857w with 1200 repeater ? non cisco clients

[petermitchell]

can I have an IOS 857w router as root bridge and 1200 series in repeater mode ?

I have non cisco wireless clients ? Doco says enabling aironet extensions for repeater mode means non cisco clients don't work well. Is this still the case ?

Also i read somewhere that speeds above 11meg are 30mW only ?

Thanks for your help in advance.

[fredn]

If you are using autonomous IOS (aIOS) AP-1200 and it is in repeater mode (Non-Root) talking back to a ROOT AP (857) then clients hitting the NON-ROOT (1200) are relayed back to the 857. The problem with "repeater" mode or multiple radio hops is that this activity is not really defined well as far as interoperability goes. The Wi-Fi Alliance does not certify or test this interoperability and it will have mixed results depending on the clients. Now if you are using Cisco-Aironet clients then of course the multiple hops is fine (and that is part of the Aironet extensions) Aironet extensions allow that and other "polish" such as identification of Aironet device types within the Aironet GUI etc. If you disable aironet extensions then repeater hops may be problematic with Aironet clients. Again some clients work with more then on radio hop (repeater) and others do not. You may want to use the 1200 in WorkGroup Bridge mode (and connect another AP on the backside of the WGB on a different channel) this would eliminate the client latency from a two hop jump. On the other question, depending on the make/model and country some Access Points are indeed 30 mW when using OFDM (non-.11b rates).