Re: Multiple Wireless Access Points

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:18:51 GMT, "Joe DiGiovanni"
<mrcpuhead@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>The devices are Belkin High Speed Mode Wireless G Routers (F5D7231-4). They
>can be configured to run in "access point only" mode.

I'm not sure about that model, but when I tried their "bridge" mode
selection, all control over the wireless settings were lost because
the internal web server was disabled in their bridge mode. It's much
easier to simply:
1. Assign a proper IP address (more on this later)
2. Disable DHCP.
3. Ignore the WAN port connection.
4. Connect to the wired LAN using a LAN port, not the WAN port.
That effectively turns your wireless router into an access point
without losing the web server config.

>The autoconfig address is a 169.254.x.x (I don't have the exact address
>with me - these devices are at my kids' school).

Ok. That means the clients are not connecting to the DHCP server.
One obscure possibility is that I've seen some access points block
broadcasts. This requires buggy firmware to accomplish and I suspect
is NOT the problem here.

Is there some kind of security system running on the W2K server that
would prevent it from recognizing a new computer on the LAN?

Try downloading and using a free DHCP tester:
> http://www.weirdsolutions.com/weirdSolutions/files/products/desktopSoftware/desktopQueryTool/querytool_free.exe
It does NOT require an IP address to be assigned in order to find a
DHCP server and will function with 169.254.xxx.xxx or whatever.

Incidentally, I'm not thrilled with Belkin products in general and
suggest you try an alternative. Almost any wireless router setup as
an access point will work for what you're doing.

>The Win2K server is both DHCP and DNS server. Indeed I thought that by
>setting the belkin in "access point" only mode, it would happily pass
>packets between the wireless client and wired server.

It should. Something is wrong, but I can't tell without sniffing the
traffic to see what's happening. If you feel ambitious, setup
Ethereal for sniffing. Connect a hub (not a switch) between the
access point and the DHCP/DNS server. Filter for DHCP and ARP
packets. If you've never done this before, this is not a trivial
exercise and can best be solved by substitution.

>Are you saying in this mode, the WAP *doesn't* have to have an address in
>the same subnet as the wired computers?

Exactly. However, you have no reason to do this, so I would not.

In the bridge (access point) mode, the only thing that IP address does
is give you access to the device configuration. It can be any IP
address you find useful and has no effect on bridging.

I do this on systems that are short of /24 IP addresses[1] or where I
don't want clients playing with the wireless devices. For example, I
have the DHCP server deliver IP's to the clients using 192.168.1.xxx,
while all the access points and devices are on 192.168.111.xxx. Since
bridging doesn't know anything about IP addresses, as long as my
management computer can be configured to 192.168.111.xxx, I can talk
to the wireless devices. XP and W2K allow multiple aliased IP's on a
single interface so this is really easy. However, in your case, I
don't see any benefit so setting the device and client IP's in the
same /24 network is probably the desired configuration.

Incidentally, if you juggle IP's quite a bit on a laptop management
device, I suggest using:
http://www.NetSwitcher.com
to make it easy. I have something like 30 configurations, one per
customer network, on mine. Yeah, this is a plug.

[1] Whenever I mention running out of /24 IP addresses (253), someone
always remarks that such a large system should be broken up with
VLAN's or subnets to control traffic. That's true. However,
connecting 2 or more remote offices with a VPN will instantly consume
a substantial number of IP's. Each client computah now will have two
IP's. One for the local LAN on one subnet, and one for the VPN on the
remote /24 network. Traffic is controlled by the routers, but the IP
consumption is still substantial.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
AE6KS 831-336-2558
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: SBS 2003 Misconfigured?
    ... The netgear has a setting for the Internet IP which is set to the ... DNS server address is set to SBS server's ip 192.168.5.109 ... but something else is clearly awry if you can't get DHCP ... Which, based on the configuration you gave, is part of the problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: SBS 2003 Misconfigured?
    ... The netgear has a setting for the Internet IP which is set to the ... DNS server address is set to SBS server's ip 192.168.5.109 ... DHCP working - and as Cliff says, that should be a simple thing. ... Which, based on the configuration you gave, is part of the problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: SBS 2003 Misconfigured?
    ... The netgear has a setting for the Internet IP which is set to the ... DNS server address is set to SBS server's ip 192.168.5.109 ... but something else is clearly awry if you can't get DHCP ... Which, based on the configuration you gave, is part of the problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: After SBS 2003 PREM Install (Action PAK) No company web or int
    ... There's no reason why a properly configured device cannot do DHCP for your ... in an SBS network is to let SBS be primary for the DNS ... Server Error in '/' Application. ... "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: SBS 2003 Misconfigured?
    ... DHCP shows up on the server as running. ... The netgear has a setting for the Internet IP which is set to the ... Which, based on the configuration you gave, is part of the problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)