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turtles
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:23 pm    Post subject: Multi Access points, single SSID router? Reply with quote

Greetings all, I have been asked to set up a network that has say 3-5 wireless AP's that are all wired back to a single router /gateway.
These AP's would all have the same SSID, ideally the router gateway would be a single point of password management / dhcp server.
This way the users WIFI devices would log onto 'ABC_CO' wifi and wherever they are on site there device will work.
Instead of having 5 networks like ABC_CO1, ABC_CO2 etc.. with 5 different passwords.
Can this type of a setup be pieced together with opensource tools?
Has anyone implemented this with some sort of Linux router project or opensource hardware?

Thanks in advance.
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szatox
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, it can be done with open source tools. It can even be trivial, depending on the other requirements.

Just having the same ESSID on all APs should enable roaming on the client side (it's not exactly a new feature, so I'd expect it to be universally supported)
Depending on the total size of the wireless part of your network, you might get even away with a single segment and just letting the central switch do what it does by default anyway - mapping remote MAC addresses to local ports. This way routing between different endpoints takes care of itself, though it will only work for relatively small networks.

Then you have authentication and encryption. Since you mentioned centralized passwords, you may want to use radius or a captive portal. Either way, you will probably need some hooks managing firewall, bridges, or any other way of attaching your guest to the rest of the network. This is going to be the most tricky part.
I suggest you lookup the phrase "wpa2 enterprise", for tips on this particular matter.
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turtles
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PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2021 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

szatox wrote:
Yes, it can be done with open source tools. It can even be trivial, depending on the other requirements.

Just having the same ESSID on all APs should enable roaming on the client side (it's not exactly a new feature, so I'd expect it to be universally supported)

Thanks Ill try this first.

szatox wrote:

Depending on the total size of the wireless part of your network, you might get even away with a single segment and just letting the central switch do what it does by default anyway - mapping remote MAC addresses to local ports. This way routing between different endpoints takes care of itself, though it will only work for relatively small networks.

Yeah in this case its a multi level home on a steep hill with thick walls and yard, larger property.
szatox wrote:

Then you have authentication and encryption. Since you mentioned centralized passwords, you may want to use radius or a captive portal. Either way, you will probably need some hooks managing firewall, bridges, or any other way of attaching your guest to the rest of the network. This is going to be the most tricky part.
I suggest you lookup the phrase "wpa2 enterprise", for tips on this particular matter.

Will do thanks
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Zucca
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PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2021 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wouldn't wi-fi bonding do the trick..? I've never tried, but I have plans to install another wi-fi ap on my server...
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PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2021 2:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do you mean by wifi bonding?[/quote]
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PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2021 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe something like this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wireless_bonding

I wonder if just running hostapd for two interfaces and then runninng dhcp server on the bond network interface would work... I might be totally wrong here. Correct me if I'm wrong.

It's plain simple for wired from what I've read (and you get the speed boost too), but wireless is another beast.
I'd test, but I have no space wifi card available.
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PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2021 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alright, I don't think bonding is going to help here.
The OP mentioned several AP and "a large property", so I don't think he will want/be able to cover the area with coax cables.
Also, bonding typically requires the target host to be accessible through all the links that are on-line, which is not going to be the case on wifi spanning several distinct zones(well, it can accidentally work with only 1 out of n links pointing to the destination, but you can't rely on this); here bridging would do much better, if the network was built around hostapd running soft APs. Which is actually an interesting path to explore, even though it's probably suboptimal. I mean, I've been running hostapd for ages, just because I didn't have to buy anything to get started, and it works well, but dedicated* hardware would be cheaper than whatever I payed for it in electricity bills.

* like an RPi + AP for example. RPis didn't exist at the time.
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turtles
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PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2021 10:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

szatox wrote:
Alright, I don't think bonding is going to help here.
The OP mentioned several AP and "a large property", so I don't think he will want/be able to cover the area with coax cables.
Also, bonding typically requires the target host to be accessible through all the links that are on-line, which is not going to be the case on wifi spanning several distinct zones(well, it can accidentally work with only 1 out of n links pointing to the destination, but you can't rely on this); here bridging would do much better, if the network was built around hostapd running soft APs. Which is actually an interesting path to explore, even though it's probably suboptimal. I mean, I've been running hostapd for ages, just because I didn't have to buy anything to get started, and it works well, but dedicated* hardware would be cheaper than whatever I payed for it in electricity bills.

* like an RPi + AP for example. RPis didn't exist at the time.

Thanks for the idea's, I am sure he'd try anything to get better wifi with two teenage kids trapped at home trying to do online school, but yeah if we can avoid covering the place in coax that would be good.

Ill check out hostapd, looks good
https://w1.fi/hostapd/

smesh is an older project trying to do a 'mesh' but looks interesting:
http://www.smesh.org/

This article is interesting
https://www.networkworld.com/article/2336231/improving-wireless-handoffs.html
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PostPosted: Sun May 09, 2021 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This might be of interest: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/618635/hostapd-on-two-interfaces-two-configuraton-files
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