Participate in a WDS network OR Extend a wireless network?

[johny5]

I have a AEBS and recently purchased a new Airport Express 802.11N (took a while to get it to do what I want but think its a nice piece of kit now it works).

What I would like to do is extend my 802.11N network so there a is a strong signal at the back of the house but wondered what the differences (if any) there were between the 2 options of

1. Participate in a WDS Network
or
2. Extend a wireless network

Surely they both mean the same thing or am I missing something?

I did have a quick play at extending the AEBS to the Airport Express and seemed to get it working although I couldn't tell if my macbook was connecting through the express as I still had a weak signal at the back of the house. The transfer rates of file copies were a lot slower than if the macbook were sat next to the AEBS so it was either not working or i guess the fact that I am extending the network adds lag to it?
I cant see as it was this though?

[sblasl]

With the AEBS (is it a "n" version?), and the APE(n), you want to extend a wireless network. WDS is for the b/g network. The chipsets that allow the "n" feature does not support WDS.

Originally Posted by johny5

I have a AEBS and recently purchased a new Airport Express 802.11N (took a while to get it to do what I want but think its a nice piece of kit now it works).

What I would like to do is extend my 802.11N network so there a is a strong signal at the back of the house but wondered what the differences (if any) there were between the 2 options of

1. Participate in a WDS Network
or
2. Extend a wireless network

Surely they both mean the same thing or am I missing something?

I did have a quick play at extending the AEBS to the Airport Express and seemed to get it working although I couldn't tell if my macbook was connecting through the express as I still had a weak signal at the back of the house. The transfer rates of file copies were a lot slower than if the macbook were sat next to the AEBS so it was either not working or i guess the fact that I am extending the network adds lag to it?
I cant see as it was this though?

[Christina1971]

Huh -- I just got an Airport Express 802.11n today, I have an older Airport Extreme (draft-N, but no gigabit) and I set up a WDS network just an hour or so ago.

I did it that way because I want to use the Airport Express's ethernet port to plug into my TiVo, and I read that you have to set up a WDS network to do that. So the option was there -- I don't know if that's the best thing for the OP, but I'm pretty sure it can be done.

ETA: And it's working!

[Raydiddi]

All the forums I have read on this subject claim that a WDS cancels 802.11n when extending using APEBS and the new APE 802.11n. When I first set this up, the APEBS automatically configured as a WDS with the APE. The speeds were fast enough to stream 1080p to my xbox360 when it was pugged in via ethernet to the APE. My question is does the WDS cancel n? I switched to creating a wireless network with the APEBS and extending it to the APE (as oppossed to the WDS) but the speed seems exactly the same, however the signal does not seem as strong.