[Sakino]

I have been attempting to set up the two wireless hubs at our house to extend the wireless connection but my airport extreme will not do it's job.
We have a D-Link DI-624 router connected via DSL. I have an airport extreme base station in my room and have been trying to do the WDS thing.
It cannot read the configuration of the D-link router?
Is this because I am out of range? It is right next to my powerbook and I get 2bars in my room.
Can anyone help me set up the WDS wireless setting for my airport extreme, so I can extend the wireless connection in my house.
Thanks

[larkost]

There is no standard for wireless bridging (what you are trying to do) so different vendor's products will not work with each other. AirPort Base Stations (the newest versions) can extend each other, but not any other vendors products.

[chabig]

Probably the easiest way to do it would be to toss the D-Link router, replace it with the Airport Extreme base station, and purchase an Airport Express base station next month.

Chris

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by chabig:
Probably the easiest way to do it would be to toss the D-Link router, replace it with the Airport Extreme base station, and purchase an Airport Express base station next month.

Chris

What he said, but it sounds like you already have an extreme base station so all you need is an express.

[Sakino]

No money.. Damn that sucks

[Socially Awkward Solo]

So what the heck answer were you expecting? Tinfoil?

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
So what the heck answer were you expecting? Tinfoil?

Maybe he was expecting there to be some way to make it work? It wasn't an unreasonable question - I had the same myself.

I'll admit, I don't understand fully why one of the access points can't just act as a "member" of the other's network, just as your computer with its card is a member of the network, not a peer to the access point.

Eh, in the new house I think I'll just have to get a pair of Airport Express modules and a couple cheap 10/100 switches. One for the living room where the cable modem, PS2, and stereo is, and one for the upstairs office where the sever, printer, and Mac Plus live (yes, I have a Plus on my network ). And the iBook can be wherever.

[ghporter]

WDS is pretty dependent on Apple hardware, and NOTHING works the way Apple wireless networking equipment does. Perhaps using WDS is not the way to go.

Maybe you can set the D-Link box to bridge from the Extreme box, but maybe not; you'll have to ask D-Link about it. Some boxes, such as Linksys' WAP11 will bridge to another, identical box, but not to anything else. A quick check of the DI-624 manual doesn't find any mention of bridging, but there are about six or so different versions of that device, all with their own peculiarities. Go check it out (or manually search through the manual) to see if they even think they support bridging.

[ginoledesma]

Another thing to note is that a lot of the wireless routers I've seen do not support "bridging" mode. So even two DI-624s will not work (in the sense of one extending the range of another). It seems that only full-fledged Wireless Access Points (and not wireless routers) have the extended features.

I was asking the same question a couple of months back. I wanted to make a number of different wireless routers and access points work together to form one big wireless network, but that didn't work.

[art_director]

get yourself a copy of "wireless hacks" and you'll have some options for building *very* inexpensive antannea for your exisiting airport / d-link routers.

[Tomster]

WDS is not Apple dependent. People have had great luck bridging Extremes to BuffaloTech devices. You should be able to do so if your other router supports WDS. I would suggest searching wifi specific forums for this info.

I've used every incarnation of the Airport Base Station, from the graphites, to the Extremes. Reception plagued the line from the beginning. I've installed every sort of antenna one could imagine in every single base station I've used. Yes, there was cutting involved. My last incarnation was two Extremes linked via WDS, one with a passive 5db antenna, and the other with a 300mw amplified range extender. Guess what? Even with that rig, the two base stations lost connection with each other. Not to forget, one could not run WPA over WDS. I finally gave on Apple products and went with Linksys.

Sell your airport extreme on ebay and buy either a linksys wrt54g($65) or wrt54gs($75). the GS has more memory on board as well as twice as much storage. More on that in a second. Go to www.sveasoft.com and buy a one year subscription to their firmware and upload it to your linksys unit. Congrats, you now have a fully functioning mini-linux system with a web front end, but with all linux underpinnings. Install packages, ssh or telnet into the box, run kismet - whatever you want to do, you can do. Like turn up the transmit power on the machine, from a default of 28mw up to 84mw.

I am getting complete coverage of the whole house with the single router with absolutely flawless coverage. Total price was under a hundred bucks. This is in comparison to two Extremes for $500 plus another $200 in antennas which still resulted in lousy connections.

In short, sell your Extreme, get a linksys, install some really cool firmware, and overclock!

[CharlesS]

Hmm, I'd be wary of overwriting the default firmware with something third-party...

Is it possible to completely revert to the factory default LinkSys firmware if something goes wrong with that?

[Macpilot]

Here is a question for you experts out there:

Since I am having so much trouble getting my AEBS to work with my current crappy DSL provider (it won't talk to the modem and is not officially supported), I have resorted to simply using Internet Sharing on an eMac (connected via ethernet to the modem) with an Airport card to broadcast a signal through my house. The problem is the range sucks when doing this.

Is it possible to use and AEBS to "extend" the range of this signal coming from an Airport card in an eMac, so I can use my Powerbook with more range? Both machines are using 10.3.4.

Thanks anybody!

