A problem came up recently.
A WDS network was being setup, and the idea was to network all hotspots, to the primary Access Point, and use Chillispot to authenticate access.
Whilst that was a good idea, and sure enough, it was all set to work, Chilli didn’t seem to want to play ball with the WDS network on DD-WRT’s.
We tried EVERYTHING imaginable to get that working. We kept at the issue for a near day and more.
Nothing would cause it to work over the WDS network. It simply wasn’t bouncing packets around. The firmware must have been reset 30 times in a day!
We googled, and googled, .. and googled. And didn’t really come to any solution.
The next best solution for the issue, was to run a cable to the second AP, and that’s where the WDS network would start.
Unfortunately, it’s not fun running a cable through brick, and plus it costs more to get the cabler out and run the cable.
So, a second best solution came to mind.
What if, we cabled another AP, in the middle of AP1, and AP2, and told it to Bridge the network together.
The idea sounded great in theory, we had the spare interface on AP1, anyway (for LAN or WAN, or both). So, it was put into test, firstly, trying to use the WAN port for Chillispot to bind to, but that didn’t work. And just as the deadline approaches on the project, the LAN comes to mind.
So, to setup Chillispot, as a WDS network, on the DD-WRT firmware, simply, the following:
1. Install all Access Points, setup your WDS network, ignoring Access Point one. Statically IP them, disable DHCP, etc.
2. Have a cable ready to run to Access Point 2 (or the Access Point closest to ChilliSpot), and plug the LAN of Access Point 2, into the LAN of Access Point 1. Access Point 2 becomes a Wireless Bridge, which means the LAN connection goes to Access Point 1, and the Wireless goes to the WDS network, effectively connecting the WDS network to the ChilliSpot AP.
3. With the WDS network, and the Bridge setup, the next step is to setup ChilliSpot.
Enter all your settings. Enable Seperate LAN from WLAN, and use WLAN & LAN as the setting for Chilli’s DHCP Interface.
Eureka! A Massive WDS network.
Think of the possibilities. With the right approvals, etc. You could start your own ISP, and chop Telstra out of the equation for ADSL internet access, and that’s a good thing.
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It is possible to run Chilli, on a multi AP WDS net, without an extra ap, I’ve done it on OpenWRT and other linux boxes. It should(could) be possible under DD too. Just can’t figure out how from here. It does require having an IP address assigned to the wlan0 interface, non on chillis network and changing the firewall to allow other ap’s though, will maintaing DHCP clients through chillispot. It requires control over the ip addressing of chilli and wlan0 separatly and possibly the bridge built of virtual WDS links too….. Dunno if you can do this with DDWRT.
Tom PierToPier.net