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  • #2221179

    Wireless access point access issues

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    by john.bartlett ·

    I have a question that I?m fairly sure is simple but the answer is not obvious to ME.

    I have a small network of roughly 10 DEVICES and computers all addressed on the 192.168.100.XXX network. All of the DEVICES (computers, printers, and other such hardware) are plugged into two HP switches connected to each other. Everything is ASSIGNED addresses; there are no routers or any hardware handing out addresses.

    I have added an access point so as to connect to these devices on this little network from my laptop without a cable. It doesn?t work and I?m not sure why! I assigned the access point an address on the network. If I?m plugged in hardwired I can see everything!

    I assigned my wireless card on the laptop an address on the network. The network connects to my laptop but I can’t ping anything RELIABLY. While pinging a device on the network I will OCCASIONALLY get ONE good ping. Every minute or so…..and I can?t even ping the access point!

    Do I need a router in there somewhere??

    I have the subnet mask on all devices set to 255.255.255.0 and have tried setting the gateway on my laptop to various settings including the access point’s address. Nothing Works!!

    Any help would be appreciated.

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    • #2452925

      Clarifications

      by john.bartlett ·

      In reply to Wireless access point access issues

      Clarifications

    • #2452902

      If you can ping at all, then the LAN settings are correct..

      by nonapeptide ·

      In reply to Wireless access point access issues

      The gateway should be what every other device uses on the LAN. Your IP settings should be exactly what the other devices on the network are.

      How far away from the AP are you? Are there any large solid objects or walls full of piping and wires that separate you from the AP?

      The first and most obvious thing to check would be signal strength. If you’ve got Windows 2000 or XP, download and use NetStumbler and see what the radio signal’s strength is. Use it to walk around the office area and see where any dead spots are. this is also amusing to do in an office that you’re responsible for to see if any rogue access points have appeared. This is affectionately referred to as War Walking. 🙂

      Keep us posted!

      • #2452859

        PaCk It UP!!

        by cale ·

        In reply to If you can ping at all, then the LAN settings are correct..

        Haha, nonapeptide is right. If you can ping every once in a while, then it is setup right. (Make sure you are associated to the right network.. I am assuming you already thought of Nonapeptides suggestion of getting close to the AP, and I am also assuming you don’t have any insane interferance from equipment/other AP’s). If ping -t xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx really only strikes anything less than 95%, I would return the AP. (My takeback rate is somewhere around 5-10% on consumer grade networking equipment) Always keep the boxes and recipts just in case. Double check you are hitting the right network!

        • #2452823

          Takeback rate

          by john.bartlett ·

          In reply to PaCk It UP!!

          I already returned the first one!! I guess I was assuming that because the signal was good and it was connected that there should be an issue with the AP.

      • #2452826

        Signal Strength

        by john.bartlett ·

        In reply to If you can ping at all, then the LAN settings are correct..

        The signal strength is fine. It almost looks like a problem on my laptop. I dont see any activity on the wireless when the PING’s are timing out. It’s like it’s confused as to where to send the packets. I even disabled the local lan port hoping it would send them to the wireless as the only active network device. No dice.

    • #2452811

      A few questions

      by michael kassner ·

      In reply to Wireless access point access issues

      I was curious to learn if you have a firewall or any security applications on the computers?

      Did you say that you could not ping the AP at all or was it random as well?

      I was also curious as to why you are using static IP addrs exclusively?

    • #2452774

      wireless 101

      by robo_dev ·

      In reply to Wireless access point access issues

      The access point is a mac-layer bridge.

      This means that it’s IP address is irrelevant, from a client perspective, nor does it play any role in routing packets. It’s a pure dumb layer-2 device like a hub or a switch.

      With WLAN there are two hurdles to making the connection: association and authentication.

      Hurdle one: Association

      Association means making radio contact with the access point, and this is easy provided you’re not trying something obviously wrong such as trying to connect an 802.11a client to 802.11b access point.

      One association-related problem that CAN happen is if the AP is a multi-mode device, (that is it supports 802.11a and 802.11b and 802.11g) and the client is an off-brand 802.11b device. What can happen is that the AP is tryng to ‘autodetect’ which mode to use, and the connection drops over and over.

      The fix is to set the AP to use ONLY the mode that you need for your client. SO if your client is 802.11b, you configure the AP to 802.11b only.

      Hurdle Two: Authentication

      Authentication is where the client gets access to the LAN. Types of authentication include WEP, WPA, WPA2, LEAP, or ‘open’ (no authentication required). this is the tricky part. In addition, there are two options, open or shared.

      In 95% of the issues I’ve seen, the authentication is what’s broken. Either the WEP keys or passphrase are wrong, the authentication type is set to open versus shared, or the association type is not matched between client and AP.

      How are you authenticating? WEP, open?

      in your case, limited ping success sounds most like the firewall on the laptop is blocking pings in the client, the default gateway or subnet mask is incorrect, or the authentication type is not the same on both devices. I would also look into the multi-mode 802.11abg issue mentioned above as well.

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