Access points on wheels

You could put the clients into an ad-hoc mode and then they would connect to the server when they came into range of the stationary AP.

If you're using an AP because you need WPA/WEP you could always add an additional AP to the vehicle and connect the APs via crossover cable. Then configure the additional AP as a bridge to the stationary AP.

Do your Aironets not include WDS? My Linksys WRT54G boxes didn't either, until I put Sveasoft Talisman firmware on them. Now they do exactly what you want, if I select bridging mode.

I have in fact run one in a vehicle, and been able to seamlessly handoff from house to car while listening to streaming music on a notebook (enough data is buffered to cover the handoff time). I can then drive over to the next hilltop and the Linksys will re-associate with my home wireless and the music will come back on!

There is also a repeater mode in Talisman, where the remote AP only bridges from wireless to ethernet and you'd need another AP to accept clients (but you'd get twice the remote throughput).

When you say "setting the vehicle AP into the repeater mode won't work, because it won't accept clients when the root AP is not in range", could this be a DHCP issue? I typically turn off DHCP in all the wireless boxes, and let my home internet router hand out addresses. This of course fails if I turn on a DHCP computer while there is no path to home, but it makes handoffs from one wireless AP to the other much faster and simpler.

My solution is that computers that get turned on away from home get configured with an "automatic private address" on my private LAN, instead of the usual 169.254 apa. That way they still use DHCP if I connect to someone else's LAN with a DHCP server, but work on any part of mine even if they can't see the home router.

Hope this stimulates your thinking...

Loren

This is exactly what I'm going to try as soon as the units arrive. Thank you for supporting my reasoning.

Linksys is a completely different beast. Sveasoft people are writing code with the only goal of cramming as much good stuff in there as possible. Cisco, on the other hand, is very restrictive about the possible uses of their devices (most likely, due to marketing reasons). When set up as a repeater, Aironet needs to associate with a root, and only then it will accept clients. When set up as a bridge, Aironet will only talk to another access point.

I can't use Linksys devices due to environmental and management considerations.

What are the wireless client devices in the vehicle ?

Are they manned PC's or some form of automated equipment ?

OS, and device hardware info would be useful

I /think/ that the Cisco access points differ from the consumer grade ones in one respect that may be useful here.

They can be configured to have multiple SSIDs. If the APs are to remain in the vehicle I would fancy configuring the mobile AP to have two SSIDs, one for the mobile PCs to connect to and one for an AP to AP bridge.

You may of course find that just using the two APs as seperate devices with some sort of roaming will work fine.

alt.internet.wireless has a lot of expertise and experience in this field.