ok network guys

[Davidtxs]

I have a wired network at the office and want to be able to connect a couple of wireless laptops, the router we use for the wired network runs DHCP, what do i need to connect the wireless to it?
i have a wireless router but its having problems connecting and would i just plus that into the regular network hub?
does all this make sense

thanks

[David Whatley]

Come off the wired router to the wireless router. Then have the wireless laptop connect to the wireless router. You may need to configure the wireless router to Static IP, if that is what the wired router is set for.
David

[TXhummer2]

Your wireless router has settings for "Advanced Routing" then "If the router is hosting your Internet connection, select Gateway mode. If another router exists on your network, select Router mode."

Normally with a Cable/DSL modem, your (wireless/wired) router is the only one. In a corporate network, usually there is already a router serving the network to the internet/corpnet. Your wireless router in your situation should NOT be set to be GATEWAY, and it can DHCP request its own address while serving "private" addresses to wireless devices.

www.practicallynetworked.com is a good source for info.

[srwatters]

It depends on what you want to do from the wireless clients. If all you want/need is Internet access, then there isn't much you need to do besides hook the wireless router up in it's default setup. If you want to connect with other computers on the wired LAN, then you might have to do a little more work.

The issue is the difference between an access point (bridge) and a router. You most likely have a router and not an access point (although some routers can work as access points). A router's job is to connect two different networks together. The access point simply allows the wireless clients to exist on the same network. If you don't understand IP networking, then all this techno-babble, won't mean much, but if you want to use the wireless router, you are going to need to set it up manually like this:

The 'Internet' interface on the router will need a static (assigned) IP address in the same class network that the main LAN router uses. You will have to assign a different network to the client side (wireless and LAN) and add a static route from all clients back to the address of the Internet interface of the wireless router. Something like this:

Main LAN - 192.168.0.x
Main LAN router - 192.168.0.1
Main LAN static route set same as clients (see below)
Wireless router Internet interface - 192.168.0.254
Wireless router network - 192.168.1.x
Wireless router client interface - 192.168.1.1
Wireless router default route - 192.168.0.1
NAT services turned OFF on wireless router

The static route that the main LAN router and clients must use:
route add net 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.254 1

That means send all packets destined for the wireless LAN clients to the wireless LAN router's wired interface.

Lesson two on routing begins in 15 minutes

[bee]

Also, check and see if your wireless router can act as just an Access point. If it can, just plug it into your switch and your laptop will get an ip from the wired router. This is of course assuming that any security on the wireless matches the security on the laptop.

[Davidtxs]

ok i gotta stand up to read scotts it way over my head lol
nah actually i do kinda understand it ill jus hardcode an ip in the wireless router and find the settings to change it to an access point i think i saw something about that today
thanks yall

[AndrewCCM]

The key is you not wanting both routers to host the same dhcp range. Staticly assigning or just changing the scope will be the quickest setup. Depending on how many machines you have, you might just change out your wired router with one that has wireless as well. Little less complicated...but either way works.

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by AndrewCCM

The key is you not wanting both routers to host the same dhcp range. Staticly assigning or just changing the scope will be the quickest setup. Depending on how many machines you have, you might just change out your wired router with one that has wireless as well. Little less complicated...but either way works.

That's one problem that's solved with NAT as long as you don't need the wireless machines to talk to the wired ones. If all he needs is Internet access, then the default configuration will work just fine. The other issue is the route back to the wireless routers LAN/WLAN if the machines need to share data etc.

I've done this so many times for friends, I could do it in my sleep

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by srwatters

That's one problem that's solved with NAT as long as you don't need the wireless machines to talk to the wired ones. If all he needs is Internet access, then the default configuration will work just fine. The other issue is the route back to the wireless routers LAN/WLAN if the machines need to share data etc.

I've done this so many times for friends, I could do it in my sleep

Ditto. I was assuming they need to access resources on the LAN (wired).