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General discussion

how to use wired network though a wireless network

Sep 9, 2004 10:10PM PDT

I have a wireless network through a 3com office connect cable/dsl gateway. this gives internet to a mac 2 pcs and a laptop

I laso have a NAS from Lacie the mac and 2 pcs are wire through eathernet to this (with a hub)

the ip addres are as follows wireless 192.168.1-5
wired 192.168.2-5
all on workgroup home-network

how do I give the laptop access to the NAS I have tried to install a wires usb to the NAS but Embedded XP will not allow the instaltion

I hope this is enough info for some one to help me

Discussion is locked

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Re: how to use wired network though a wireless network
Sep 9, 2004 10:23PM PDT

As to Embedded XP. I have the kit and would have to add support for the devices. I will not do this for free. Your Embedded XP developer will help you.

As to wired/wireless, it's a rather painless setup if you go with the usal setups. From your post you didn't tell enough and I will not ask all the questions. So I will write that I would add a BRIDGE from Linksys or Dlink and then the wired machines could connect either to the bridge or the switch I had the bridge on.

Bob

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Re: how to use wired network though a wireless network
Sep 15, 2004 1:36AM PDT

thanks for the help
I am not sure of what I am doing but will post again if I fail in
my atempts

I can see in XP there is a way of making a bridge

thanks

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I wouldn't...
Sep 15, 2004 1:52AM PDT

The bridge in XP is not the bridge I noted.

As such I expect you to be very confused if you try that.

Bob

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one thing I notice immediately...
Sep 16, 2004 12:44PM PDT

you said, "the ip addres are as follows wireless 192.168.1-5, wired 192.168.2-5"

There is possibly incomplete information in that "statement", possibly a typo, or your problem is right there. An IP has four dotted numbers, such as 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.1.2, etc. there are no dashes in an IP address, though we sometimes express a range of related addresses using a dash for the beginning and end of the range - but the other portions of the address are fully described and specified. Reading more than what you actually wrote into that information, you are either configuring your your wireless systems using 192.168.xxx.1 through 192.168.xxx.5 and the wired systems as 192.168.yyy.2 through 192.168.yyy.5, or the wireless systems are 192.168.1.??? through 192.168.1.5 or,

but regardless of how I'm misunderstanding what you typed up there, let's just cut to the chase... Happy If you want all the systems to interact, they need to all be on the same address up through the first three dotted parts, i.e., all 192.168.1.something or all 192.168.2.something. If some are on 192.168.1.xxx, they will be able to interconnect with others in the same series of 192.168.1.xxx, and the ones on 192.168.2.xxx will talk to themselves, but not to the ones on 192.168.1.xxx. Thus, you need to change them so that all systems are on the same range. Your choice, either 192.168.1.xxx or 192.168.2.xxx, but not mix and match. If you mix, you can't match (but then, sometimes you might want certain groups of systems to not be accessible except within the narrower group - then you would deliberately use different numbers in the third position of the address to separate the groups from interconnecting with each other).

HTH
dw

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Re: one thing I notice immediately...
Sep 19, 2004 10:39PM PDT

thanks for that info
I did make a mistake in my IP address in

192.168.1.XXX is my wireless network
192,168.2.xxx is my wired network

the 192.168.1.XXX is set by my 3com office connect gateway
and 192.168.1.XXX I have set

my 3com can not talk to the wired network (or can it) so should I make them all static?

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Re: one thing I notice immediately...
Sep 20, 2004 3:49AM PDT

okay, is there still a typo in your second message? I'll assume for a moment there is and what you meant is:

192.168.1.xxx is the range being issued by your 3Com gateway via its internal DHCP to your wireless systems.

You have set individual static IPs in the 192.168.2.xxx range (not "and 192.168.1.XXX I have set" as you wrote above...) for your wired systems by going into the network adapter properties and applying 192.168.2.1 to the first one, 192.168.2.2 to the next one, and so on.

Did I understand that correctly?

If so, that's why the wired systems (including the NAS) are having trouble. They all need to be on 192.168.1.xxx in order to be visible to each other. Since the 3Com unit is able to issue internal IPs to both wired and wireless clients, you probably shouldn't start assigning static IPs to various devices unless you have a specific need or reason. First, I find it confusing and hard to remember next week/next year what address I gave to whom and why, particularly as different machines come and go, or maybe you take the laptop somewhere else and the network there is configured to issue addresses in a different range than you've hardcoded yours to; just let the local DHCP server sort it out as each machine boots and acquires the next available IP address.

However, I will temper that advice with respect to your NAS server. That device doesn't move around, doesn't come on and off the network, and its firmware is probably less flexible than a standard Windoze box to configure it to automatically acquire a DHCP address from upstream somewhere. Go ahead and fix it a static IP address, but put it somewhere in the address range where it won't interfere with any other likely assignments.

For example, my gateway router sits on my LAN-side at 192.168.1.1, and I have set it to issue IPs to the various client systems (wife, laptop, kids when they bring their stuff home from school, stuff I'm repairing for friends and relatives, you know the drill Wink ...) starting at 192.168.1.100 (I don't know exactly what screen you have to go to in the 3Com unit, but look for something that lets you establish the starting number for the DHCP range).

Like you, I also have a little NAS box (mine is a Buffalo Linkstation, but Linksys makes one now and there are others too), which I have assigned a static IP of 192.168.1.50. I specifically set it below the range of assignments that will be issued by the gateway so that there will never be a conflict, and I picked a number that I would remember - 50.

dw

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Re: one thing I notice immediately...
Sep 23, 2004 6:30AM PDT

my only problem is I cannot run a cable from my NAS to my
3com gateway as my mac, PCs & NAS are in the loft rooms
and my 3com conects to my set top box 4 storys down
in my iving room. all my music and photos are on my NAS
so I would lik to give the laptops access to it through the
wireless net work
(it is also why they are statc addessed)

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4 storys down...
Sep 23, 2004 8:23AM PDT

I could solve it with those Bridge devices and with 4 stories I may have to add some repeaters.

Its a common problem setup that Linksys and Dlink hardware can solve.

Bob

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Re: one thing I notice immediately...
Sep 24, 2004 12:42AM PDT

I'm getting a little confused now about what is connected to what and where, so bear with me Happy As Bob points out, 4 stories is a long way for the signal to penetrate. Walls and floors degrade the signal strength, and after a few rooms and floors, particularly if the signal goes through at an angle and thus has to penetrate a thicker distance, there is no strength left for transferring data. The extenders, bridges, and repeaters that Bob mentioned will be necessary to hop the signal all the way up to the 4th loft.

However, you should first get everything properly configured and working together down in the living room before you start moving equipment upstairs. That way you know it worked before and now is just a signal strength problem rather than tearing your hair from the very beginning about configuring the settings when the real problem is that there is no signal.

Which 3Com unit do you have? The little one with only one LAN-side ethernet port or the one with 4 LAN-side ethernet ports? Do you have a system connected by wire to the 3Com, or just the laptop by wireless when it is in the room (or nearby) downstairs?

In the loft area, what are you using to network the wired systems? Other than the laptop with its wireless client card, what wireless receiver equipment do you have up in the loft.

The point I am reaching for here is getting your entire network on a common range of addresses that is under the control of the 3Com unit. That means the loft subnetwork has to be able to communicate wirelessly with the base station 4 floors down as well as rebroadcast within its own zone (so that the laptop will work wirelessly upstairs or down). Once you get a common network running for both upstairs and down, it doesn't matter where the NAS unit is plugged in - it can be under the sofa in the living room (wired to the 3Com) or on a shelf in the loft (wired to the loft distribution point).

dw