Wi-Fi Personal Bridge 150
User Manual
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function that changes channels based on network conditions, be sure to disable this feature. If your
main WDS station is also your network’s router, make sure it’s set up to distribute IP addresses in
the network.
Note
Write down or otherwise take note of the MAC addresses of all of
your WDS stations — many configuration software systems
require you to know these addresses to make the configuration
settings work. Write down the wireless MAC address (it’s often on
a sticker) and not the Ethernet MAC address.
Turn on the WDS functionality in your main station (it’s often labeled WDS, or may say something
like Enable This Base Station As a WDS Main Base Station — that’s the wording Apple uses for
their AirPort Extreme products). When you turn on this functionality, the configuration software may
ask you to identify the remote repeater(s). Have the MAC addresses of those repeaters handy in
case you need them.
Depending upon how your software works, you may have to separately access the configuration
software on the remote repeater APs to turn on WDS. Here are a few things to remember:
•
You need to assign any other WDS stations to the same channel that your main base station is
using. This is counterintuitive to many folks who have had the 802.11b/g “use channels 1, 6, and
11 and keep your APs on different channels” mantra driven into their heads for a long time!
•
You set the SSID of the remote location(s) using either a unique name or by using the same
SSID as you use for your main base station. (Whoa, our heads just exploded!) Using the same
SSID (a “roaming” network) is pretty cool. You associate with one AP one time and then your
PC or Mac can associate with any AP on your WDS network without you having to do anything
— it’s more seamless this way. But remember, you don’t have to do this — you can give each
AP a unique SSID and just configure your computer to associate with them according to your
preference.
•
Make sure you turn off any routing or DHCP functionality in the remote repeater stations. All of
this functionality should be performed in the main base station or the network’s main router.