[chabig]

The Airport Express probably will not extend the range of the Airport card in your eMac. I don't think the internet sharing software in the computer is as full featured as the software in the base stations. It's really designed to be a client.

However, I don't understand why you are having trouble connecting the base station to the DSL modem. The ethernet connection between them is industry standard.

Chris

[Macpilot]

Originally posted by chabig:
The Airport Express probably will not extend the range of the Airport card in your eMac. I don't think the internet sharing software in the computer is as full featured as the software in the base stations. It's really designed to be a client.

However, I don't understand why you are having trouble connecting the base station to the DSL modem. The ethernet connection between them is industry standard.

Chris

Well, I am not that novice. The problem is that SBC here in SoCal does not support Apple base stations. The base station will not dial the internet. A real pain in the ass.

And all the features of Airport base stations are total overkill for me. I am not trying to protect a bunch of secret documents or anything. I think the Internet Sharing built into OS X in awesome: simple with practically no configuration and very reliable. Very unlike setting up an Airport Base station with a network.

But thanks for the tip.

[chabig]

I wasn't trying to imply that you are a novice. But DSL is usually an always-on connection. No router or base station needs to "dial" the internet when you are using DSL. The DSL modem takes care of the DSL connection. The router or wireless base station takes care of the local network. The connection between them is industry standard and does not require phone company support. I would suggest that you simply need to tweak the settings on the DSL modem, probably from the web interface.

Chris

[Tomster]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Hmm, I'd be wary of overwriting the default firmware with something third-party...

Is it possible to completely revert to the factory default LinkSys firmware if something goes wrong with that?

Sure can! Standard disclaimers apply when flashing any firmware - doesn't matter if you are using stock or modded - if the power goes off, things are not good. The cool thing is that one can mod the boot delay time of the device just for these emergencies. If one fries a default upgrade, then one has a 1/2 second boot delay in which to tftp back in and make things right. With the sveasoft firmware, one can increase that window.

Nicest thing is that it is all open source. Download the source code, dig through it, make any changes, compile, and enjoy.

[Macpilot]

Originally posted by chabig:
I wasn't trying to imply that you are a novice. But DSL is usually an always-on connection. No router or base station needs to "dial" the internet when you are using DSL. The DSL modem takes care of the DSL connection. The router or wireless base station takes care of the local network. The connection between them is industry standard and does not require phone company support. I would suggest that you simply need to tweak the settings on the DSL modem, probably from the web interface.

Chris

I wish it was that easy, but I have been on the Apple Discussion with several other people and there is no solution.

It is just a bad combo of provider/modem/base station.

But thanks for the tips!

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Tomster:
Sure can! Standard disclaimers apply when flashing any firmware - doesn't matter if you are using stock or modded - if the power goes off, things are not good. The cool thing is that one can mod the boot delay time of the device just for these emergencies. If one fries a default upgrade, then one has a 1/2 second boot delay in which to tftp back in and make things right. With the sveasoft firmware, one can increase that window.

Nicest thing is that it is all open source. Download the source code, dig through it, make any changes, compile, and enjoy.

1/2 second is not much time to get in and fix it!

[Tomster]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
1/2 second is not much time to get in and fix it!

That half of a second pause is how much time Linksys allows one to get in there and fix it.
That value is usually set in stone. The sveasoft firmware allows one to increase that number, just in case.

[mkral]

I bought an Airport Express yesterday to extend the range of an original Airport that I have at the office. I can't get it to work. I'm now noticing that the setup assistant asks for the name of the Airport Extreme network. the choice that pops up in the list is my Original (Graphite) airport base station, but everytime it goes to authenticate the Express, I get an error message. Does anyone know if the Airport Express will extend the range of an original apple base station?

[aaanorton]

Originally posted by mkral:
Does anyone know if the Airport Express will extend the range of an original apple base station?

Nope. Check footnote #5 on that page.

[aaanorton]

Originally posted by Macpilot:
I wish it was that easy, but I have been on the Apple Discussion with several other people and there is no solution.

It is just a bad combo of provider/modem/base station.

I know this is much delayed, but this makes no sense. And I know people using SBC with ABSes.

[ghporter]

aaanorton is very much right; there's no major issue with using SBC's DSL with an ABS. Chabig, on the other hand, is not totally correct; most DSL providers (SBC is one) use PPPoE to authenticate users, and that DOES take some extra effort.

The modem does not "take care of the DSL connection." All it does is convert the high-frequency signals into data in both directions. The distant end needs to have the user authenticate via PPPoE, which most "DSL modems" don't take care of (though there are combination "modem/router" products). Both the ABS and the AEBS will perform PPPoE authentication, you just have to set it up using the Setup Assistant or Admin Utility.

Further, SBC has no reason to exclude any Apple product, since they actually encourage home networking-they also market their own solutions. I'm using a Linksys router and (separate) access point, but I know others using SBC's DSL that have no problem using either the older or the current gerneration AirPort Base Stations.

In most cases, when it "just doesn't work," a networking setup needs to be taken apart and the user needs to start over, with all the basic configuration steps. In this case, it may be something as simple as dumping whatever software PPPoE solution he's using and setting up his Base Station properly.

[mkral]

Thanks!