Network Setup Help

On the bright side, the password I set for the airstation is working as expected, as are both bands of the wireless network being served by the airstation. That seems to continue to be the case after I switch it to 'bridge'.

I also disabled the dhcp service on the airstation, so I guess if everything is working when it is set to bridge mode, I'm good... I just can't configure it without switching it back to router or auto mode.

Yeah, I'd look for an IP on the LAN, as opposed to the WAN.

Make sure to remove the IP from the WAN when doing this (set it to 0.0.0.0): if you have the same IP on two interfaces, weird stuff could happen.

According to the manual:

The AirStation’s default LAN-side IP address depends on the mode.

In router mode: 192.168.11.1
In bridge (access point) mode: 192.168.11.100

If the mode switch is set to Auto and the AirStation is in bridge (access point) mode, the AirStation’s IP address is
assigned by an external DHCP server.

Perhaps you should've switched it to bridge mode before setting it up?

I reset the airstation and I tried switching things around to this configuration, but cannot get onto the airstation.

airstation powered down, completely unplugged and reset, then I switched it to bridge function, plugged in all cables. Cannot find any sign of it on the network, it is not registering as a device at all. I can see the laptop that is plugged into it, the laptop is being served correctly through the cables.

I may be crazy, but I feel like the physical switch disables access to the router and makes it truly stupid. I feel like I have to set it up with whatever passwords etc I want to use while it is in auto or router mode, then switch it to bridge. It continues to function, but is just a dummy passthrough device in that mode.

I'm going to do some reading I think.

Hmm, I found this in the AirStation Manual:

Note: In bridge (access point) mode, the Internet port becomes a regular LAN port, for a total of 5 usable LAN ports.

No, oddly enough I still have to use the WAN port, but otherwise, it's functioning correctly now. I leave the cable going to the switch plugged into the WAN port, switch it to bridge mode, and I can now access it on the LAN correctly. All the config screens are for setting it up as an access point, not a router. Now I can access it through the IP I chose (192.168.0.250 this time) and everything is just peachy!

wow... thanks for the help, I doubt I would have gotten through this without it

Dakuna wrote:

Hmm, I found this in the AirStation Manual:

Note: In bridge (access point) mode, the Internet port becomes a regular LAN port, for a total of 5 usable LAN ports.

That's a good thing!

Since it changes its IP when it is in bridge mode, you're going to need to change the IP of the machine you're connecting to it with so they're both in the same numeric subnet. If it's really changing to 192.168.11.100, set your machine to be 192.168.11.5, then connect the two with an ethernet cable and attempt to get to the access point.

It's not running DHCP, and it's not on an address your network knows about. That's why it seems unreachable. Put your machine on an address that can talk to it to get through this step.

This is only necessary for initial setup. Once the access points are set up properly with their own IPs on your network, you won't have to do this.

Some help with this in case you need it.

Woo! Glad it's working.

First airstation configured flawlessly. Second airstation, while it works 'automatically' no matter what mode I have it in, will not allow me to get into the config screens unless it's in auto/router mode.

Going to have to work on it tonight, I am going to try disconnecting the other airstation as well to see if it is causing some sort of conflict.

I guess changing my modem/router to be on a different IP sequence, as mentioned by LouZiffer above might do the trick as well, I'll give that a try first.

I think Lou's right: if you first connect to the Airstation in bridge mode, it doesn't run DHCP by default. (which is good, as that's something you don't have to turn off). But that means that your PC doesn't get an IP address in its network range, so you can't communicate with it.

Setting your network interface on the computer to the manual IP of 192.168.11.5 should let you connect to the default router IP of 192.168.11.100, which will let you configure it to the .251 of your regular network. Once that's done, set the computer back to DHCP mode, and everything should be working.

I realize this has been a little painful, but once you have it working, it shouldn't give you any more pain.

Yep, all is well now, that is exactly what I wound up doing. Not sure why I was able to do the first one differently than the second, but its done and working fine now

Thanks so much, Malor and LouZiffer and complexmath!!

Last thing I have to do is return those other routers...

By your powers combined!

IMAGE(http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/0/7362/164862-159059-captain-planet.jpg)

Congrats on getting this one worked out!

By your powers combined!

Yeah, I'm glad we did this in a thread instead of in PM; Lou did a better job than I would have.

Everyone provided a few pieces of the puzzle, but yes, you're right it was better to do it this way

Ok hive mind, need some help for a friend.

Her 9-year old daughter has been using her iPod touch to look at XXX sites. She (my friend) is looking into apps for her phone, but would also like to know how to block access to those sites right from her router.

Is this possible?

Thanks

Assuming it's the kids iPod touch, the first thing I'd do is enable the parent lock features to disable safari entirely. Site filtering is unreliable at best.

