# Wi-Fi roaming



## Deleted member 3 (Jul 5, 2011)

I need two Wi-Fi AP's that support seamless roaming. ie walk out of range of one and into the range of another without ever noticing anything. I expected Google to give me useful information but it doesn't. Things like using any AP and setting them to two channels far apart from eachother and giving them the same settings are suggested. But this sounds dodgy. Does anyone have any experience with this? Could anyone recommend me some AP?


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## Thrackan (Jul 5, 2011)

You're specifically looking for two accesspoints, and not something like a WiFi repeater?


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## Deleted member 3 (Jul 5, 2011)

Two AP's. One floor of a building (just around the corner of your home ) which has two large rooms on each side of the building and some hallways and rooms in between. Each AP needs to serve one room and preferably have enough range for the hallways and smaller rooms. I think the building is about 55m in length.


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## robal (Jul 5, 2011)

Hi,

Had this problem before.
Long story short:

All 802.11 'roaming' is handled by client, not APs.
Configure both APs with the same SSID and security settings and your client will automatically decide when to switch to another.
This switching is not entirely seamless, but can be. Depends on your Wifi card.
Most WiFi cards will have settings for 'roaming aggressiveness' to tweak that behaviour.


There is a standard (802.11r) in wifi spec for 'proper' handling roaming but it's just never implemented in 'consumer' APs. It gets better...  'enterprise' APs often don't use it anyway, because they implement some 'improved', proprietary way for doing this.
Unless you want to blow thousands $ on (eg.) Cisco APs, go for option #1. It works well.

Cheers,

EDIT: It's obvious, but...  For option #1 both APs must be wired to the same Ethernet segment


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## brandonwh64 (Jul 5, 2011)

This maybe something to look into

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps10092/white_paper_c11-516389_ps6973_Products_White_Paper.html


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## Deleted member 3 (Jul 5, 2011)

robal said:


> Hi,
> 
> Had this problem before.
> Long story short:
> ...



I indeed came across 802.11r but couldn't find more about it. 

So if I can just use any AP's, any model you can recommend? Good range and reliability are the most important features. I don't need anything else, no switch, no fancy consumer features, just AP's. Routers are preferred though most solutions are routers anyway.


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## robal (Jul 5, 2011)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> So if I can just use any AP's, any model you can recommend? Good range and reliability are the most important features. I don't need anything else, no switch, no fancy consumer features, just AP's. Routers are preferred though most solutions are routers anyway.



I haven't got any favourites.
Just make sure it's compatible with full 802.11n spec and has more than one antenna (MIMO).
For "extremely cheap"-end, I used TP-LINK products and has no issues with them.
Eg.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WA901ND-Advanced-Wireless-Access/dp/B002YETVXC/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1309865686&sr=8-6


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## Deleted member 3 (Jul 5, 2011)

MIMO != multiple antennas. But multiple radio channels. Also, I don't want the absolute cheapest. It still has to be reliable. I'll probably end up with D-link, 3com or other semi decent device.


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## Apharas (Jul 5, 2011)

Sounds like what you're looking for is WDS support.  This is available on some Netgear/Dlink routers or with DD-WRT/OpenWRT firmware replacements. I have done a small setup of 5 old Netgear WG302's running WDS for a non-prof that works well.  Covers a few acres of open space.  You do lose speed of course since wireless is half duplex. Other caveats are that all of the access points will be required to be on the same channel, some WPA2 keys will have issues, and if you choose to use different Access Point models they MUST have the same chipset Broadcom/Atheros.  If you're buying new I'd suggest some of the new Buffalo Access Points since they run DD-WRT with support from the manufacturer. 

Further information can be found:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Distribution_System
http://www.dd-wrt.ca/wiki/index.php/WDS
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/broadcomwds


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## robal (Jul 5, 2011)

Apharas said:


> Sounds like what you're looking for is WDS support.



Just to clarify:
WDS is only needed when you DON'T have ethernet cable connecting APs together.

When you do have this cable, all other ways ("802.11r" or "same-SSID client roaming") work better.


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