I have two 3Com 3CRWDR101A-75 officeconnect wireless routers. One is connected to a DSL line and the small wired office network.
The second is to be used as a range extender. I set it up with WDS enabled, selecting the first network that is easily found.
What else do I do for wireless-enabled laptops to connect to the whole network. i tried connecting to the second, but could not see the rest of the network.
Is there anyhting special that needs to be done? Do I have to set up the first with WDS enabled, and looking at the second?
It seems so obvious, nut the manual does not say anything.
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I don't know that wireless router specifically, I could look at the manual if I had a PDF...
In my experience with WDS, you have to enable it in every router that participates in the WDS network. Each router is configured with the MAC Address of the other ones that it will connect to.
If there are only two, then each one needs WDS on and the MAC Address of the "other" router. You also often must use WEP security, and the same channel number on all routers. You can use different SSID network names to make it easy to know which one you connect to.
Usually you configure this with them side by side, CAT5 wired network plugged into both of them renumber their IP Addresses manually to be on the same subnet (makes them easier to work on later on.) probably planning your network around some Subnet Scheme often matching the device that does DHCP on your network. (You might have to make sure that manually configured IP Address devices are still within the subnet range, but outside of the DHCP assignment range.)
Turn off any firewalling in the routers... make sure they can't block anything especially ping.
Once they are configured and reset. Seperate them and test to see if you can connect to the non-wired one, see if you get correct DHCP assignment including IP and Gateway and DNS. Test pinging the main wired wireless router from the farther away wireless-only one.
Pretty much the same advice as above. Although I would leave the SSIDs the same. And verify connectivity of WDS by connecting to the web interface by cable and verify connected stations. And try upgrading firmware to assure that any bugs are corrected and WDS synchs with your other unit.
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