Q: Creating a single big Airport network
I live on a farm with two houses (one if or my family and one is my parents) that are about 200 ft apart. We had to do some trenching and that allowed be to put in some direct bury Cat 6 cable so I can network the two houses together. Both of the houses have Airports in them (I have a 2 TB time capsule and my parents have an airport express). My question is that if they are all running on the same network, would you be able to create a single continuous network of all airports (i,e named "Farm" for instance) and be able to walk between houses without having to change the wifi SSID?
And just to confirm, if this is possible it is only possible with Airports and you can't do the same thing with other manufactuers routers (i,e adding in a Netgear router into the mix would need it's own separate name).
Thanks!
iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 9.1
Posted on Oct 21, 2015 2:48 PM
My question is that if they are all running on the same network, would you be able to create a single continuous network of all airports (i,e named "Farm" for instance) and be able to walk between houses without having to change the wifi SSID?
Yes, this is called roaming network.. the apple documents are well out of date.. but it is standard configuration.
Wi-Fi base stations: Setting up and configuring a roaming network (802.11 a/b/g/n) - Apple Support
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6490890
Bob’s setup info.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6481048
Roaming can be done with any brand of wireless AP or router.
Mixing brands can have some unexpected results.. and although this stuff seems extremely easy and straightforward it does occasionally come a cropper and is hard to find the issue.. but I have used different brands with no issues.. except on a handful of occasions.. (where I solved it by replacement .. due to never being able to find the cause).. I would say 99% of the time it is fine.. but not all routers handle apple special protocols well.. eg bonjour, airplay, airprint, air drop and just about every other air thing you can think of.
Posted on Oct 21, 2015 4:05 PM