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wireless bridge that can mix with other vendors 1
- Thread starter wfbtr
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I have a linksys work well with an older Cisco 340. It's been in place for over 4 months now and has not given one lick of trouble.
MikeS
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"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu
MikeS
Find me at
"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu
- Thread starter
- #3
No... we mixed Cisco, Muru and Symbol APs all the time for laptop connectivity and VoIP phones we carried around.
802.11 is 802.11 and if the vendor adhered to the standard, the devices will interconnect. Now, with Linksys and their "speed widget" feature.. that is not part of the standard protocol so yes, Linksys to Linsys if you use that feature. That is true with any vendor.
The bigger problem you will run into the quality of the code running the device. The cheapo consumer grade APs are just that.. cheap and for good reason. The code is questionable as is the hardware at times. Witness how many times people have to reset their Brand C access point over the period of a week for it to keep working. My 340s have been up in a few cases over 600 days without a restart. The 350s seem to work just as well. And the Symbols while not as "sexy" as the Cisco work as well but with a klunkier interface.
I am told (but I have not tested) that the Linksys AP/Router loaded with one of the tweaked linux kernels is hot stuff and that in reality the hardware is not bad if given good code.
This is just my opinions based on what I have personally seen. Others will have differing opinions
MikeS
Find me at
"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu
802.11 is 802.11 and if the vendor adhered to the standard, the devices will interconnect. Now, with Linksys and their "speed widget" feature.. that is not part of the standard protocol so yes, Linksys to Linsys if you use that feature. That is true with any vendor.
The bigger problem you will run into the quality of the code running the device. The cheapo consumer grade APs are just that.. cheap and for good reason. The code is questionable as is the hardware at times. Witness how many times people have to reset their Brand C access point over the period of a week for it to keep working. My 340s have been up in a few cases over 600 days without a restart. The 350s seem to work just as well. And the Symbols while not as "sexy" as the Cisco work as well but with a klunkier interface.
I am told (but I have not tested) that the Linksys AP/Router loaded with one of the tweaked linux kernels is hot stuff and that in reality the hardware is not bad if given good code.
This is just my opinions based on what I have personally seen. Others will have differing opinions
MikeS
Find me at
"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu
- Thread starter
- #5
Sorry to hijack, but this is exactly along the lines of what I was going to ask myself. Can you give a little insight as to how to accomplish this?
I have a Ciscco 350 as the primary "hotspot" and I wanted to "extended" its reach by using linksys WRT54G at the other end of my building.
Can you point me to where I can find specifics of setting this up or explain?
Thank you very much!
I have a Ciscco 350 as the primary "hotspot" and I wanted to "extended" its reach by using linksys WRT54G at the other end of my building.
Can you point me to where I can find specifics of setting this up or explain?
Thank you very much!
The 350 has 100mW of power which is a considerable amount. You would be better served I think by investing in either a pair of diapole antennas with 8db of gain or more or better yet, a "patch" style of antenna that would let you focus the RF better for more range.
Are you looking for contious coverage from AP1 to AP2? or just to extend the wireless link to the end of the building?
When you start adding APs, you have 3 channels to play with.
1,6 and 11.
So AP 1 would be channel 1 and the nearest next AP(2) might be channel 6. Both tie into the network backbone some how and the user on the wireless node would "hand off" from one AP to the other and switch channels. This happens in the background without user intervention.
There are alternative wireless units like the Muru that keeps all the smarts in a "head" unit and flips frequencies on the APs as needed. THere is not any configuration needed since there is not any worries about adjacent channel interfence or overlapping channels.
MikeS
Find me at
"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu
Are you looking for contious coverage from AP1 to AP2? or just to extend the wireless link to the end of the building?
When you start adding APs, you have 3 channels to play with.
1,6 and 11.
So AP 1 would be channel 1 and the nearest next AP(2) might be channel 6. Both tie into the network backbone some how and the user on the wireless node would "hand off" from one AP to the other and switch channels. This happens in the background without user intervention.
There are alternative wireless units like the Muru that keeps all the smarts in a "head" unit and flips frequencies on the APs as needed. THere is not any configuration needed since there is not any worries about adjacent channel interfence or overlapping channels.
MikeS
Find me at
"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu
Thank you for your reply! Yes, I am looking for continuous coverage if possible. What I did in playing around with this setup is give the Linksys a specific IP versus its default. On its advanced routing, I gave it the Gateway IP for my network and set it on our subnet. I also gave it the same SSID as the Aironet and i used the same security keys and encryption method used by the Aironet. I plugged into Port 1 of the Linksys from an available port on my network's switch.
It appears to work and it seems like clients connect to whichever they are closest to seamlessly. HOWEVER, i do not know how to verify this other than turing one or the other off and testing the ranges.
LOL, was all this necessary on the Linksys? I am wondering if i just left it with its default settings but matched the SSID and keys, if it would have worked the same regardless.
It appears to work and it seems like clients connect to whichever they are closest to seamlessly. HOWEVER, i do not know how to verify this other than turing one or the other off and testing the ranges.
LOL, was all this necessary on the Linksys? I am wondering if i just left it with its default settings but matched the SSID and keys, if it would have worked the same regardless.
blupuddleboss
ISP
how would you connect 400-500 buildings via access points / repeaters .... not sure myself..
One other note: the original question was about bridging, not about additonal Access Points.
The answer to a point-to-point bridge using Access Points is that it is not defined under the 802.11x standard, and all solutions are essentially proprietary.
In other words, you can easily mix different manufacturer's equipment as Access Points nowadays, but a wireless bridge will almost assuredly require equipment from the same vendor.
The answer to a point-to-point bridge using Access Points is that it is not defined under the 802.11x standard, and all solutions are essentially proprietary.
In other words, you can easily mix different manufacturer's equipment as Access Points nowadays, but a wireless bridge will almost assuredly require equipment from the same vendor.
Sorry, one last point I forget to mention above. Several vendors offer a wireless-to-ethernet bridge device. Linksys, for example, has the WET11 and WET54 product, and other vendors offer the equivalent (sometimes labelled as Game Adapters for X-Box appliances).
In any case, these serve a useful role in allowing you to take an AP from one Vendor, and with the wireless-to-ethernet bridging device, create a point-to-point wireless bridge with normally incompatible equipment.
In any case, these serve a useful role in allowing you to take an AP from one Vendor, and with the wireless-to-ethernet bridging device, create a point-to-point wireless bridge with normally incompatible equipment.
blupuddleboss
ISP
well, its a community, 7sqkm to cover with a wireless internet connection, offering broadband and phone services through a voip network ... most of the 400-500 buildings are duplexes... so 900 homes or so to offer, each username/password is cheap and the service won't be cruddy like other ones.
What do you think ? what technologies are needed for this to be accomplished?!
What do you think ? what technologies are needed for this to be accomplished?!
The best WISP forum I know of:
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