Trouble with Netgear Wireless Router

[warriorfan808]

Before I go on, I better explain the network setup.

4 port router running DHCP. Scope 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.199

Router connected to a 16 port switch

all of the ports are taken and combined with various hubs throughout the network to connect 20 users.

Netgear wireless router connects to the 16 port switch, setup to obtain Dynamic IP from 4 port router.

Here's my problem

I set it up the SSID; WEP Authentication and set it's scope of IP addresses to 192.168.1.5 - 192.168.1.99.

Three laptops are authenticated through the wireless router.

After working for 3 weeks, the wireless router was no longer able to distribute ip addresses.

I also set the lease for IPs to 1 day on both routers.


Can anyone help me here?

[Broomiebar]

What I know is that most access point hardware includes a built-in DHCP server to allocate IP addresses to your wireless points. In many cases, this range is the same as the range used for other Internet sharing services, such Windows ICS.
Because of this , you'll need to be careful of conflicts, because multiple devices may be handing out IP addresses on your network.

Be sure to limit DHCP functionality to a single device by disabling the service on either your access point or NAT router. If you're using ICS to share an Internet connection the DHCP component cannot be disabled, so consider disabling DHCP on the access point.

And as you may know that most access points will hand out addresses in the 192.168.0.x range, unfortunately disabling DHCP will not solve the problem, since rogue users will commonly configure themselves with a static address in this range, and to combat this issue try to consider changing the gateway IP address of your access point from the default value
( 192.168.0.1) and using static addressing on your network instead.


Cheers,

B.B

[warriorfan808]

Static IPs would be too difficult considering we have wireless laptops within the network and more look to be coming in the near future.

Hmm. So, I should disable DHCP on my Wireless router? I'm not in the office to try this, but would that mean that the first Access Point(4 port router) wil handle the distribution of IPs?

I also failed to also mention that after the connection did not work, I reset the router and set the entire network up all over again in the same manner. The funny thing was, the network worked fine before I set up WEP. Afterwards, I added the WEP IDs and SSIDs to the laptops and I lost connectivity. Well, it actually said that the network is showing little to no connectivity. Basically, I could see the network, connect to it, but not get an IP address.

I do agree with the possiblity of rouge users connecting to the network by simply grabbing an IP through DHCP (nothing is set up) or assigning themselves a static IP, but would propose the use of DHCP server to help manage IP addresses? Changing the default was a good idea, BTW. I'll make sure I do that.

[Tedob1]

i dont know all the particulars of the netgear router but many of the home/soho type routers (4-6 port) limit the number of addresses they handle to 10 or so...handle not assign. this might not be the case but it's worth looking into before you go crazy with everything else.

[warriorfan808]

I never heard anything about limited address handling for lower level routers, that's something I'll be sure to look into. I do know that we have a pretty cheap Lynksis router that has been in use for a few years now. The network has grown to the point that we see 20 users a day connecting at once (not including network printers).

I actually was able to get the wireless router to work. Well, sorta. The minute I put the WEP on the router, none of our laptops could connect.

Here's all I did:

a. Logged into the Netgear wireless router through one of it's ports.
b. Set it up to obtain an IP dynamically through the 16 port switch from the router
c. Changed the SSID from the default Netgear, to another name.
d. Had the router create WEP IDs by using a key word.
e. Copied and pasted the keys onto a notepad, along with the new SSID.
f. Changed the Scope of addresses to 192.168.0.1 - .0.99.
g. Went to each Laptop and manually entired in the WEP authentication ID (for one of the routers, I actually cut and pasted the ID.)


The thing is, it didn't work. Still got little or no connectivity. After I turned WEP off, I was fine. I know it sounds bad, but I just ended up keeping WEP off for now. There isn't a building close enough to ours to pick up a signal anyway and we're not worried about anyone within our building getting online

Someone I meet mentioned turning the wireless router into a switch. Can this be done? I studied networking a long time ago and back in my day, a switch used a MAC table and a Router a IP Table. Has this changed? Is there a way to simply use it as a switch? If so, would that mean that the scope of IPs distributed will come off of the DHCP feature on the first wired router?

Thanks

[Old Man]

Log in to the router. Under wireless settings : Wireless Card Access List: choose setup access list.
If (Turn On Access List) is checked then mac filtering is enabled and you might need to click ADD : check each computer on the list and add them to the allowed list, or uncheck the (Turn On Access List) to disable mac filtering.
I had the same problem and after adding the computers to the access list they were able to use the router with no problems.
Hope this helps.

[warriorfan808]

Thanks a lot old man. I'll try that out on saturday