Wireless APs within range of each other - is this OK?

[Rockin Mike]

Greetings, it's my first post on SmallNetBuilder. Thanks for being here to help.

I have an L-shaped house with a brick exterior.
The wireless router is in the least fortunate position; it's in an enclosed patio inside the acute angle of the L and must penetrate brick to reach anywhere in the main house.

+======================+
|......................|
|...WING A......AREA C.|
|......................|
+===============+......|
. . router->[x] |......|
. . . . . . . . |......|
. . . . . . . . |WING B|
. . . . . . . . |......|
. . . . . . . . |......|
. . . . . . . . +======+


I have cat 6 going into both wing A and wing B and I would like to have wireless access everywhere, and have only one network for everything.

I'm told I can do this by putting wireless Access Points on the cat 6 in wings A & B, but will there be problems in area C where the wireless AP ranges overlap?

Is it possible to have wapA & wapB inherit their security configs from the main router?
Is there a reason why they should or should not all have the same security config?
I'm currently running Trendnet TEW-731BR router set with B/G/N mixed mode and wpa2-psk with autodetect tkip/aes cipher.
The access points recommended are Trendnet TEW-638APB.

Also, please let me know if WAPs are not the right/best way to accomplish this.

Thanks in advance for all helps!

 

[sinshiva]

hey, overlapping APs are fine, just keep them on different channels. they will each need to be setup independently with different SSID's and you will need to tell the clients to manually choose the closer AP. looking around these forums, looks like ubiquiti devices may be what you are looking for if you want a seamless transition from AP to AP as the technology isn't built into the wifi spec

[edit/] if all your devices support wpa2 aes, you should really disable any mixed mode encryption/tkip and run straight aes

 

[Rockin Mike]

hey, overlapping APs are fine, just keep them on different channels. they will each need to be setup independently with different SSID's and you will need to tell the clients to manually choose the closer AP. looking around these forums, looks like ubiquiti devices may be what you are looking for if you want a seamless transition from AP to AP as the technology isn't built into the wifi spec

[edit/] if all your devices support wpa2 aes, you should really disable any mixed mode encryption/tkip and run straight aes

Thank you for the help. I will just use a naming convention (family-1, family-2, or somesuch) for the APs and ask family members to use the one with the most bars.

Not sure if all the devices do aes, we have a zoo of various Windows versions, Linuxes, Kindles, printers and game consoles. Not too worried about black hats since there's nothing very interesting in this quiet residential neighborhood. As long as it works and it's not wide open to the world I think our needs are met.

 

[thiggins]

This article may help
How To Add an Access Point to a Wireless Router