WAP321 - No WDS and Single Point Setup

[richpeppi]

Hi folks

I bought 3 WAP321s with the intention of creating a fairly wide network in a large building where I can't easily add wiring.  Access was to be via a captive portal where I would create logins for all of the users.  However since I have bought the devices I discover that it isn't possible to use both WDS and clusters at the same time.  I have connected 2 devices by WDS by duplicating settings by hand in both but I have some questions that maybe some folks can answer?

1. Do I have to copy both the captive portal design and the username and logins to each of the 3 devices for this to work? (I think that I do now)

2. In the manual under the WDS discussion there is talk of both point to point and point to multipoint setups.  It seems to imply that with point to multipoint then there is a single WAP handling the client associations.  In that case does only one WAP handle the logins by captive portal?  I am trying to avoid having to duplicate the logins on all devices. 

3. How do you decide in WDS if you are point to point or point to multipoint?  Is it just the number of connections that you have on the WDS setup page?

An alternative if I am desperate is to use RADIUS but I am trying to avoid that

Just for reference I have already read the manual for the WAP321 several times as well as watching the video on WDS setup

Thanks

Richard

[lariasqu]

Hi Richard, thank you for using our forum, my name is Luis I am part of the Small business Support community.

1 and 2. It isn't necessary to copy the same captive portal configuration for all the equipment, you should just configure the central WAP and the rest will receive the Captive portal.

3. In the point-to-multipoint bridge mode, one WAP device acts as the common link between multiple access points. In your case if you are connecting two WAPs to one that is a multipoint bridge.

I hope you find this answer useful

Greetings,

Luis Arias.

Cisco Network Support Engineer.