Wireless Problems
If you are plotting to Take Over the World, everyone knows it has to be done wirelessly. Just look at the cell phone companies; you can see that they are trying to take over the world, and they may do it, too. The Black Tower uses standard network cables and hubs to connect the 5 PCs, but what about to the outside? Right now there is a Cat 5 cable running from one of the hubs, across the floor and to the LAN router. The ultimate plan, however, is to make the Black Tower PCs a part of the LAN wirelessly.
The first step was to put a wireless router on the LAN. This proved to be much more difficult than I had thought. The Airlink AR315W wireless router I got for Christmas seemed like a good choice. It has four cable connections, including a cable uplink, and it has 802.11g wireless capability. I plugged it into our main D-Link router thinking I could make it a sort of wireless hub. Eventually this was accomplished, but only after a certain amount of frustration and anguish.
The problems began when the default IP address of the AR315W was in an entirely different range than the D-Link. I spent a lot of time trying to reset the AR315W IP address to somewhere within the range of the D-Link. To do this, I had to set a static IP address on my laptop to be within the range of the AR315W default network. Then I had to go into the AR315W confiuration screens and try setting things. To be fair, the configuration screens are fairly straightforward. But going back and forth between networks was a real pain.
Even so, the upshot was that when the AR315W's IP address was within the range of the D-Link router, nothing connected to the AR315W would ping to anything else, and the Internet was unreachable.
The problem was finally solved by my son, who seems to have developed an instinct for network settings. The IP of the AR315W was returned to its default setting (outside the D-Link network). But the AR315W WAN IP address was set to a value within the D-Link address range. Then the AR315W Gateway IP was set to the D-Link's base IP, and everything worked. My laptop could be connected by cable to the AR315W, and I was able to reach the Internet and ping both routers. I can also reach any of the University Linux PCs through the AR315W, so presumably a wireless PC could connect to The Black Tower right now. I have yet to test this however.
Buoyed by this success, I began a similar process to configure the Airlink AP411W access point that I had bolted to the Black Tower. The idea was that I could unplug the cable running from the Tower to the D-link, and have the networks connect wirelessly. Eventually, my laptop and the Tower could be anywhere I needed them, as long as there was power.
The AP411W had a fairly straightforward interface, but you have to reach it at its default IP 10.0.0.1 I then changed it to something within the range of AR315W on the theory that it would look like a hub on that network, and the wireless connection between it and the AR315W would, magically, give me a wireless connection to the Black Tower. I would have to reset all the PCs in the Tower to IP addresses within the AR315W network, and the Internet virtual server configuration would be interesting now that two routers and two networks were involved, but this seemed a reasonable price to pay.
Problem was, it didn't work. I spent a fair amount of time trying the different RF settings for modes, channels, SSIDs etc. But no combination, however logical, would cause the thing to do what I wanted. A look at some postings on the Internet has me convinced I can make this work, especially since the wireless router and the access point are both Airlink. I will probably have to re-read the CD manuals more closely, but it is obvious that wireless has a way to go before it can be said to be easy to set up.
My plan is also to configure the laptop for wireless network operation with the USB adapter I have. But first I have to upgrade to Windows ME; a process I am procrastinating on. It should be easy to get the wireless adapter to talk to either the router or the access point. Maybe this will help determine how the whole system should be configured. But if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know what else to try.
In the meantime the Tower is operation on my LAN and accessible over the Internet, if still by cable. So while I am solving the wireless puzzle, I can continue with the main task at hand: configuring the various University Linux PCs and servers for measurement and control.
The first step was to put a wireless router on the LAN. This proved to be much more difficult than I had thought. The Airlink AR315W wireless router I got for Christmas seemed like a good choice. It has four cable connections, including a cable uplink, and it has 802.11g wireless capability. I plugged it into our main D-Link router thinking I could make it a sort of wireless hub. Eventually this was accomplished, but only after a certain amount of frustration and anguish.
The problems began when the default IP address of the AR315W was in an entirely different range than the D-Link. I spent a lot of time trying to reset the AR315W IP address to somewhere within the range of the D-Link. To do this, I had to set a static IP address on my laptop to be within the range of the AR315W default network. Then I had to go into the AR315W confiuration screens and try setting things. To be fair, the configuration screens are fairly straightforward. But going back and forth between networks was a real pain.
Even so, the upshot was that when the AR315W's IP address was within the range of the D-Link router, nothing connected to the AR315W would ping to anything else, and the Internet was unreachable.
The problem was finally solved by my son, who seems to have developed an instinct for network settings. The IP of the AR315W was returned to its default setting (outside the D-Link network). But the AR315W WAN IP address was set to a value within the D-Link address range. Then the AR315W Gateway IP was set to the D-Link's base IP, and everything worked. My laptop could be connected by cable to the AR315W, and I was able to reach the Internet and ping both routers. I can also reach any of the University Linux PCs through the AR315W, so presumably a wireless PC could connect to The Black Tower right now. I have yet to test this however.
Buoyed by this success, I began a similar process to configure the Airlink AP411W access point that I had bolted to the Black Tower. The idea was that I could unplug the cable running from the Tower to the D-link, and have the networks connect wirelessly. Eventually, my laptop and the Tower could be anywhere I needed them, as long as there was power.
The AP411W had a fairly straightforward interface, but you have to reach it at its default IP 10.0.0.1 I then changed it to something within the range of AR315W on the theory that it would look like a hub on that network, and the wireless connection between it and the AR315W would, magically, give me a wireless connection to the Black Tower. I would have to reset all the PCs in the Tower to IP addresses within the AR315W network, and the Internet virtual server configuration would be interesting now that two routers and two networks were involved, but this seemed a reasonable price to pay.
Problem was, it didn't work. I spent a fair amount of time trying the different RF settings for modes, channels, SSIDs etc. But no combination, however logical, would cause the thing to do what I wanted. A look at some postings on the Internet has me convinced I can make this work, especially since the wireless router and the access point are both Airlink. I will probably have to re-read the CD manuals more closely, but it is obvious that wireless has a way to go before it can be said to be easy to set up.
My plan is also to configure the laptop for wireless network operation with the USB adapter I have. But first I have to upgrade to Windows ME; a process I am procrastinating on. It should be easy to get the wireless adapter to talk to either the router or the access point. Maybe this will help determine how the whole system should be configured. But if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know what else to try.
In the meantime the Tower is operation on my LAN and accessible over the Internet, if still by cable. So while I am solving the wireless puzzle, I can continue with the main task at hand: configuring the various University Linux PCs and servers for measurement and control.
posted by Documatrix at 8:06 PM
4 Comments:
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