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So since I am now out of an apartment and in a house, and have a bit more room to play with, I decided to get a Time Capsule, which I would then add to my existing Airport network in a WDS config.

So let me say that while the WDS setup for Airport Extreme is not hard, at least from my POV, it is not what it should be. Note, I did RTFM and try the simpler process of extending the network as opposed to WDS, however, that didn't work at all.

So I do the WDS, and it does work, as expected. The problem is, it's kind of a pain in the ass:

1. Write down all the wireless MAC addresses for all the base stations that will be involved in the network


2. Set the main station up as the main station, and enter in, manually, all the MAC addresses of the remotes


3. Set up the remote as a WDS remote, and manually enter in the MAC address of the main WDS station

Okay, so again, not rocket science, but it's also more work than it should be.

Why isn't this using Bonjour to find the other base stations and let me just log into the remotes and add them? It can automatically get the MAC addresses, and deal with all that for you.

This should not require anyone to add any MAC addresses in manually. For someone who deals with the ways that Apple tries, and largely succeeds in automating monkey work like this, dealing with such a...Windows - like process is like biting into a peach, and discovering it's really a pork chop.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, Airport, WDS

Comments

Yes, it is annoying -- particularly that you must lock the channel on each. Note, though, that you can click a device in AP Utility and Copy its MAC for pasting into WDS peers.

Posted by: reppep | June 6, 2008 12:05 AM

Yeah. This is, frankly, ridiculous. What's even more annoying is that prior versions of the Airport Admin software *did* automatically find other base stations and take care of all the behind-the-scenes work once you chose a base station from the list it provided. It's only when they moved to the new AirPort Utility.app that configuring WDS became such a pain. I admit AirPort Utility has some other very nice improvements, but this lack of basic functionality is stupid.

Posted by: The_Prof | June 6, 2008 11:42 AM

Not that there's anything wrong with pork chops.

Posted by: Arden | June 11, 2008 6:20 AM

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