WiFi Access point setup.

C

CA195

Active Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
33
Reaction score
2
Location
Edgemead
A little help please. I have three wireless access points positioned around the house and they give me good coverage. At present each AP has its own SSID and Key. As you move around the house your phone/tablet/notebook will automatically track the one with the strongest signal but this means the phone has to switch from one account to the other. My question is, can I set all three AP's to the same SSID and Key and by doing so the wifi device only has to track one account as you move around. I was recently in a library where they have two ceiling mounted AP's and I found that as I moved away from the one AP the signal level started to drop and as I reached a certain point it started to climb again and reached max when I got to the second AP. The SSID of the connected account did however not change which leads me to believe that they have the same SSID and Key set on both AP's

Sorry guys, this should have been under WiFi and Wisp and I don't know how to move it.
 
Last edited:
You can try this:

1. Setup one access point
2. Setup the other AP's as repeaters.

Works perfectly at our office with Tp-Link Access Points.
 
CA195 said:
A little help please. I have three wireless access points positioned around the house and they give me good coverage. At present each AP has its own SSID and Key. As you move around the house your phone/tablet/notebook will automatically track the one with the strongest signal but this means the phone has to switch from one account to the other. My question is, can I set all three AP's to the same SSID and Key and by doing so the wifi device only has to track one account as you move around. I was recently in a library where they have two ceiling mounted AP's and I found that as I moved away from the one AP the signal level started to drop and as I reached a certain point it started to climb again and reached max when I got to the second AP. The SSID of the connected account did however not change which leads me to believe that they have the same SSID and Key set on both AP's

Sorry guys, this should have been under WiFi and Wisp and I don't know how to move it.
Click to expand...

In short, yes you can - just do it :) One trick is to make sure they're on different channels - try leave 2 channels between the closest ones.

ie. SSIDs all the same, Security settings all exactly the same, only difference should be the channels they're on (try using 1,6 and 11).

To the other poster above; the OPs proposed method is much better than repeating for a couple of reasons, mainly latency and stability.
 
Dean said:
To the other poster above; the OPs proposed method is much better than repeating for a couple of reasons, mainly latency and stability.
Click to expand...

Yes, but wouldn't he still have the connect/disconnect issue between APs?
 
Couple of things to consider:

Where is the DHCP server? Which AP is providing DHCP for the network, and how are you currently avoiding conflicts with IP addresses, if each AP gives out .100 to the first device that asks for it? (I ask to illustrate that what you have currently is probably not ideal or foolproof either.)

Essentially, you need to have a single DHCP server on the network, with each AP connected via ethernet. Each AP should be configured in bridging mode, such that the wireless network and the ethernet network are bridged together as opposed to being in routing mode (where e.g. wireless network gets 192.168.2.x and the wired network gets 192.168.1.x). Then set up the SSIDs and keys to be the same on all AP's, choose different wireless channels for each AP as suggested above, and everything should just work.

One of the AP's can be the DHCP server, just make sure to disable DHCP on the other 2.
 
TheMerch88 said:
Yes, but wouldn't he still have the connect/disconnect issue between APs?
Click to expand...

Nope, same SSID and security settings will allow devices to roam across the network seemlessly, like your mobile phone does with mobile network towers. (At least that's the theory that I'm not sure anyone taught MTN :D )
 
Thank you very much for all the advice and info. I was going to test all the suggestions this past weekend but with visitors and some idiot smashing my car on Friday afternoon, I never got to it. Will post again when I have some results.
 
Was also having this exact issue (non-seamless hand-overs), I ended up giving each AP a different SSID so that I could tell which AP I was connected to. But I didn't try the different channels thing, will see tonight if it makes the hand-overs seamless.
 
The way I would do it: (pretty much as mentioned by RoganDawes and others)

1) Have my ADSL Modem / Router as the DHCP server.
2) Place the AP's in bridge (not router) mode.
3) Give each AP the same SSID
4) Place the AP's on separate channels ie 1,6 and 11 respectively.
5) Avoid wireless repeating and use cable where you can; (your network is only as good as its backbone.)
 
jlct021 said:
The way I would do it: (pretty much as mentioned by RoganDawes and others)

1) Have my ADSL Modem / Router as the DHCP server.
2) Place the AP's in bridge (not router) mode.
3) Give each AP the same SSID
4) Place the AP's on separate channels ie 1,6 and 11 respectively.
5) Avoid wireless repeating and use cable where you can; (your network is only as good as its backbone.)
Click to expand...

Bridge mode? I think you mean put the APs in AP mode :)
 
Did some experimenting last night and turned off the DHCP on the secondary routers. Same SSID and key on all. Works like a charm with seamless hand-overs. Thanks for all the input.
 
I was looking around the Forum and found that this same problem is also being broadly discussed under the "WiFi and WISP" heading.
 
Dean said:
Nope, same SSID and security settings will allow devices to roam across the network seemlessly, like your mobile phone does with mobile network towers. (At least that's the theory that I'm not sure anyone taught MTN :D )
Click to expand...

you sure?

Unless your ap's support 802.1r (fast-roaming) your station will re-authenticate everytime it roams != seamless roaming
 
Silver-0-surfer said:
you sure?

Unless your ap's support 802.1r (fast-roaming) your station will re-authenticate everytime it roams != seamless roaming
Click to expand...

The little research I did also pointed to what you're saying but I decided to give it one last try.

Made sure the security settings were identical, only left one DHCP server enabled, put all APs on different channels (1, 5, 9 and 11), put all routers into AP mode except the main router.

Now my devices seem to be roaming properly :). Tested with an audio and a video call (viber and gtalk) while walking from one end of the house to another and there was no interruption even when the phone switched to other APs, so if seamless hand-over isn't really happening it's still good enough for me.
 
Hi There,
As has been documented. Connect using cable wherever possible for speed, reliability and security.
Use the same SSID
Use different channels at least 5 apart on each AP
NO DHCP except on one AP

Should all be seamless transition then

Regards

Tim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X