I'm confident she's going to find a way around whatever restrictions are put in place. The bigger question is, what is her motivation? I think some proper parental counselling may be the best option in that situation. Most 9 year old girls aren't really into that kind of thing, and she's probably just curious because of something she saw or heard about.

Her parents (they are divorced) are talking to her about it as well. They just want to do as much as they can to remove the temptation. I have suggested that they contact their ISPs to find out what router-based whitelists/blacklist they can install.

Hmm, not sure why, but every time I access the internet with a wired device, it takes a while to get a secure connection.

Anyone know why? Based on the above setup...

it takes a while to get a secure connection.

Can you be more descriptive? Secure connection could mean a whole bunch of different things, from connection stability to DNS lookups to trying to talk to HTTPS servers.

The hoary old format of steps to reproduce, observed behavior, and expected behavior should at least make it clear enough for followup questions.

I think it's DNS lookups... it only happens when I first open the browser, and if I click a link before it finishes establishing connection, that window hangs indefinitely. If I sit and wait, everything loads fine, and is fast after that.

Hmm, I wonder if maybe your provider does PPPoE, and is deactivating your connection when it's not in active use.

Next time you sit down and would start a browser, try opening a command prompt, and typing 'ping 4.2.2.2'. You should get back, almost instantly, ping replies, four of them. If you get a couple of timeouts or Host Unreachable messages, and then you start seeing the ping work, then it's probably your ISP waking up your connection. If it works instantly, then we'll have to try something else.

(Note: you'd need to let the connection sit idle long enough for the provider to time you out and drop your connection first; if you've been connected recently, this should always work.)

Sounds great, I can try this when I get home..

I only noticed it after I configured my network the way I have it setup now. Prior to that, it was fast.

mudbunny wrote:

Her parents (they are divorced) are talking to her about it as well. They just want to do as much as they can to remove the temptation. I have suggested that they contact their ISPs to find out what router-based whitelists/blacklist they can install.

If they're looking for device level filtering, I'd recommend K9; you can workaround it by password allowing access, but that still leaves a log trace which can't be deleted IIRC.

For router level filtering, OpenDNS is a good option. It's simple to set up and use, and is fairly effective.

AnimeJ wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

Her parents (they are divorced) are talking to her about it as well. They just want to do as much as they can to remove the temptation. I have suggested that they contact their ISPs to find out what router-based whitelists/blacklist they can install.

If they're looking for device level filtering, I'd recommend K9; you can workaround it by password allowing access, but that still leaves a log trace which can't be deleted IIRC.

For router level filtering, OpenDNS is a good option. It's simple to set up and use, and is fairly effective.

Thanks!

I think I have a relatively simple networking problem but I keep getting tripped up by terminology.

What I have:
- A large townhome wired with Cat5. Jacks in most major rooms.
- A Comcast-provided wireless router/modem
- A Buffalo WHR-G125 wireless router

I'm trying to setup a wireless network where the laptops and phones automatically switch between the routers depending on signal strength. Once I get that going, I plan to play around with router location to minimize dead spots (or add new routers as necessary to get coverage in the major areas.

What's this type of network called? Is this something I can do with my existing equipment or do I need to add some to the mix? As a first attempt, I sent both routers so that they had the same SSIDs and keys but my laptop still sees two different networks. I'm assuming there's something more complicated than that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Trashie wrote:

As a first attempt, I sent both routers so that they had the same SSIDs and keys but my laptop still sees two different networks. I'm assuming there's something more complicated than that.

That should be all that's required. You do want to make sure that only one of them has its DHCP server turned on however. To test, I'd plug a laptop directly into an ethernet port of your second wireless router and make sure it can get to the internet. Once that layer is sorted, then I'd worry about being sire WiFi works as desired.

complexmath wrote:
Trashie wrote:

As a first attempt, I sent both routers so that they had the same SSIDs and keys but my laptop still sees two different networks. I'm assuming there's something more complicated than that.

That should be all that's required. You do want to make sure that only one of them has its DHCP server turned on however. To test, I'd plug a laptop directly into an ethernet port of your second wireless router and make sure it can get to the internet. Once that layer is sorted, then I'd worry about being sire WiFi works as desired.

I'll look at the DHCP settings tonight. I didn't fiddle with anything like that. To be clear, I have internet access from both routers. If I go to the top of the house, it sees the Buffalo router and connects just fine. If I go to the bottom of the house, it sees the Comcast router and connects. It's when I go to the middle of the house, it sees both and I get a SSIDname and SSIDname 2 on my Windows laptop.

Perhaps it's the channels they're on? My network is set up this way and I have both WiFi routers set to "auto channel". I know the routers have an identical setup because I actually backed up the config for one and installed it on the other one. Mine is slightly different in that I have my AT&T-supplied router with WiFi disabled and then two standalone WiFi routers, but it should be effectively the same.