"bridge"

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

"PhoTonic Electron" <photonic@photonic.org> wrote in
news:ccrcq6$onr$1@orkan.itea.ntnu.no:

> Is it possible to "link" two wireless accesspoints where one is
> connected to WAN and the other connects the LAN to the WAN (which
> is only available on the first accesspoint) through the wireless.
>
> Its like this; I have my wireless accesspoint 2.floor and have
> most of my computers in the basement. I want to set up a wireless
> accesspoint in my basement which routes the wireless trafikk
> between my wired computers. I have a 3com accesspoint in my
> basement at my disposal.

The arrangement you are describing is a wireless bridge. This usually
requires a mating pair of access points from the same manufacturer,
configured in wireless bridge mode. In this mode the wireless
connection will effectively act as a 'virtual cable' connecting two
network segments together.

It's not clear from your post whether the kit that you have is
suitable for this, nor whether given the locations (2nd floor +
basement) the signal will be strong enough.

Certainly a bridge will do what you ask in your post, but there are
other alternatives depending on your equipment.

If your wireless access point is combined with a router, you may not
want or need to add another access point to it. In that case, what
you need is a wireless access point in the basement configured as a
wireless client, and which can be connected to a switch (note - this
is manufacturer dependent). If you can't find one which allows
connection to a switch (some can't handle multiple MAC addresses)
then connect the wireless client (receiving on one channel) back to
back with an access point (broadcasting on a different channel).

Or use an access point configured as a repeater to strengthen the
signal to the access point in the basement. This mode has the
disadvantage of reducing throughput since the repeater generally has
only one radio and must receive and retransmit on the same channel.

Hope this helps

--

Richard Perkin
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