Using the AirPort Admin Utility to create a WDS network with multiple base stations
Summary
Using the wireless distribution system (WDS) feature, you can set up two to five base stations as a unified network that shares one Internet connection.
Products Affected
AirPort
The base station that connects to your Internet service provider is the main base station. A remote base station connects wirelessly to the main station and extends (or "rebroadcasts") the wireless network to clients that are not in range of the main. A relay base station is like a remote, but it has the additional function of extending the wireless network to a remote which isn't within range of the main. There can be only one relay between a remote and a main.
AirPort Express and all AirPort Extreme base stations can use WDS. Earlier AirPort base stations can't.
A WDS network with one main, two remotes, a relay, and an AirTunes stream might look like this:
The walk-through below shows you how to set up one main and one remote base station.
Before you begin
In our example setup, we'll focus on the common scenario of adding a new AirPort Express to an existing AirPort Extreme network. The Extreme will be our main base station, and the Express will be our remote.
Setup will be simpler if the station that is to be your main has easily recognizable base station and network names. In our existing network scenario, that should be done already. Our example main has a base station name of "Extreme" and a network name of "Gare du Nord." Our AirPort Express is starting off with a base station name of "Base Station ebe331" and a network name of "Apple Network ebe331," which is the style of name you see with a factory fresh AirPort Express or one that has been hard reset.
Next, be sure that all base stations are within a strong signal range of the computer you're going to use to set them up. (You can relocate them after configuration without affecting the settings.)
Finally, these steps reflect using the latest AirPort software and base station firmware in Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger." You may see slight variations when setting this up in other configurations. To get the latest AirPort software, either update automatically or download it here. If AirPort Admin Utility prompts you to upload newer base station firmware during the course of following these steps, you should do so, then wait for the base station to restart and resume where you left off.
Creating a two-station WDS network
- Connect to the network of the station that will be your main.
- Open AirPort Admin Utility from the Utilities folder.
- Select the station from the list, and click Configure.
- Enter the base station password when prompted, and click OK.
- Click the WDS tab.
- Select the checkbox for "Enable this base station as a WDS," and set the pop-up menu to the right to "main base station."
Note: "Allow wireless clients on this base station" will be selected by default. You should leave it selected for this and other base stations unless you have a specific need to disallow wireless traffic to a particular base station. This setting affects base station administration as well as normal use.
- Click the plus (+) button to scan for your remote base station.
- In the sheet that appears, select the remote.
Notice that the checkbox for "Auto configure as a WDS remote base station" is selected. Be sure to leave it selected, because we're going to use automatic configuration. Click OK. AirPort Admin Utility should now look like this:
- Click update, and pay attention to the messages that go by. Momentarily, you will be prompted to verify settings for the remote base station. In the new or hard reset scenario, the remote's password will be "public", so you should replace that with a more secure password. Because this is automatic configuration, you don't need to change anything else in this dialog.
Note: If the remote base station has a password other than "public", you may be prompted to enter it before you get this sheet.
- Click OK. In a moment, you should get a message that setup was successful. Click OK again.
- Wait for the progress bar to complete as the base station is updated and restarted.
- Quit AirPort Admin Utility.
Additional Information
- If you choose to do a manual WDS configuration (as opposed to the automatic feature used in the steps above), be sure that all base stations have the same network name. Attempting to give base stations differentiated network names on a WDS network may render the network inoperable. Returning base stations to the network name of the main should return the network to operation.
- All WDS base stations should be set to the same channel. When using automatic configuration, as in the steps above, this is done for you. However, you need to be aware of this when configuring manually. Access the channel setting by clicking the AirPort tab in AirPort Admin Utility.
- When configuring a remote or relay manually, be sure that the "Distribute IP addresses" checkbox is not selected.
- When you use WDS, some of each base station's capacity is used as overhead for maintaining the network. This means that if you were to measure the maximum throughput speed of your network, it would be less than when using one base station by itself.