AP431W multifunction AP

The manual seems straightforward on how to do the usual TCP/IP setup of the computer in order to do the initial access of the AP in order to configure it. Once the AP has been set to client mode you should be able to revert your TCP/IP setting to "obtain an IP address automatically" and it should get an IP address from the network you are connecting to.

From Manual:- WDS (Bridge) The WDS mode converts the Access Point to a wireless bridge. It bridges the network clients from physically separate LANs into one virtual LAN. You will need to use ap431w access points throughout your network. This mode will not work if you try to use them with any other brand of access point.

Once the AP has been set to client mode then as long as the computer network cards are set to "obtain an IP address automatically" then it should get an IP address from the DHCP server in the network.

Thanks for looking at the docs.

This wireless adapter part isn't working. I can configure the 431w as an AP client and configure it to connect to a wireless network by SSID and MAC with configuration for the security.

When I then ethernet the 431 to the computer, I do not get assigned an IP.

One of the problems with this attempt is that when the 431 is ethernetted to the computer, I cannot access it with its webpage address (which I changed to http://192.168.1.251 because I have another device/AP in the LAN with the 431's default page http://192.168.1.250) For a little background; this network is Airlink AR325W router, D-Link DES-1105 5-port switch, Airlink AP421W access point (as an access point), with the router and the a/p using WPA security.

The only way I can see the 431 to tinker with changing anything is to take down the ethernet to the computer and put the 431 (back) on the switch. Then tinker and then take it back down again to 're-ethernet' to the computer.

That router requirement is going to be a problem in a few days when I travel to the place where I want to try this 'for real' -- because I wasn't planning on taking a router with me if I could make this experiment 1 work.

Speaking of routers; Fry's has that cute dd-wrt configurable wireless G router on sale now for $12. If it was a good deal at $20, it must really be a good deal at $12.

It's possible that only the AP in client mode is assigned an IP address, as your normal ethernet card would be.

Did you reboot the AP? Step 4 Once the Access Point has restarted, you may disconnect it from the wireless router and connect it to the Ethernet port of your computer or game console, and reboot the Access Point.

OK I got it working as an open insecure system. Unfortunately, I believe that is the condition of the system that I'm going to be trying it on in a few days.

Now I'm going to work on getting WEP working.

Yes. Because of the (somewhat awkward) way I am doing this, whenever I change something such as putting the 431 from the computer to the switch and then back to the computer again, I powerdown the switch and the 431 and the computer, ethernet the 431 to the switch instead of the computer, powerup the switch then the 431, open the 431 configuration page with another computer on the network, make the changes, powerdown the switch and the 431, move the 431's ethernet to the computer instead of the switch, powerup the switch then the 431 then the computer.

Just to make things a little more complicated, the computer I'm using with the 431 has wireless which I haven't reconfigred to be disabled on startup, so whenever it gets powered up again, its integrated wireless is connected with an IP - so then I disable that to prevent confusion on my part and on such as a browser's part about which connectivity to use

- local connection (to the 431) instead of the integrated wireless.

From my perspective, those Airlink instructions are very skimpy for anything besides a default access point.

Once when I was doing some 431 'configuring' by trying to take a shortcut and not use the switch, I accidentally accessed the other airlink a/p (part AP421W) and when I tried to configure it as a access point client with security, I got the message that WPA security wasn't available on the AP client mode of that a/p.

I haven't gotten that message from the 431, but maybe it has the same problem/condition just without the alert.

I don't 'accept' that statement about WDS not working except between two

431s. I don't understand why that would be (with my limited networking tech level of understanding) and I don't know what would be so 'unique' about a wireless signal that would make an airlink AP431W not be able to talk to an airlink AP421W, for example, or any of a number of other a/ps, such as an Airlink AR325W; to say nothing of some other brands which might have the same wireless chipsets and other characteristics.

The problem is that WDS is not a "standard" and is not necessarily implemented the same way in devices. I can't be bothered to trawl all the manufacturers but for instance take belkin:- "Note: The WDS feature is not completely specified in IEEE or WiFi standards. Therefore interoperability between 802.11 products of different Vendors is not guaranteed.We can only recommend and advise on setting up a Wireless Bridge between the Belkin Devices listed on the following page. Please take care to note the Version of the Hardware as well as the Model Number as this may change the nature of the devices compatibility with WDS. The WPA encryption type is not supported over a Wireless Bridge and in such instances WEP is the compatible encryption type."

In the ~23 years that I've been playing with networking, I haven't bothered to power down any equipment when I make cabling changes. Perhaps I've been lucky, I don't know.

