Connecting three Airport Extremes with WDS

Question

Connecting three Airport Extremes with WDS

I have three Airport Extremes (5. edition) I want the first one to function as a base connecting to the Internet, second two work as an extension and third to function as an extension of the second one. I've figured out that I should use WDS to make it most compitable for most units. The problem is that the documentation for using WDS for the newest Airport Extremes is non-exsistent. I found the extra settings with pushing down the option button before I select how I want the different Airports to connect to each other. But the settings really confuse me and I some help would really... help me out.

Its a mixed network with Macbook Pros, Mac Pros, Mac Minis, Apple TV, iPads, Androids, iPhones and even then some more.

Now the wireless network is only available for my Macbook Pro and iPad. The Mac Pro's work very slow using Airport. The iPhones and Android doesn't even find the network.

So any suggestions for what settings I should use to make this WDS to work?

Airport Extreme-OTHER

Posted on Nov 12, 2011 12:07 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 12, 2011 12:34 PM in response to monkeecheetah

Apple's instructions for the WDS setup are here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4262

and here on pages 42-46:

Designing AirPort Networks: Mac OS X v10.5 + Windows

But, before you commit to WDS, are you aware that it only runs at "g" wireless speeds....so you lose any advantage of having "n" settings on your AirPorts?

and....the bandwidth on the entire network will be cut in half for the "relay" and cut in half again for the "remote"?

Bottom line is that you will have a "g" wireless network running at 25% speed, or around 11-12 Mbps. That is wireless "b" speed.

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Answer 2

Nov 12, 2011 1:18 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Well following that instructions just gave me an WDS error and a message that there is no other WDS units in the network. Well thats disappointing. Any idea why the WDS error? I'm using the Airport Ethernet ID (not the 2.4ghz or the 5ghz)

And my Android still won't find this network.

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Answer 3

Nov 12, 2011 1:29 PM in response to monkeecheetah

The instructions state that you have to use the MAC address for the wireless. That would be the AirPort ID of each device. Since WDS only operates at "g" wireless, you would need to use the AirPort ID or MAC for the 2.4 GHz network.

You are connecting devices using wireless, so entering the Ethernet ID would be of no benefit.

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Answer 4

Nov 12, 2011 2:07 PM in response to Bob Timmons

The WDS instructions in this thread from expert user Tesserax may be useful.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2422028?threadID=2422028&tstart=0

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Answer 5

Nov 12, 2011 6:03 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for good advice. Now the routers started talking to each other but I lost the connection to the Internet.

We have a static IP from our ISP. Should the base take care of all and set the IP to Auto or should I set the same settings as the base? I tried both but neither seemed to work but when you try to solve a problem you often lock yourself and don't see the most obvious answer.

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