Did Apple drop support for WDS in its most recent Airport Extreme?
Posted by Kevin Hanson | Posted in Apple, Technology | Posted on 25-11-2009-05-2008
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I run a WDS network at home, instead of using Apple’s default “Extend a Wireless Network” options. The reason for this is because I can very specifically define which relays connect to which base stations. If I use Apple’s default options, I often have the case where the third router in a hop tries to connect to the first, bypassing the second, and giving poor throughput. WDS solves this by letting me use MAC Addresses to specifically say which device connects to which. I purchased one of the newer Airport Extremes this week, hoping to extend the range of one of the devices, but to my surprise, the option for participating in a WDS network is no longer there! This is pretty obnoxious… Can someone please tell me I’m totally missing something? If so, it would be worth looking a bit stupid in order to get my network back up and running! Otherwise, I’ll have to take this thing back to the Apple store and buy a Netgear router or something like that.
Pretty sure you figured this out by now… but if you hold “alt” and click the wireless mode menu “Participate in WDS network” will show up. There has also been firmware updates that show “Participate…” after you have an AEBS “join” a main unit.