Our Bullet2 Access Point WDS configuration- guest blog by J

Bullet2 Configuration

Connect Bullet2 via Ethernet to computer. Turn Airport off, go to browser, and enter IP address of Bullet2.

Main appears to be a summary of the current configuration and also shows some data, such as signal strength.

Link Setup contains Wireless settings.

Wireless Mode is set to Station WDS (Wireless Distribution System) for the receiving Bullet2 and Access Point WDS for the broadcasting Bullet2.

ESSID is the name of the network, which in our case is OrkeeswaNet. If we end up using a midpoint, we will name the two pairs of Bullet2 modems with different ESSIDs so as to make troubleshooting easier.

Lock to AP MAC is the MAC of the partner Bullet2, so if I were configuring the receiving Bullet2 I would set this field to the MAC of the broadcasting Bullet2.

Output Power can be controlled here, but in our case we want the maximum output, which is 20 dBm.

Security gives a number of options in a drop-down menu, but we choose WPA2-AES because it gives the best protection / bandwidth ratio, basically the best value if we don't need it super well protected.

WPA Authentication is PSK in our case, which stands for Preshared Key.

WPA Preshared Key is basically a password for the network, in our case orkeeswa.

When all of the settings are as they should be, click Change at the bottom of the page.

Network contains settings for the "identities" of the pieces of equipment in the network.

Network Mode is Bridge in our case, since we are basically creating a "bridge" between two Bullet2 modems.

Bridge IP Address can be set to DHCP or Static depending on what we want to do.

IP Address is the "name" you assign the Bullet2 you are configuring. It is standard to assume your "gateway," in our case the TPLink router, is named 192.168.1.1, so we assign the broadcasting Bullet2 192.168.1.2, the receiving Bullet2 192.168.1.3, and so on if we have a midpoint and two more Bullet2 modems.

Netmask defines the range of IP addresses that are available for the router to assign to the individual computers in the network. In our case, the router is the Netgear and the network of computers is the Orkeeswa Computer Lab. We set Netmask to 255.255.255.0, which means that there are 256 IP addresses available for the Netgear to assign to the computers at Orkeeswa. Definitely more than we will need.

Gateway IP is the IP address of the initial router. As mentioned above, it is 192.168.1.1.

Primary DNS IP and Secondary DNS IP are the IP addresses of the Domain Name Servers that handle the Internet requests on the broadcasting end of the setup. In our case, they are not required so we simply filled them in with 1.1.1.1 and 1.1.1.2.

Auto IP Aliasing should be checked.

When all of the settings are as they should be, click Change at the bottom of the page.