I've read http://support.deliberant.com/blogs/blog_help/default.aspx and http://support.deliberant.com/forums/p/1042/4780.aspx The firmware on these units is 5.26.25223 which is different than the to blog entry. There is no place to enter the mac address from the other radio as described. In this http://wiki.deliberant.com/index.php/Firmware_Changelogs_DLB_AP entry at the bottom it says "New WDS implementation does not require to specify MAC address of WDS peer in configuration." for the changes in the 5.0 series of the firmware. I have set the two radios with static IP addresses on the same sub net, set both in bridge mode, set channel to 11 on both, and finally set wds mode on for each as well. I have not set the security as yet. Neither radio "sees" the other. The units are pointed directly at each other separated by a distance of no more than 50 yards with no obstructions. What am I doing wrong?

 Both radios should be in AP mode if you want clients to connect to both.

Same channel on both.

Create a virtual radio on the second radio in client mode, same channel, SSID of the first radio.

The SSID of radio 2 parent ath0 can be different from the SSID of radio 1.

You won't be able to link to the SSID of radio 2 unless its virtual radio has linked to radio1.

 Sorry- You need the AP firmware loaded on those to create a WDS string with the ability to connect clients to either radio.

If this is just a p2p link with nobody connecting to them wirelessly, then you can use AP firmware on radio1 and CPE firmware on radio 2. Just enable WDS (proprietary transparent bridge) on the AP and WDS mode on the CPE. Disregard my previous post.

Hope I got you totally confused.

Thanks Gunnar. I was not clear in my original. I'm looking at a pure bridge connection, no access to an AP on either end. I would normally want one unit to be in bridge and the other in AP, I think...but the WDS mode seems to indicate that I should keep both in bridge mode and use WDS. My only other choice is Router mode on one which I don't want but maybe I should do that and just disable router functions.

 In that case I would load AP firmware on radio 1, AP bridge mode, give it an IP in the subnet of the upstream router eth1 is connected to, set the SSID, channel and 802.11 protocol etc. Leave proprietary bridge unchecked for now.

You can keep the CPE firmware on radio 2 if you want, but I always load the AP firmware if it's going to be a ptp link only. Set it up as a client bridge, give it an IP in the same subnet as the AP and router, gateway is the upstream router address, same SSID as the AP, same 802.11 protocol. Leave WDS mode unchecked for now.

Now you can check the link for signal strength and check for connectivity through the link. If the router upstream of radio 1 is doing DHCP, your computer should receive an address from it. If everything looks good and you have a S/N of 20 or better on both ends of the link, you can set the AP to use proprietary bridge, and then set the client to be in WDS mode.

Hope that helps. Assuming that you're using the built in panel antenna on radio1, you might want to go to config>expert to make sure that the radio is using antenna1 for TX and RX and diversity is disabled. Let me know how you make out.

Hi,

You will want to set this up as Gunnar said :)

One thing I wanted to point out and will probably make things clear is that the Bridge mode reference does not have to do with the wireless part, just how it handles the traffic between the wireless and wired interfaces.  It either routes between them (Router mode) or connects them together and passes everything through back and forth (Bridge mode).  The AP/Client modes are the wireless components, and in this setup one has to be an AP and the other one has to be a Client.

On the AP, you can disable AP broadcast and turn on WPA2-PSK security to lock it down and keep anyone from connecting to it.

Caleb

 Ditto. Another option is to run the link in G only half channel. I do this on many p2p links where I don't want drive by connections to the AP. Saves on encryption overhead if you don't need to run the link faster than 27mbps. Cuts down on interference as well.

True, most laptops won't see a half channel.

But suggesting that you cut your channel and thus the total available throughput in half to save the minimal amount of overhead you get from encryption is kinda funny ;-)  I'm just yanking your chain though ;-)

 I'm a funny kind of guy Caleb. I tend to stay away from encryption if I can. Nasty time consuming customer problems can crop up. Half channel seems to work well in noisy environments.

Nah I see what you are getting at.  I find that generally WPA2-AES tends to be the most stable across a multitude of platforms other than maybe some of the really really old stuff. 

 I'm having some difficulty setting this exact thing up, with a couple of CPE-5 radios, the idea being to have a ptp link from my shop back to my access points so i can hook them into the new trunk. I have to move a bunch of equipment out of its current location so I have to link my 2 AP networks back to here so I can plug them into their respective routers.

The radios connect to each other, I can manipulate and access each radio from either end of the link while in normal or in WDS mode, however if I plug radio 1 ethernet into a switch on the LAN side of my router ( which is how I have another AP hooked into the network which works fine), I cannot ping it or radio 2. Computer is on the same subnet as both radios and also hooked into the switch and I have no difficulty pinging or accessing the 3rd AP (a 2300) on the network. I have to be physically connected to the POE for radio 1 to pass any traffic along,as soon as I hook it up to the switch I can't ping it.

The only thing I can see is that the link is fairly weak, at 14 or 15 from each end. There is no interference. I've got the data rate set at 6M on both radios, running in half channel .This setup worked perfectly in my shop with the radios 40 ft apart so I have been tearing my hair out and getting tired of climbing on rooftops.

Troubleshooting log on both radios show a lot of rx failures due to bad CRC and a lot of OFDM timing errors.Is this due to the low level of connectivity? As i said, I have had no problem pinging or accessing the radios as long as I'm physically connected to one of them.

 

 

I take it you're dealing with 2 p2p links with 2 radios in each. One is  2.4Ghz and one is 5Ghz.

It almost sounds like you don't have discreet addresses on all 4 radios that are in the same subnet as the LAN of your router.

A 14 or 15 link on 5Ghz is pretty shakey. I've found that anything below 20 really doesn't work too well for carrying traffic on a p2p. But if you can get the web interfaces up on both of the 5Ghz radios and ping across the link when you are directly connected, then you should be able to do the same through the switch. Try power cycling the switch when everything is hooked up. If you can't access the first 5Ghz radio with your computer plugged into the switch, then you've got cabling or a faulty switch problem.

Ok, so I take it there is other firmware I need to download which will allow me to configure one of the units in AP mode. Can some one point me to the right one version? And I only need it on one and not both from what I you've written. I appreciate the -help- here, I had two older models of these units and I could set them up in either manner with the firmware they were delivered with. I must have missed the part in the setup instructions indicating that I needed a different version of the firmware to get this to work. Thanks again to all.

 Just click on Downloads at the top of this page, under Browse folders. click the DLB AP-2i firmware.

Save the file, log into the radio, go to the system tab, upload the firmware. Reboot.

Log back in to the radio after reboot and go to System, Maintenance, reset to factory defaults.

"But if you can get the web interfaces up on both of the 5Ghz radios and ping across the link when you are directly connected, then you should be able to do the same through the switch."

Thank you..... maybe I'm not going nuts then!! 

 

Well I've been all thru this, even ran new wires to the radios ( since it seemed to work in my shop test) so am reasonably certain its not a cabling issue... the existing AP (2 Ghz) works just fine thru the switch and has for the last 3 years and continues to work when this new link is hooked into the switch. This -should- work... but doesn't. I've got access to a couple of DLB7000s so will try them with the new cabling and see if they will pass traffic. If they do, then there has to be something amiss with these 5-20s.

 

Thanks much for the insight, I really suspect its a sig strength problem and so will not  put this link into production without a better antenna system.