How to setup multiple D-Link DIR-619L best connectivity?

[chanwei21]

Hello,
I have a main router DIR-885L and connected to a 16port gigabit lan switch hub and distributed with backbone lan cable to 7 units of DIR-619L in between with middle range around 20~50 meters away from each DIR-619L unit.

in the DIR-619L there is choices for wireless setup:
1. Wireless Router
2. Access Point
3. WDS Only
4. WDS+AP
5. WDS+AP+Rounter

So wich one should I choose and how to set it up if I want to only use 1 hidden SSID and walking around with the less latency connected to wifi?

In my research I only found 2 units of this setup, which the example is 1 unit of DIR-619L#1 as main router and turn it to WDS+AP+Router and another DIR-619L#2 as WDS+AP and inputed the MAC of the DIR-619#1 with the same information of wifi SSID/PASS/SECURITY&CHANNEL,

So how if I am using 7 units of DIR-619L and set it up all to WDS+AP?
should I put each other MAC on every DIR-619L?

 

[bill001g]

With them that close you are likely going to get interference from them. You are going to have to plan your radio channels very carefully and if possible reduce the radio power in some cases.

You want to have the device that has the internet access running as a router all the other you want to run as a AP.

You do not want to use WDS. That feature is only used for repeaters and you never want to use repeaters unless there is no other option. It cause a huge loss in bandwidth.

I would not use hidden ssid some devices do not function correctly and it does not increase security.

You will not get seamless roaming no matter how hard you try. This is in control of end device and they will tend to stay connected to a poor signal and not even attempt to switch until the signal becomes almost unusable. You pretty much will manually have to reset the wifi connection to get it to search for the closest one.

You may be better off buying ubiquiti AP and using their management platform. It has a lot of tools that let you centrally control the power and coverage of the AP. It has the ability to force devices off AP to force them to try other AP but it still is not really seamless roaming.

 

[chanwei21]

so AP mode is the only best choice for fully covered wifi area?

So wierd why they put WDS only, AP only & WDS+AP mode.

I though WDS+AP will covered much for those two.

 

[bill001g]

You can't really have WDS only. What that mean is ROUTER+WDS

Pretty much you run it as a router or as a AP and then you turn on/off the WDS. Would be simpler to just have 2 check boxes but they chose the list of option method.

WDS is only used to talk to a repeaters. It actually had a different purpose originally. I suppose someone may want to do
router--cable----ap----wifi---repeater---end user. So you would could connect a repeater to a AP.

I really wish the industry would stop trying to convince people that a repeater is some magic solution to wifi problems. Then again they just want to sell as many boxes as they can and don't really care since end consumers think more bars is all that matters and not how well the system performs.