How to join two 802.11g access points?

Tregarth:
>I've tried sharing the Internet connection by WDS on the Airport card
>in the G5 and setting up WDS on the Express Base Station.

WDS is exactly the way to accomplish what you are trying to do.
But the two devices that need to be communicating via WDS are
the access point and the Airport Express. I don't know the status
of WDS as a standard that (in theory) works between equipment of
different vendors, but I have never gotten the scenario you de-
scribe to work except between two pieces of Apple equipment. In
other words, while Netgear may claim to support WDS (don't know
this for a fact), it may not be sufficiently compatible with
Apple's implementation of WDS.

-- KDawson

I don't know the answer - but I'd love to know it if someone else
does. I'm going to be soon somewhere where there is a Linksys
Wireless network, and its fairly weak, but I own an Airport Extreme
(and an old Airport) and I'd love to be able to use those as relays or
repeaters or something to get a better connection set up. Wasn't sure
if it was possible though.
W


--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-
          Wendy Faulkner
 Microsoft broke Volkswagen's world record:
 VW made only 21,529,464 bugs.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

On 14 Apr 2006, at 11:37 PM, Wendy Faulkner wrote:

> I don't know the answer - but I'd love to know it if someone else
> does. I'm going to be soon somewhere where there is a Linksys
> Wireless network, and its fairly weak, but I own an Airport Extreme
> (and an old Airport) and I'd love to be able to use those as relays or
> repeaters or something to get a better connection set up. Wasn't sure
> if it was possible though.

I have an Airport Express joined to a Linksys WRT54G v3 running DD-
WRT firmware via WDS. It works great for me; I didn't want to install
cabling up to my second floor.

<http://www.dd-wrt.com/>

--
Darwin Magno, PE

I have a Linksys access point (WAP54G) that defines my wireless network
and five Airport Express base stations whose wireless mode is set to
"Join an Existing Wireless Network (Wireless Client)". I have my SSID
broadcast disabled and I lock it down by only allowing approved MAC
addresses. The MAC address from each of the AE's is listed on the
Linksys as approved. There is nothing special as it relates to WDS
that has to be done to my wireless cards, be they in my XP laptop or
PowerBook.

Before I even purchased the the first AE, I contacted Linksys and they
told me that my access point supported WDS, but that I had to rev the
firmware. Strangely enough, there is nothing in Linksys documentation,
nor visible on the Linksys management interface that indicates support
for WDS and there was, therefore, nothing special that needed to be
done to it in terms of configuration (Other than the security
precautions mentioned above).

So I think the moral of my story is this: Contact NetGear and see if
your access point will support WDS.

Hope this helps,

James

On 16 Apr 2006, at 23:19 , James White wrote:
> I have my SSID broadcast disabled and I lock it down by only
> allowing approved MAC addresses.

Just so you know, this is about as 'locked down' as your typical
luggage lock after TSA has searched your bags...

--
Today the road all runners come/Shoulder high we bring you home.
And set you at your threshold down/Townsman of a stiller town.

>> I have my SSID broadcast disabled and I lock it down by only allowing
>> approved MAC addresses.
>
> Just so you know, this is about as 'locked down' as your typical
> luggage lock after TSA has searched your bags...

I was almost going to point that out in my original response knowing
that no one misses a thing on this list. What can I say- it was easy
and there are plenty of Windows decoys on my network that they can have
fun with if they wish... all right, the guilt is killing me- I'll lock
it down the rest of the way. :o)

On 19 Apr 2006, at 14:46 , James White wrote:
>>> I have my SSID broadcast disabled and I lock it down by only
>>> allowing
>>> approved MAC addresses.
>>
>> Just so you know, this is about as 'locked down' as your typical
>> luggage lock after TSA has searched your bags...
>
> I was almost going to point that out in my original response knowing
> that no one misses a thing on this list. What can I say- it was easy
> and there are plenty of Windows decoys on my network that they can
> have
> fun with if they wish... all right, the guilt is killing me- I'll lock
> it down the rest of the way. :o)

But it's WIFI, you CAN'T lock it down. You can stick luggage locks
on it, but that's about all.

You can put your wifi outside your LAN and then use ssh tunnels or
VPN to get in if you want it secure. Or you can just leave the wifi
wide open like I do and rely on the security of your OSes.

--
I draw the line at 7 unreturned phone calls.

On Apr 12, 2006, at 12:54 AM, Ray wrote:

> Basically I'm trying to take a wired Internet connection downstairs
> and a wired computer upstairs and connect them wirelessly in the
> middle. I think I'm trying to bridge two networks.

Actually, I've been thinking there may be another way to look at this
problem. The iMac G5 with an internal Airport card can connect
wirelessly to the Internet via the NetGear Wireless Router. All I
really need to do is use the Airport Express upstairs to connect both
to the iMac G4 via Ethernet and wirelessly to the Router as if it
were an internal Airport card. Is this considered setting up the
Airport Express as an Access Point? Do I need to spoof the MAC
address of the G4 on the Airport Express? Or do I need to do
something else altogether? It seems to me that I should be able to
configure this to work if I only knew how I should do so.

-Ray

Ray asked...

>Actually, I've been thinking there may be another way to look at this
>problem. The iMac G5 with an internal Airport card can connect
>wirelessly to the Internet via the NetGear Wireless Router. All I
>really need to do is use the Airport Express upstairs to connect both
>to the iMac G4 via Ethernet and wirelessly to the Router as if it
>were an internal Airport card. Is this considered setting up the
>Airport Express as an Access Point? Do I need to spoof the MAC
>address of the G4 on the Airport Express? Or do I need to do
>something else altogether? It seems to me that I should be able to
>configure this to work if I only knew how I should do so.

I know for a fact that an Airport Express can be used as a bridge between
an AirPort Extreme base station or an AirPort Express being used as
a base station. I have a CRT iMac rev C and I have it connected via
Ethernet to an AirPort Express which is connected wirelessly to another
Express two rooms away. The latter is connected to a cable modem.
The iMac has full Internet access through this connection.

This configuration can be set up using the the AirPort Express assistant
software which is supposed to be in your Tiger utilities and its easier
than the regular AirPort administration software. I took my
units down to the genius bar, told them what I wanted and they were
configured in less than 15 minutes.

The problem is that I think this trick only works with the AirPort
Extreme base station or the AirPort Express. Still, it's worth trying
the setup software to see if you can get your Express to bridge to
the Netgear equipment.

It's a neat way to extend wireless capabilities to Ethernet computers
regardless of manufacturer and not able to accommodate wireless cards.
Incidentally, I tried wireless equipment from various other manufacturers
in my attempts before I slapped my forehead and bought a couple
of Airport Express units. The previous equipment were various other
game and wireless adapters which were reported here in the past but
they didn't work for me and all returned to Frys.

- Hank

<from the original poster>

> I've tried sharing the Internet connection by WDS on the AirPort card
> in the G5 and setting up WDS on the Express Base Station.

This should work, in theory, although the iMac G5 would need to be
switched on, for the iMac G4 to be able to surf.

Otherwise, you need a:

1. Long cable from downstairs to upstairs; or
2. A second WDS capable wireless access point downstairs; e.g. a
AirPort Express or Extreme base station, then connect both wireless
points via WDS; or
3. An AirPort card for the iMac G4; or
4. A wireless bridge attached to the iMac G4's Ethernet port. e.g. the
ASUS WL-330g. This worked when I wanted to attach an XBox to my
wireless network. No drivers needed, so OS-independent (at least after
initial configuration). This does not need WDS.