"ps56k" <pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote in message
news:h_Trl.11816$hc1.10989@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com...
> As I was in our local library and discovered some kind of anomoly with
> their setup,
> which is discussed in another thread...
>
> I was thinking about options to setup the SSID for the WiFi in the
> library.
> They currently have what appears to be several 3com WAPs
> that each has a "public" and a WEP enabled "secure" side.
> Each has it's own SSID and appear to have their own MACs.
>
> Anyway - thoughts on having all 4 WAPs use the same SSID - XYZ ?
> vs specific to an area XYZ1, XYZ2,
> or XYZ-1st, XYZ-2nd, XYZ-meeting, XYZ-youth, etc
>
> Since there is no real "roaming" or mobile devices, I could go either way.
> My problem with the common SSID, is that when a problem happens,
> I don't know which access point (from my laptop view) is having a problem
> or issue,
> and I can't tell if the 1st floor is weird and I'm trying to connect to
> the weaker 2nd floor or what...
Well.. I have my house completetly blanketed in 802.11a for my WLAN, which
required a number of AP's.
When I originally put it all together, I played with repeater and WDS modes,
but couldn't settle on either because they cut your pipe and are nasty
(collisions) in the air. My intended traffic wasn't just internet, but
heavy LAN traffic.
Repeater mode is just that. Every AP in repeater mode repeats everything.
So, even though you are only connected to one AP, all the other AP's in
repeater mode are also throwing your traffic (garbage in, garbage out) into
the air. If all I wanted to do was pass internet traffic, doing the
repeater thing would have been "good enough" though. Its simple, but ugly
and nasty.
WDS mode is more intelligent, as it is distributed, but it too cuts your
pipe severely because the radios have to transmit/receive to each other in
addition to the connected clients.
What I ended up doing was connecting a wireless-ethernet bridge (client) to
each AP. Basically, you are adding another radio so the AP's radio only has
to take care of connected client(s). Keeps the pipe completetly intact. It
did add quite a bit of extra cost, but was well worth it.
All my 802.11a AP's (with their bridges) have the same SSID, but are well
seperated on different frequencies. They are basically "stand alone" AP's,
which happen to have the same SSID.
As for the connected clients, they will automatically transfer to whatever
AP is stronger (nearly) seamlessly. I.e., if I carry a laptop from one
floor to another, it will transfer from one AP to another. Most of the
time, it is seamless. When it isn't seamless, there is only like one
second with no connectivity. Even then, it doesn't have to redo DHCP.
I use (almost) all DLink hardware, so I can't comment on whether Linksys or
the others behave the same way.
As for knowing what AP I'm on, DLink's client software easily displays that.
All AP's are listed by name, strength, channel, MAC, encryption type, etc...
Its gives much more info that Window's WZC (or whatever its called)...
SSID - use one common vs area specifc ID's 
Linear Mode
