24 Sep
2010
24 Sep
'10
2:10 p.m.
It appears as though my wireless router hub thingy has died. I need a
new one. But here's the thing. I wan't to setup a smoothwall machine
using some old hardware I have around. And since I'll have this, I
don't need (or want) the router feature that's seems to be supplied
with all these consumer grade wireless access points.
What I really want is a wireless access point that simply puts
everyone on the wired network, if that's possible. Ideally, I'd like
to handle DHCP through the smoothwall box, although I'm willing to do
static IP on the wireless devices if i need to.
Worst case, I guess I could just continue the way I always have,
having the wireless access point handle DHCP for the wireless devices
and turning off the firewall features so that everything passes
through.
Of course, maybe I want that extra layer of security since WEP is so
bad. But I know there's new wireless security standards tor replace
WEP.
Can I get away with just a wireless network board in the smoothwall
machine and use that as the access point? I suspect range would
suffer.
As you can tell, I'm not up on any of this. I know enough to assemble
a network that works. But network design and security isn't my thing.
brian
24 Sep
24 Sep
2:42 p.m.
On 9/24/2010 2:10 PM, Brian Lanning wrote:
It appears as though my wireless router hub thingy has
died. I need a
new one. But here's the thing. I wan't to setup a smoothwall machine
using some old hardware I have around. And since I'll have this, I
don't need (or want) the router feature that's seems to be supplied
with all these consumer grade wireless access points.
What I really want is a wireless access point that simply puts
everyone on the wired network, if that's possible. Ideally, I'd like
to handle DHCP through the smoothwall box, although I'm willing to do
static IP on the wireless devices if i need to.
I'm assuming your smoothwall box will be doing the NAT.
Turn off NAT and DHCP server on the router.
Use the native, built-in access point functionality of pretty much any
wireless router. It will connect wired and wireless machines just fine.
Don't use the WAN port on the router.
If you have a DSL router with built-in ADSL port, you'll need to put the
router into bridge mode if it has one.
If you can't disable NAT on the router, this could still work, but it's
ugly to double-NAT.
Worst case, I guess I could just continue the way I
always have,
having the wireless access point handle DHCP for the wireless devices
and turning off the firewall features so that everything passes
through.
Of course, maybe I want that extra layer of security since WEP is so
bad. But I know there's new wireless security standards tor replace
WEP.
Then don't run WEP. Use WPA2 or something.
Keith
3:10 p.m.
Sounds like you want a wireless bridge. I know Linksys makes one (can't remember
the model #) but my father-in-law uses one to wirelessly connect his DirecTV
receiver to the rest of his wireless network.
________________________________
From: Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 1:10:18 PM
Subject: OT: wireless access solutions
It appears as though my wireless router hub thingy has died. I need a
new one. But here's the thing. I wan't to setup a smoothwall machine
using some old hardware I have around. And since I'll have this, I
don't need (or want) the router feature that's seems to be supplied
with all these consumer grade wireless access points.
What I really want is a wireless access point that simply puts
everyone on the wired network, if that's possible. Ideally, I'd like
to handle DHCP through the smoothwall box, although I'm willing to do
static IP on the wireless devices if i need to.
Worst case, I guess I could just continue the way I always have,
having the wireless access point handle DHCP for the wireless devices
and turning off the firewall features so that everything passes
through.
Of course, maybe I want that extra layer of security since WEP is so
bad. But I know there's new wireless security standards tor replace
WEP.
Can I get away with just a wireless network board in the smoothwall
machine and use that as the access point? I suspect range would
suffer.
As you can tell, I'm not up on any of this. I know enough to assemble
a network that works. But network design and security isn't my thing.
brian
3:20 p.m.
On 9/24/2010 3:10 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
Sounds like you want a wireless bridge. I know Linksys
makes one (can't remember
the model #) but my father-in-law uses one to wirelessly connect his DirecTV
receiver to the rest of his wireless network.
Just be careful with those bridges. I bought a Linksys WET11 to connect
an mp3 receiver. While it mostly works, there are a bunch of gotchas.
The WET11 does some screw-ball stuff like spoofing MACs of connected
devices, etc. ---- which is not configurable and can get in the way of
certain applications working correctly.
Keith
4:02 p.m.
What's it spoofing... multicast?
