[gjas15]

I just bought an Asus WL-300g AP to replace my Netgear 108M Router (failed a firmware upgrade and they refused to support it.) <-- If you want to purchase said router just PM me just needs the firmware reflashed....


ANYWAY... back to the topic at hand. I bought this Asus access point for 2 reasons:
1. WDS capability
2. Firmware recovery utility :smokey:

I figured Id relate my experience of setting this up for my powerbook and my airport express in WDS mode.

Setting up WDS between two different vendors AP's is a little tricky but I managed to do it in about 45 min. My network consists of a Speedstream DSL modem/NAT Firewall connected to a linksys 5 port 10/100 switch which is connected to the AP, my B&W G3, and a Windows ME box <-- I HATE fiddleing with the network settings on this thing; it always breaks something. My Airport Express is connected through WDS to the Asus.

After searching many sites and manuals I figured out that these parameters should be used.

1. SSID of the AP's can be the same or different... but if they are different some clients may have problems roaming between them.
2. With the Asus AP and my Airport with latest firmware (1.8.1.9 and 6.1.1 respectively) WPA over WDS does NOT work... you must use WEP or none... Note: they both support WPA over WDS
3. WEP keys must be the same
4. The channel must be the same
5. I have all devices on the network set to grab an address through the DHCP server on the modem (will be changed soon b/c i need to forward ports for Bittorrent, but right now I dont want to disrupt my stepdads VPN connection...Stupid Windows ME box)


and thats basically it; if all these settings are correct then WDS should work between these access points.... Well minus the WPA encryption....

Unless I'm totally wrong and there is a way to get WPA encryption to work between these two AP's while using WDS.

And as a side note until I updated the firmware on the Asus WDS wouldnt work at all regardless of encryption type.

-greg

[Franz Josef]

WEP is pretty insecure to a knowledgeable hacker - it can be cracked in minutes. I wouldn't recommend anything less than WPA enterprise / personal.

[gjas15]

Originally Posted by Franz Josef WEP is pretty insecure to a knowledgeable hacker - it can be cracked in minutes. I wouldn't recommend anything less than WPA enterprise / personal.

I agree wholeheartedly with that... Ive personally cracked WEP, it really doesnt take much at all to do. But, until a firmware update is released that fixes this WPA issue there really isnt much I can do as I need to use my express as a WDS repeater. I have every other security measure I can use enabled ACL's, SSID broadcast off, etc.. I'm thinking if I can grab the log off of the airport after it trys to connect to the main station I might be able to find a workaround but I dont know how to access said logs.

[gjas15]

The incompatibility is worse than I thought... WPA doesnt work period between the Asus AP and the Express... Who should I send the bug report to is the real question.

Edit: Nevermind its now working for no apparrent reason... It just started working, anyway WPA is flaky at the least