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Hey guys!
Does anyone know what is the difference between "Wireless access point and repeater function" and "repeater only"? I came across a vendor who provides these two functions simultaneously but aren't these two do the same thing?
Thanks for your help.

Regards.

Wireless AP's can function as "AP's, Bridge or Repeaters".
Repeaters are just repeaters they basically extend the wireless signal from the Root AP but degrade the performance of the throughput.

If some one else have a better elaboration on this please add your post thank you.

Mali thanks for your reply.
Yeah I know the feature of a repeater.
What I really wanna know is when do you use the "wireless access point and repeater" and "repeater only" function? I mean what is the main difference between this two modes?

You use the combination of AP & Repeater when the AP isn't a root AP but it is serving clients. The infrastructure would look like this:

Ethernet > Root AP > Repeater AP > Client

Hope this helps.

Devinator

Hi Devinator.
First of all, thanks for your reply.
From your infrastructure,
Ethernet > Root AP > Repeater AP > Client
are you saying that Root AP is in "wireless access point and repeater mode" while Repeater AP is in "repeater only" mode?
So the Client is able to associate with Repeater AP?
Actually I'm using the infrastructure same as yours now.
However, I set up Root AP and Repeater AP
both in "wireless access point and repeater mode" and it still works.
That's why I don't really know what is the real purpose of providing the additional "repeater only" mode.

No, the root AP is just in AP mode. The second AP (which is serving clients) is in AP/Repeater mode. It is possible for an AP to be in Repeater mode and not serve clients, but it's very rare. Mostly "Repeater" mode means AP/Repeater.

Yes, the client associates with the Repeater-AP. It's also normal that clients connect to the Root-AP also. So, a client may roam from one to the other depending on which provides the best connectivity.

The Root AP should be just an AP - not a repeater. The reason is that in some vendors' gear, when configured as a repeater, the Ethernet port won't work...which would be bad for the Root-AP, eh? :)

Devinator

Hi, everyone,

I am new to here today and see this topic.

As my limit concept about this question,
1.setting a AP as a Repeater (or WDS only): this AP will communicate with the MAC-address you specific in ONLY. Other user could not connect to this AP.
2.setting a AP with Repeater+AP(or WDS+AP): this will let this AP communicate with the MAC-address you specific in AND will serve clients near by as a normal AP.

Hoping this is useful to you all.
If any mis-understanding or wrong in this reply, please kindly point-out.

Have a nice day