the point of WDS is that it's a dedicated wireless link to the other network. the two devices only opperate with their partnered devices, (e.g. it's a dedicated 54Mbps link),
think about it this way, you have essentially two devices inside a WAP, a wireless network interface and a wired network interface.
so there are four channels, only one from each device can be used at any one time.
wireless in, wireless out, network in and network out
in Repeater mode.
you don't have the wired network plugged in, (or at least if you do it's not very important).
anyway, the point is your client sends some data, the repeater listens to this data, then retransmits this data, but it has to use the same device (wireless interface) to do that.
so it's listen, stop listening, transmit what's just been heard, stop tranismitting, start listening and so on.
now instead of a 54Mbps link, you've halved the speed to a 27Mbps link. (half bandwidth used to listen for traffic, half used to transmit traffic).
in WDS mode the wireless only talks to it's partnered devices, (i.e the base station will only talk to the remote station, and the remote station will only talk to the base station). the listening and transmitting to clients, is done via the wired network port. (or as I said before, if you've got a decent device, perhaps by a second wap packaged inside the same box.
My idea of WDA right now is:
It makes a super strong point to point bridge OR
It makes a .. worse point to point bridge with not so great wireless connectivity.
kind of exaclty backwards, the WDS standard only support WEP, so it makes a pretty weak bridge from a security point of view.
but it does make a pretty speedy bridge.
Alright. Meeting is done. He.. doesn't really know either lol... except he likes the idea of wireless in both buildings AND on the outside. We're going to have a laptop with a scanner rollin around ... Same SSID thing is a great idea, but what about the area in between? Office || 1310>>>>>THIS AREA (ParkingLot)>>>>1310||office
So we're probably gonna get another access point and have four, like your model. If we configure those to be on the same SSID, would we have the 1310 on the same one too? And exactly what would we be sacrificing if we set the 1310 to WDA to act as an access point to. Would it be terrible? And would the half thing only take effect if the laptop was USING the 1310s connection (outside of the building).
you might find that the car park can be effectivly service through the cinder block walls, it's a little unlikely I'll admit, but it is possible.
the office I work in I can just (barely) get a wireless signal on my phone when stood outside, I estimate that the access point is about 20 - 30 feet from the outisde wall, but the wall is 2ft (24inch) solid stone, (our office is converted old farm buildings).
what I'd suggest is that you set up an access point inside the office and attach it to the outside wall, then see how good the signal is in the car park. you might find that this is good enough. to give wireless to the car park,
if it's not, then you'll need (yet another) WAP to go on the outside of the building, (remeber in WDS mode the WAPs that are creating the wireless bridge will only talk to devices that are partnered so these will not serve either instrastructure, or adhoc type wireless setup for the car park).
it's a bit of a moot point, because I would be willing to bet that there is a reasonable wifi signal in the car park from the waps that are inside the office anyway.
You use the same SID to make it easy to roam between the access points, even though you're enabling clients to roam between access points they won't swap and change at will, they have to wait for the signal to completely go from the first acess point before it'll join the stronger singnaled one.
though there is a cool product that lets you manage the wireless network and what clients connect to what WAP to let you balance load around the WAPs. -I'll have to ask a guy at work to remind me what that's called.
you put the access points on different channels, to stop inteference, -you'd do this at home, if your neighbours wireless network uses channel 11 for example you should choose a different channel to reduce any possible inteference.
So we're probably gonna get another access point and have four, like your model. If we configure those to be on the same SSID, would we have the 1310 on the same one too? And exactly what would we be sacrificing if we set the 1310 to WDA to act as an access point to. Would it be terrible? And would the half thing only take effect if the laptop was USING the 1310s connection (outside of the building).
I hope I explained a bit better why repeaters effectivly half the speed above. you won't be setting the 1310s up as repeaters, so you will be able to keep the full bandwidth.
just to say again, your clients in the car park won't be able to connect to the 1310's when they are working in a WDS bridge mode.
I'll try and find some time to explain a bit better and post a decent guide about how to do this.
(I've only just finished creating this exact same setup at home so that I can move my wired network laser printer out of the lounge and upstairs and connect my NAS devices etc, and as I live in a rented house I couldn't put in structured cabling so I went for a wireless bridge).
