Recently I have been having all sorts of fun with
WDS, the Wireless Distribution System. Basically it is a method of linking two (or more) wireless access points together wirelessly and allowing them to share the same network (or internet connection). This means that you can have a network with strong signal, without needing ethernet cable to be run around the house...true wireless bliss!
Unfortunately, as I have come to realise...WDS is like WiFi was in it's early days; a complete pain in the ass! WDS is a little different on every device that comes with it, this means setting one up with two devices made by different people can be a nightmare. This is mainly because the devices are usually rather cryptic in terms of what needs to be done to get it working. Im sure it is probably explained very well in the manual...but seriously, what techie R(s)TFM?
My previous experience was with an
apple airport network. With airports you simply goto the admin console on the main base station and select the remote stations you want to connect...then it goes of and reconfigures them all for you, great stuff! Almost idiot proof, although I still vaguely recall breaking a wireless network for an hour or so the first time I did it...
So, setting up my home wireless network which consists of a couple of belkin's, a thompson router and a single airport express wouldn't be so bad I thought...bleugh, was I wrong!
After many hours of screwing around in various admin pages, loosing connectivity, reseting and finally factory reseting, I have come up with a bunch of things which anyone setting up a WDS network (especially with the Belkin routers) should know.
- Firstly, most obviously, write down the mac addresses for all the routers you are dealing with. These are the addresses which look like 00:11:F4:4E:22:A2, they identify the device on the network and are needed to tell each device where to find a connection. It is much easier to have them listed in once place than to go off and try to connect to the router every time you need it. They are also normally printed on the router casing itself.
- Most of the time the admin consoles will have a page to connect WDS devices which will ask you to input the mac addresses...remember, they wont configure it for you (like they should), they will simply enable it...there are other hoops that have to be jumped through to actually get it working.
- I found it was usually easiest to connect a laptop to the device directly, with a cable, I tried configuring wirelessly but got into all sorts of problems connecting after changing some values...I think it thought I was trying to hack it!
- The wireless network itself must:
- be on the same channel - it took me a looong time to realise this, also 11g apparently prefers channel 1, 6 or 11 (I can't remember where I read this, or whether it is true or not). Try not to choose a channel which every other router in the area is using...like 11.
- have the same security - I would advise starting with no security, then WEP, then WPA...get it working first, then work on points for style. Of course you can leave it open if you don't mind some techie-hobo using your connection for a bit, or if you want to get out of a filesharing legal case (make sure your computers are locked down though)
- have the same password - make sure it is always encoded the same too, '11111' in ascii is different from '11111' in hex. On an apple device, use "'s to show it is ascii or a $ in-front to show it is hex...most other devices have a dropdown.
- use 802.11g only - WDS will only work on the 11g standard...most routers default settings are using 11b & 11g. They wont reconfigure themselves after you enable WDS, or tell you that it needs to be done, they just wont work.
- use the same wireless name (SSID) - you don't have to call them the same thing, although if you want to be able to walk around the house with a laptop, seamlessly connecting to the strongest signal...you do!
- I found it was possible to connect the routers to two or more others at the same time, meaning a mesh network could be put together. Really good if you have people in the house who like unplugging or turning things off, however it did seem to increase the ping times by quite a bit for me.
- Finally, once it is setup be prepared for it to break at any given opportunity. Some of the admin consoles will even delete all of the details you put into the WDS section if you change other details in the system (argh!), thats when the mac addresses you noted earlier come in useful. Most devices come with a settings-backup feature too, this might not be a bad use of five minutes.
This is the information that I wish I had read about three weeks ago...
I am hoping that this info becomes obsolete soon, wireless mesh networks are pretty handy when they work right but the setup really isn't for the feint hearted.
As with many things, the technology is here...we just aren't sure how to best present it yet.