________________________________
From: Keith Monahan <keithvz at verizon.net>
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 2:20:15 PM
Subject: Re: OT: wireless access solutions
On 9/24/2010 3:10 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
Sounds like you want a wireless bridge. I know Linksys
makes one (can't
remember
the model #) but my father-in-law uses one to wirelessly connect his DirecTV
receiver to the rest of his wireless network.
Just be careful with those bridges. I bought a Linksys WET11 to connect an mp3
receiver. While it mostly works, there are a bunch of gotchas. The WET11 does
some screw-ball stuff like spoofing MACs of connected devices, etc. ---- which
is not configurable and can get in the way of certain applications working
correctly.
Keith
4:14 p.m.
What I really meant was IGMP.
________________________________
From: geoffrey oltmans <oltmansg at bellsouth.net>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 3:02:29 PM
Subject: Re: OT: wireless access solutions
What's it spoofing... multicast?
________________________________
From: Keith Monahan <keithvz at verizon.net>
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 2:20:15 PM
Subject: Re: OT: wireless access solutions
On 9/24/2010 3:10 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
Sounds like you want a wireless bridge. I know Linksys
makes one (can't
remember
the model #) but my father-in-law uses one to wirelessly connect his DirecTV
receiver to the rest of his wireless network.
Just be careful with those bridges. I bought a Linksys WET11 to connect an mp3
receiver. While it mostly works, there are a bunch of gotchas. The WET11 does
some screw-ball stuff like spoofing MACs of connected devices, etc. ---- which
is not configurable and can get in the way of certain applications working
correctly.
Keith
4:29 p.m.
On 9/24/2010 4:14 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
What I really meant was IGMP.
________________________________
From: geoffrey oltmans<oltmansg at bellsouth.net>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 3:02:29 PM
Subject: Re: OT: wireless access solutions
What's it spoofing... multicast?
I don't remember the full damage of what it did, but it would
essentially answer ARPs and such for the connected wired device with ITS
OWN MAC ADDRESS, instead of the devices.
It should be functioning as a layer-2 bridge, not touching packets.
This screws with functions like DHCP.
Keith
4:55 p.m.
Well, I have seen other Linksys networking gear not play nicely too, so it may
just be crappy firmware. I've got a Linksys print server that I cannot use
wireless because it doesn't support WPA/WPA2 correctly. At first I thought it
was a compatibility problem with my Apple Time Capsule, but I tried it with my
older Linksys router (which would lock up on a fairly frequent basis after a
firmware update) and it performed equally bad.
________________________________
From: Keith Monahan <keithvz at verizon.net>
To: General at olddell.com; On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 3:29:34 PM
Subject: Re: OT: wireless access solutions
On 9/24/2010 4:14 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
What I really meant was IGMP.
________________________________
From: geoffrey oltmans<oltmansg at bellsouth.net>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Fri, September 24, 2010 3:02:29 PM
Subject: Re: OT: wireless access solutions
What's it spoofing... multicast?
I don't remember the full damage of what it did, but it would
essentially answer ARPs and such for the connected wired device with ITS
OWN MAC ADDRESS, instead of the devices.
It should be functioning as a layer-2 bridge, not touching packets.
This screws with functions like DHCP.
Keith
10:49 p.m.
On 9/24/2010 4:55 PM, geoffrey oltmans wrote:
Well, I have seen other Linksys networking gear not
play nicely too, so it may
just be crappy firmware. I've got a Linksys print server that I cannot use
wireless because it doesn't support WPA/WPA2 correctly. At first I thought it
was a compatibility problem with my Apple Time Capsule, but I tried it with my
older Linksys router (which would lock up on a fairly frequent basis after a
firmware update) and it performed equally bad.
I've been happy enough with most of the other linksys gear I've bought.
I will say that my current router, a D-link gigabit model, is actually
very good. I've been happy with the throughput, the number of
concurrent sessions (very important for p2p, etc), reliability,
features, etc. Very decent. I just need more bandwidth. How can a man
be expected to live with 20/5 ? Life is tough.
Keith
P.S. This is sort of tongue-in-cheek, if you didn't catch it. I started
with a 300 baud modem, (yah yah, faster than your acoustic coupler, I know)
25 Sep
25 Sep
12:02 a.m.
Thanks for all the replies. I'll see what kind of hardware I can find
this weekend.
brian
5004
days inactive
5005
days old
9 comments
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brianlanning＠gmail.com -
keithvz＠verizon.net -
oltmansg＠bellsouth.net