Guys, thank you for the enlighting conversation.
Perhaps informative: I'm coding on Apple for +20yrs and my main prfession is event technology.
I love configuring devices by RS232. Many of them
However as feedback (also for MT and the posters):
I had absolutely no problem understanding capsman in the first place. That was exactly the object orientated concept you'll find in most modern languages.
Same for webfig or ssh. I found everthing I was looking for instantly.
The tree structure of the commands is easy to understand and again I found everything I was looking for.
The documentation is mostly fine.
I seldom cases I did not find proper reference. I'd appreciate to have the reference complete on it's own (too). Since e.g. the switch chip commands do not have a complete reference on their pages. I'd guess that a pure reference should be easy to doxy (or alike). That way I learned dBase. With a reference book.
Wireless is completely new to me (as event technology guys always lay cables). Also the more complex logic of routing and switching with more than two routers.
I personally do not have so many concerns about wifi performance.
Easy said:
On weekdays there'll be using <50 People the wireless. In the metal containers there'll be always only five or ten devices allowed anyway (only so called dj/vj but not audience).
Operations, office and streaming together will not be more than 20-30 clients at all at one time.
When there is a soccer worldcup there'll be 200-400 people(!) around and I'll limit tx to 1 MBit for freewifi (so that they don't stream the match on the big screens). But they still have 7+3 AP to connect to. I've heared the don't do more than 50 clients on one AP rule and I'll monitor this to see how many clients are really fine.
Over the thumb this is still enough as long as the clients distribute evenly on the APs (and geo.layout of the APs hopefully will do with a 3*2 rectangle).
On Sundays we have a flea market in front of the door (but within range of teh outdoor wifi) that is atteded by 1000-2000 People.
Here we took the strategic decision that we'll not cater that. Then we'd have had to buy high density APs for much more money to serve people that are not our customers.
On Sunday we'll turn free wifi off (== no Trial) and offer only hotspot login. The other ssids are wpa2 anyway.
My concern is different:
I'm more concerned about the cpu power of single devices.
I wouldn't use a hAPac3 with a quad core to capsman all traffic in capsman forwarding. The backbone would handle it but one device to manage traffic of up to 500 clients on all APs together?
Same applies if I take the approach to say my 7 Omni5 can be together one caspman entity. Then a 700 MHz single core cpu must handle a bit more traffic compared to local forwarding.
That is why I want it local forwarding:
Not wasting cpu power for things that can be configured, switched or routed. Firewall is fine since it works mainly on new connections, not established ones.
The dynamic queues a wireless client sets up if I give them a tx limit in their capsman settings concern me more. Since it can be at least 100 cueues to work down with every packet. To be honest I'm a burned child when it comes down to large queue lists.
If it is necessary I'd have no problem to put in a PC with an unlimited (L6?) license but for now I don't see the need.
Overall I have a good feeling for the wireless side of the project.
Thanks for the detailed explanation of when a dhcp hadshake is redone and why. I got it that was the information I needed because it will last give the office users that "roaming" experience.
For me capsman can do it's part of the show. Mainly for a hotspot, ACLs and ssid passwords.
For all other configs I'll have some scripts on my Mac and do it over terminal/ssh automated. That's what I do in other situations anyway. Nice scripts with loops and if clauses. After a week it runs fully automated.
I still have some architectural questions about my setup but will spread them to finer granulated questions here.
Thank you guys.
my 2ct are: command plain reference and (high level problems) these hovering tool tips in webfig would have been nice at some points in the past.