No question, you aren't making this easy for yourself.

I've done (and am doing) everything you're trying to do, but I'm using multiple Linksys WRT54GL's so my experience probably doesn't apply, at least from a step by step perspective. Hang in there, you'll get it.

I was only able to do that open, no security. I could not successfully configure for WPA or WEP. That is, I could configure for that, but I could not achieve connectivity.

I was not able to do this at all. I used the WAN port on the router to ethernet the 431 and a computer to a LAN port. That situation is very difficult to troubleshoot, because the 431 is 'invisible' in the middle, so none of the troubleshooting tools I was using did any good.

The troubleshooting only went as far as from the computer to the router, which was working just fine. That is, the computer had a local connection to the router and the computer which was wirelessly equipped could also see the router's wireless. It seemed that the router had an IP which I assumed came from the 431 which was connect to the other network's AP, but maybe it didn't.

In any case, the computer couldn't get 'past' the router to see the internet. Or the 431 which was ethernetted to the router's WAN.

In the configuration of the 431, one option was to configure it as a WDS or as a WDS with accesspoint. I configured it 'just' as a WDS.

The other day I was trying to find out something in the wikipedia about keyboard and mouse connections and I learned that there was potential 'danger' to the mobo from the PS/2 hot swap. The risk factor isn't high, but it isn't zero either.

I have never been sure about hotswapping ethernets. I have made changes hot, but in this case, the switch I was using to configure the 431 was the same switch that was connecting for the access point which was (also) being reconfigured for open vs wep vs wpa. I wanted to be sure that the switch was 'straight' with the network so that there wasn't one more source of confusion when I couldn't get connectivity.

So, I figured I might as well powercycle the switch and since it was being power cycled, the poweroff stage might as well be the part when I was switching cables.

The other 'normal' AP in the mix, the 421, would sometimes 'act up' when it would be rebooted by software saving a new configuration, and it would also then need to be powercycled because its lights would go whacky and its webpage become unaccessible.

At each step, I thought I was 'just about thru' so I didn't bother killing the integrated wireless on the test laptop.

Actually I would like to hear about what you've done with the linksys, because I'm getting ready to dd-wrt (or some other firmware mod) the little Fry's router. Maybe it could have more capability than what I'm trying with this airlink multifunction + trendnet router. I'm not actually so very happy with all I've accomplished so far.

I could use the 431 as a remote AP in the particular situation I'll be in the next week or so because I believe that wireless is just open, but I was hoping to be able to make a subnet off that AP as a bridge.

I've done that with an open connection and a WEP-encrypted connection. I haven't tried anything more secure than that.

I'd probably have to go back to your OP to see what you're trying to accomplish here. This brief description doesn't make any sense to me.

I wasn't able to follow what you're trying to do here.

There should be only one DHCP server per subnet, (if you use DHCP at all), thereby not only eliminating IP conflicts but also eliminating all doubt as to where IP address assignments are coming from.

I thought the 431 was the AP, but since it's cabled to the router's WAN port it's obviously not configured as an AP. I'm easily confused.

I very briefly played with WDS quite awhile back but was not impressed with its performance at all. I'm sure there are situations where it's well suited, but it wasn't what I needed.

My switches get rebooted whenever we lose power here, which I believe has happened 2 or 3 times since 2001. When I shuffle cables on a switch, it seems to recover within a second or two.

I'm currently using several Linksys WRT54GL's + dd-wrt as an access point (open, WEP, WPA, and WPA2), as a wireless client (open, WEP), and as a wireless client bridge (open, WEP). The wireless client bridge didn't work until I upgraded to a newer beta version of the firmware.

I'm not able to parse your last line above. An AP is already a bridge, and it will be a member of whichever subnet it's attached to, so if you want the AP to be on a new subnet you'd create that new subnet on the device to which the AP is attached, right?

Here's the rest

Exercise 2: I want to attach the device via the ethernet port (WAN or LAN) of a router2. I want the router2 to be the heart of a sub-network. The AP (or Bridge) will be communicating wirelessly to the AP (or router1 integrated AP) of the other network, and the computers connected to the router2 wired or wirelessly will be getting their NAT IPs from router2.

What I'm calling using the 431 as a 'bridge' is that the network which is NATed from the airlink router1 is connected AP to AP - wirelessly - so that the other router2 is able to NAT for the computers connected to it wired and wirelessly. In this case, the router2 is a Trendnet.

I'll pay closer attention to the DHCP configuration. I assumed that I would be using the trendnet router2's dhcp for the subnetwork.

The airlink docs were very scanty about how to configure the 431 as a bridge.

