[hippyhop]

Hi Guys,

I have two airport extreme basestations one a main and one a remote node to extend the effecitve range of my network. Internet sharing works beautifully, but when I try and copy a file above approx 2mb the receving machine hangs i.e finder is unresponsive and needs a reboot. It seems to work fine for small files !

Has anyone experienced similar I can give more info about the network if necessary

Thanks

ps.... The problem only occurs when the two machines transfering a file are connected to different basestations. i.e if both machines are on the base basestation file transfer is fine and dandy !

also by file transfer I mean using AFP

[hippyhop]

Anyone ????? Surely someone must be using WDS ?

[ghporter]

You'll have to explain how your wireless network is laid out for me to be able to even have a vague idea of what's going on. You mention two different base stations, but not what their configurations are. I had to look up WDS-it isn't that common where I come from-but it obviously may have something to do with the issue. Are your base stations configured with the same network name (SSID) but on different channels, as in a roaming configuration, or does WDS play with channels independently?

Also, you don't mention whether or not either the source or destination computers are in motion during this transfer, nor what kind of signal quality indication you have on either one.

[hippyhop]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
You'll have to explain how your wireless network is laid out for me to be able to even have a vague idea of what's going on. You mention two different base stations, but not what their configurations are. I had to look up WDS-it isn't that common where I come from-but it obviously may have something to do with the issue. Are your base stations configured with the same network name (SSID) but on different channels, as in a roaming configuration, or does WDS play with channels independently?

Also, you don't mention whether or not either the source or destination computers are in motion during this transfer, nor what kind of signal quality indication you have on either one.

Hi. Thanks for your reply.

Ok Here is the set up in a little more detail.

AEBS(airport extreme basestation) #1 is connected to a DSL modem and located on Floor 1. networking is set to distribute IP addrs.WDS is set to MAIN basestation

AEBS#2 is connected to the internet via WDS and is a REMOTE basestation to AEBS#1 it has the same network name and is set to the same channel. All security settings are the same as AEBS#1 networking is not set.

This set up works perfectly for sharing my internet connection, I.e I have two laptops (Powerbook17 & Powerbook15) and either will work seamlessly on either floor, i.e if I am on floor I the laptop is connected to AEBS#1 and if I am on florr 2 the laptop is connected to AEBS#2 I am impressed with this it works great !

The problem occurs if I try and file share between the two laptops when the are on different basestations i.e laptop1 is on floor 1 and laptop2 is on floor 2. The file copy starts but usually hangs (seems to work ok-ish) for small (below <1MB) files !

It's not the individual set ups because if both laptops are on the same floor (i.e connected to the same basestation) the transfer is lightning fast (54mbp approx)

Hope that explains it a little better.

Thanks

[ghporter]

I believe that if you put the two base stations on different channels, you could see your problems go away. Whether WDS helps or not, your setup is almost completely an Extended Service Set-basically a larger wireless network that allows (enables) roaming between the two access points (or base stations). The standard setup for roaming has both access points wired to the same wired network, with the same name and different channels. The client (that would be your laptops) chooses the channel with the best quality and the rest of the network considers the traffic to be the same, no matter which access point it comes from

In your case, with both base stations on the same channel, your laptops are probably receiving the same packets they're sending, causing errors and faulting out the file transfers.

[hippyhop]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
I believe that if you put the two base stations on different channels, you could see your problems go away. Whether WDS helps or not, your setup is almost completely an Extended Service Set-basically a larger wireless network that allows (enables) roaming between the two access points (or base stations). The standard setup for roaming has both access points wired to the same wired network, with the same name and different channels. The client (that would be your laptops) chooses the channel with the best quality and the rest of the network considers the traffic to be the same, no matter which access point it comes from

In your case, with both base stations on the same channel, your laptops are probably receiving the same packets they're sending, causing errors and faulting out the file transfers.

Thanks for your suggestion, but changing channels changed nothing same problem !

[ReefHobbyist]

Originally posted by hippyhop:
Thanks for your suggestion, but changing channels changed nothing same problem !

First I must say I am not an expert nor have I set up a WDS before, but I did read Apples document on setting one up. In chapter 3 "Setting Advanced Options" of the Designing AirPort Extreme Networks Manual it states that in a WDS the two base stations should be set to the same channel. So I don't think that was the problem.

Did you set up the WDS using the automated method described in this doc or manually?

Scott