Pro's and some older MacBooks all using the Linksys
>at the slower speed (the Pro's).
>
>I brought home from the office the AirPort Extreme Base Station to use
>the faster speed on the pro's, since the distance on the extreme is
>limited, I want to hook both the linksys & Extreme up so you can travel
>through the house and when you lose the Extreme's n speed you can get
>the slower linksys. Is this possible?

Probably not. To do "seamless roaming", you would need both wireless
access points running the same SSID. They can also be on the same RF
channel, but it will probably be better to have them on different
non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11) so that they don't interfere with
each other.

The problem is that many access points hang onto a connection and
never let go. You have to have the carrier literally disappear for
some long period of time, before the access point will drop the
connection so that you can re-connect with the other access point.

The plan is to have 802.11r:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11r>
do "fast handoff" in order to be able to move from access point to
access point without dropping the connection or having to obtain a new
IP address. 802.11f does some of this, but not really fast enough to
maintain a VoIP call or a VPN tunnel.

The Airport Extreme Base apparently supports some manner of roaming,
but I've never tried it:
<http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-4001.html>
In any case, it will require a 2nd Aiprort Extreme Base, and probably
will NOT work with your Linksys WRT54GL.

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