The reason I thought I should connect it to the trendnet router2's WAN is because that is where the trendnet and its 'family' would be getting their connectivity from.

But I think I recall that the airlink people said I should connect it to the LAN of a router, but that didn't make any sense to me in my configuration. Then the router2's WAN port would be empty. Is that the way it is supposed to be when there is a subnet situation?

Here's what I mean when I say AP in the 'primary' sense of both of these multifunction devices 421 (functioning for me as a AP proper) and 431 - functioning as a AP client in experiment 1 and as a bridge in experiment 2.

To me, an AP proper is serving as a way - a radio-antenna access point - for devices like wireless nics to connect to. To me, that proper AP is just like the - or another - antenna/radio on a wireless router. The wireless nics which connect to the network via the AP or the router's antenna are just trying to get connected to the router - the router that the AP proper is ethernetted to.

Then, in these other functions, the AP client is instead acting like a radio/antenna extension of a ethernet nic, and/but the AP bridge function is not exactly like either.

The AP bridge is trying to act like a radio/antenna to connect wirelessly with a 'wireless' IP which is connected to the wired WAN/internet of LAN network1. Its 'backend' - the ethernet part is connected to the LAN of network2 via a connection to router2.

The reason I'm expressing myself in so many words is because it isn't working for me. Maybe I'm trying to get this hardware to do something it can't do.

One way to accomplish that is to configure the 431 as a "wireless client bridge", in dd-wrt terms. The 431 will connect wirelessly to the existing router1/AP. Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the

431's LAN ports to Router2's WAN port. Connecting the 431 to a LAN port on Router2 would simply extend the existing subnet rather than creating a new subnet. The new subnet will be isolated from the existing subnet, which seems to be what you want. The WAN port on the 431 will be unused.

Using a device with dd-wrt, I believe you can use a single network device to accomplish the role of the 431 and router2. Wireless Client mode should do it, or Wireless Client Bridge mode if you need to keep router2 in the mix.

If you're simply extending an existing subnet, then you'd connect to a LAN port on router2 and leave the WAN port unused, but if you're trying to create a new subnet under router2 you'd use its WAN port.

There's a lot more information on this topic in the Wireless Wiki, to which a link is posted in this group pretty often. I just don't happen to have it handy at the moment, unfortunately.

I think I understand a little better now. It doesn't seem like you want anything unusual, but I don't know anything about your specific hardware or its capabilities.

Thanks.

John Navas and Jeff Liebermann

Navas Wireless Wiki is a practical, comprehensive, and objective resource for wireless communications, particularly wireless access to the Internet, and related wireless technologies (e.g., cellular). Founded by John Navas and Jeff Liebermann.

My target situation after the experimentation is most like WiFi on a boat and lan on a boat in the wiki -- except the big problem with the comparison of the wiki and reality is that the wiki assumes a level of competence and consistency at the 'shore-based DHCP server' which in my actual situation needs much better oversight and tech competence than exists at the site on my trip. And that part is out of my control.

I won't know how good or bad it is until I get there.

The layers of access are: professionally managed and installed fiber to the edge of the project, out of sight; non-tech-savvy amateurish distribution of wireless toward something similar to metal boats or manufactured homes; (I think) the back end/deck of the boat-like metal enclosure is within easy line of sight of a wireless router or antenna or something.

I want to have a wired/wireless lan inside that metal enclosure while I'm there.

I got this exercise 2 working just fine now by configuring the 431 as a AP client ethernetted to the WAN port of the router and not configured as a WDS bridge in the 431 config section, that bridge config didn't work.

I'm glad that it works that way - as AP client, because that will allow me to do exercise 1 and exercise 2 at the target facility without having to reconfigure the 431.

What I want to do is assess the signal 'here and there' at the facility and also with and without 2 mods to the 431.

In exercise 1, I'll evaluate the signal off the back deck of the 'houseboat' metal enclosure compared to that signal internal to the houseboat. Then I'll evaluate the back deck signal with the first 431 mod which is a tall 14" rubber ducky boost for the 431 - replacing the normal little omni antenna with the big tall omni one.

Then I also have a freeantennas reflector mod which is an enlarged version of their ez-12 parabolic for the 14" ducky. The reflector isn't

14" tall, but it is about 7" high and the curved part was about 10" before it curved. It fits 'nicely in the middle section of the 14" ducky.

I'll see if there is useful improvement to the signal strength with those mods by connecting the AP client directly up to a laptop. That will also allow me to aim the reflector if there is benefit in that mod.

Then I'll 'convert' the AP client into the 'receiver' for the router inside the houseboat.