WL-300g, WDS and DHCP not working

[einarmr]

Hi!

I have bought eight WL-300g APs, and I'm planning to distribute them throughout an office building and use WDS (with only one of the APs connected to the wired Ethernet).

I use the devices in AP mode (not Home Gateway). When I use only the one AP connected to the wired Ethernet, everything works fine. Clients can connect, and receive an IP address through DHCP from our Cisco router on the wired Ethernet.

If I plug in the power of one more AP, network access still works for the clients that are already connected. But when a new client tries to connect to the wireless network, it eventually times out waiting for an IP address.

Where is my problem? It seems that broadcast traffic (DHCP requests) isn't propagated correctly to the DHCP server on the wired Ethernet...

Some info:
Firmware 1.8.1.9 (Asus official)
Using WPA-PSK/TKIP (radio channel 4)
Hybrid mode, "Allow anonymous" set to YES in Bridge setup


Thanks,
Einar

[Antiloop]

i think something else is not correct

try using static ip adresses to locate your problem (for clients too ofcourse)
try to ping al AP's to see if you can reach them at all, also make sure that EVERY AP has another IP address but in the same range

[einarmr]

i think something else is not correct

try using static ip adresses to locate your problem (for clients too ofcourse)
try to ping al AP's to see if you can reach them at all, also make sure that EVERY AP has another IP address but in the same range

You are right. Test setup:
AP1 (with wired Ethernet): 10.14.54.243
AP2 (no wire): 10.14.54.141
PC: 10.14.54.140

Physical setup:
PC <----(about 1 meter)---> AP2 <--(about 10 meters)---> AP1

I first power up AP1 and connect PC to wireless network. It works. I power up AP2, and everything still works.

I then disconnect PC from wireless network, and reconnect. The PC now seems to associate with AP2, but network access is not working.

From PC, I can ping AP2, but not AP1.

Any ideas?


Thanks,
Einar

[Antiloop]

have you configured both devices to use HYBRID mode ? (Wireless - Bridge)
are you using any encryption if yes try setting up first with no encryption/mac filtering etc

and eventual enter MAC address of BOTH devices in BOTH devices in the remote bridge list (I mean you enter MAC address of the other one, and one from the device itselve)

and perhaps you could try a newer firmware
you can either use one from oleg: http://files.wl500g.info/asus/custom/oleg/1.9.2.7-5a/

or an official beta from asus:
ftp://taiwan.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/wireless/WL-300g-03/WL300g_1936_EN.zip

[einarmr]

have you configured both devices to use HYBRID mode ? (Wireless - Bridge)
are you using any encryption if yes try setting up first with no encryption/mac filtering etc

Both are in Hybrid mode. I'm using WPA/TKIP/PSK.


and eventual enter MAC address of BOTH devices in BOTH devices in the remote bridge list (I mean you enter MAC address of the other one, and one from the device itselve)

I've tried that, but it doesn't make any difference.

I suspect that there is a problem using WPA with WDS. I'll test this setup with WEP or no encryption when I get back to work on Wednesday.

WL-500g used to have (or still has?) a problem with WPA with WDS. Does WL-300g also have this problem? Will it work with newer firmwares (official/Oleg's)?


Thanks,
Einar

[einarmr]

I suspect that there is a problem using WPA with WDS. I'll test this setup with WEP or no encryption when I get back to work on Wednesday.


OK, after some more testing:

When I try with only two APs, it works reliably now. Both using WPA and without encryption. I enter both APs MAC addresses in both APs Bridge settings.

For simplicity, I set up all eight APs to bridge with all eight APs. Every AP has the MAC address of itself and the seven other APs in its Bridge settings. That's when it starts to malfunction.

When using two APs, WDS works. When adding two more, I can get no network traffic through at all. I can't ping any of the APs.

I don't know how routing between WDS APs is supposed to work. Must I really enter only the MAC address of the one WDS partner for every AP? The Asus user manual seems to suggest this.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Einar

[Antiloop]

OK, after some more testing:

When I try with only two APs, it works reliably now. Both using WPA and without encryption. I enter both APs MAC addresses in both APs Bridge settings.

For simplicity, I set up all eight APs to bridge with all eight APs. Every AP has the MAC address of itself and the seven other APs in its Bridge settings. That's when it starts to malfunction.

When using two APs, WDS works. When adding two more, I can get no network traffic through at all. I can't ping any of the APs.

I don't know how routing between WDS APs is supposed to work. Must I really enter only the MAC address of the one WDS partner for every AP? The Asus user manual seems to suggest this.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Einar
as far as I know WDS (I have not investigated this at all, nor any sources for this) is supposed to work like a 'mesh' network
and not like a 'star' network (thus one AP in the middle of them)

[einarmr]

as far as I know WDS (I have not investigated this at all, nor any sources for this) is supposed to work like a 'mesh' network
and not like a 'star' network (thus one AP in the middle of them)

It's not supposed to be a mesh network, but a tree network. If you configure the APs to connect in rings or meshes, this might lead to loops in the network if the APs do not implement the Spanning Tree algorithm.

I've configured all my eights APs to connect to all eight APs (fully connected mesh setup), and I cannot make this work reliably. Not with the newest firmware or anything.

I'll try again with a proper tree topology tomorrow.


-Einar

[einarmr]

I'll try again with a proper tree topology tomorrow.

OK, I'm getting tired of all this... If I can't make this work, I'll just have to send the APs back to the supplier...

New test setup:

AP1 (((about 12 m))) AP2 (((about 50 cm))) PC (((about 6 m))) AP3

All APs have "Allow anonoymous" OFF.
AP1 is connected to the wired Ethernet, and has its own MAC-address and AP2's MAC-address in its "Remote bridge list".
AP2 has its own MAC, AP1's MAC and AP3's MAC in its "Remote bridge list".
AP3 has its own MAC and AP2's MAC in its "Remote bridge list".

When I try to connect to the network, I sometimes receive an IP address through DHCP, but more often the PC times out waiting for an address. When I setup the IP address manually, I get a very unstable network connection.

But then I discovered something strange: When I hook up my PC to AP2 with a cable, the PC receives an IP address and seemingly has a stable network connection. Evidently, WDS between AP1 and AP2 must work, and it's the wireless connection between AP2 and the PC that's malfunctioning.

What on earth can this be?

The PC is a Fujitsu Siemens Centrino laptop, with a fresh install of Win XP
SP2, the newest Intel drivers etc. It's running 802.11b (11 Mbps).

-Einar