Help setting up a wireless network (please!)

Unlikely to help as his router will probably be on that address not the WAP.

IME WAPs use DHCP to get an address and it is usually easy to go to the router and see what devices are attached to find the address of the WAP. Then it is usually possible to got to the WAP and configure it. I have never seen a WAP just use an IP address like 192.168.1.1 as that will almost certainly clash with any router in use.

If he is really unlucky he will have to use the software on the CD to set the WAP's IP address.

Reply to
dennis
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There isn't much point in having a wizard that sets encryption, etc. on a WAP that doesn't set it on the PC.

Reply to
dennis

It makes no difference to the security of the LAN if you use static addressing. It falls into the same myth as MAC filtering "security".

Reply to
dennis

That may cause more problems than it solves. Many routers would use 19.168.1.2 as the first DHCP address so you would end up with duplicate addresses on the net. He needs to use an address not in the DHCP range or use DHCP to assign the address.

Reply to
dennis

Yes. Actually, separate WAP's are harder to find nowadays.

DHCP can supply fixed IP addresses. Indeed I have everything here on fixed IP addresses, but they're dished out by DHCP so I configure them all centrally.

and configure appropriate firewall rules for each device.

My WAP isn't on my LAN -- it is separately firewalled off from both LAN and WAN.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Not always the solution - and not necessarily simpler. I had no desire to change my current router/modem, and in any case it's buried on a shelf inside a steel rack. Not an ideal placement for a WAP. I put the WAP high up on a shelf in the centre of the house, and plugged it into the nearest convenient network socket (of which there are 27).

So why not make management easier, and hand out the fixed addresses using DHCP, locked to the MAC addresses? That's what I do...!

Reply to
Bob Eager

[Following up my own posting]

A quick peek at D-Link's web site shows me that the fixed address for your WAP is in fact 192.168.0.50. I don't know why I didn't think of doing that before.

If your own network is 192.168.0. you're in luck and you should be able to just type 192.168.0.50 into the browser on one of your PCs wired to the network. If that doesn't work it's probable that your network is 192.168.1. or perhaps even something more obscure. Go to Control Panel (I'm assuming you've got a Windows PC), Network Connection, and the IP address of that PC is shown at the bottom left (on XP anyway). Your LAN's subnet address is the first three numbers.

Say you find that your PC is 192.168.1., that means that it will only be able to see other 192.168.1. devices on the network. So you need to change the WAP's address to

192.168.1.. To do this you connect the WAP directly to your PC, not through any hub, router, switch, or other device - just a wire. Disconnect your PC from the LAN and plug the WAP directly into your PC. Start your browser and go to 192.168.0.50. Look for the setting for the LAN IP address. Change it from 192.168.0.50 to 192.168.1.50 (substitute the first three numbers from your PC's IP address that you discovered earlier if necessary).

Now put all the wires back where they were and your PC will be able to access the WAP using the new number you specified. Also the WAP will be able to access your internet connection, etc.

If you lose contact with the WAP altogether you will need to press the Reset button round the back which will restore the default address.

There's still some way to go but hopefully you'll post again when you're in control of the WAP.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

One has to wonder what it can "access", in that case. :-)

My setup doesn't sound as highly segregated as yours but I think we both have the same thought: Don't give wireless clients access to anything they don't need access to.

My WAP is on its own LAN connected to the Internet via a NAT router[*]. My other PCs are on another LAN, which plugs into the first LAN through a wired NAT router. So wireless clients can't access the wired PCs, only the Internet.

Actually it's a bit more complicated than that, but never mind the details. It's considerably better than the usual single-LAN setup.

[*] A combined router/WAP would be an obvious simplification but the ADSL line comes in at the edge of the house (obviously) and the WAP works best in the middle of the house (ditto).
Reply to
Mike Barnes

In message , Harry Bloomfield writes

Because I didn't realise I could do that :-(

It could hardly have been more difficult :-)

Reply to
Graeme

dennis@home presented the following explanation :

From personal experience I can assure you it does add a level of security.

Again it does add some security, in as much as hackers need to find out a MAC with access to get through filter and spoof it.

Each layer adds a little to the time and difficulty of gaining access to a network.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Andrew Gabriel submitted this idea :

Only if the router supports the function.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

on 05/09/2009, Mike Barnes supposed :

So do what I have done and move the phone socket to where it needs to be.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

That obviously suits your situation but it wouldn't suit mine, because of the existing wiring.

In any event you get best performance by putting the "modem" as close to the exchange as you can get it.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

Ah, but it's *educational*.

And there is a silver lining. You can keep your router where it should be (near where the phone line comes into the house) and position your WAP somewhere else that gives you better wireless performance. A combined unit doesn't allow you to do that.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

ok, you need to take care here. The AP may well have the capability of acting as a DHCP server. However you probably don't want to use that. It would be better to have it bridge the requests to the main router, so there is a single device serving addresses and leases etc.

Go back to my other post about getting the wired side configured correctly, because if the wired side is not yet configured correctly, the laptop will never get an IP address. The default setting for the APs DHCP server is "off", and if its not on the same subnet as the main router it won't be able to get one from there either.

(if you did turn on DHCP serving in the AP, that would give the laptop an address, but you could still be in the situation where the *only* thing it can talk to is the AP!)

Reply to
John Rumm

According to the manual for the OPs device, the default IP is 192.168.0.50

I expect it will in this case - the ability to see the wireless lan, but inability of the laptop to get an IP address would suggest the AP and router are on different subnets.

Reply to
John Rumm

WAPs typically pass wireless originated DHCP requests to the default gateway for resolution. However they don't usually default to acquiring their own address via DHCP.

not in this case, since we know the default IP.

Reply to
John Rumm

Mike Barnes was thinking very hard :

I'm very close to our exchange at 0.6km, but I doubt even extending that another 60m on twisted pair even to the far end of our garden would make any difference at all.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

In message , Mike Barnes writes

OK, I have found the address in the manual (192.168.0.50) but cannot access it from a browser - page not found.

The subnet mask is indeed 255.255.255.0

OK. I have used our home network name with the suffix dlink.

SO far, so good, I think.

I'm trying to get things straight, in my head. The IP address seen by the outside world is actually the IP address of the Speedtouch router, supplied by Demon. There are currently eight devices attached (wired) to it (including an XBox, but we won't go there - it just works!).

The remaining seven are PCs, six with the same Subnet Mask (255.255.255.0) and Default Gateway (192.168.254.254). The IP addresses of the PCs are in the form 192.168.254.2 to 192.168.254.8, although 1 and 4 are missing.

I obtained the above details, using IPCONFIG on each PC.

The final PC is the new net book, which was showing IP Address and Subnet Mask both as 0.0.0.0, and a completely blank entry for the Default Gateway. I could, however, access my network, and the Internet from the new net book, using a wired connection.

I have now changed the net book, using Properties of TCP/IP, to :

IP Address 192.168.254.9 Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway 192.168.254.254

Mike, just caught up with your last post, and EUREKA!

Finally figured out how to access the WAP from another PC, and reset the addresses, and it all started working.

Thank you, everyone, who contributed. Wifey is happy, which means I'm happy :-)

Reply to
Graeme

Indeed. I read every post on the subject, and kept reading until I understood (most of) it.

Agreed.

One final thought has occurred. I'm not sure how secure the wireless part of the network is, and whether I'm allowing anyone who hacks the wireless part, access to the wired part. The WAP is plugged into one of the ports of the router.

I've accessed Shields Up from the net book, and it passed all tests, except the Ping test, but that result is the same for any PC on this network.

When setting up the WAP, I selected WPA2 security.

Reply to
Graeme

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