Multiple Wireless Accesspoints

Ziycon

I have 3 different routers in the house, one being the main gateway for the internet, each has wireless enabled on it. The other two routers have DHCP disabled and are bridged to the main router in the house and are all connected via cat6 cabling.

My question is:

Can I have the same SSID and key set on all three routers to allow wireless devices to connect to any AP and if so is there a way for the devices to pick up the strongest signal and connect to that AP when in range?

smee again

Yes, same SSID and encryption and your devices will roam. This will not be seamless though, depending on hardware and OS, devices will sometimes stay connected to weaker signal AP.

Ziycon

Thanks for the reply smee_again, is there anything I can do to make the strongest point be the one used or is this down to the device connecting?

smee again

Ziycon wrote: »

Thanks for the reply smee_again, is there anything I can do to make the strongest point be the one used or is this down to the device connecting?

It's down to the device hardware and the OS, from my experience, some like Android phones can handle it well, others like Windows will be stupid and stay connected to a weaker AP. This is only for roaming though, devices once powered up will usually connect and remain connected to the strongest in that area.

Ziycon

Ok, thanks for your help.

Alun

smee again wrote: »

It's down to the device hardware and the OS, from my experience, some like Android phones can handle it well, others like Windows will be stupid and stay connected to a weaker AP. This is only for roaming though, devices once powered up will usually connect and remain connected to the strongest in that area.

It's a driver issue not a Windows one. There's often (although not always) some kind of setting, usually under Properties > Configure.. > Advanced, that determines the roaming policy.

On some Atheros based cards, you can set this value (Roaming Policy) to 5 different settings, from "Very Low" to "Very High". On the Dell (Broadcom based) card in my laptop, it's called "Roam Tendency", for example, and can be set to Moderate, Aggressive or Conservative.

kaisersoze

Zicon, any chance you could post up the config of one of the wireless routers that is not connected to internet..I've bene trying to setup a bridged zyzel modem to save myself from running cat5 cables all over the shop and my head is melted trying to get it working

smee again

kaisersoze wrote: »

Zicon, any chance you could post up the config of one of the wireless routers that is not connected to internet..I've bene trying to setup a bridged zyzel modem to save myself from running cat5 cables all over the shop and my head is melted trying to get it working

An access point needs a cable. What you describe without a cable is a repeater which may not be possible (depends on hardware being used) and besides, it's not desirable. Because it uses the same frequency to receive it's connection and also transmit, a repeater halves the wireless throughput of your wireless network. You end up with a network half the speed of what you started with.

ctlsleh

What's the best setup....I have both the eircom D1000 router and the vodafone 556 adsl router to spare and I'd like to use them to extend the wireless range.....