How to fit a wireless router into a domain!?

[djpingpong]

Hi,

As the subject title states... let me explain my situtation.

I've got a domain setup running on Windows 2000 Adv. Server.
It's not a big network... only one domain controller, 1 SQL Server and 10 other workstations
However, a need to implement a wireless access point is now been appointed my responsibility.

However, because I wasn't the original person to setup the network here, there's a few blanks that cannot be filled in by anyone else... here's what I mean:

From the DSL Modem, it goes into a RJ-45 jack into the wall... which then I dunno where it goes... in another room is a Dell PowerConnect 2016 unmanaged switch that manages all the connections to the other computers.

Now, the domain has a 192.168.16.* subnet
with 192.168.16.4 as the domain controller responsible for DNS and DHCP...
The only thing I can't figure out is the default gateway 192.168.16.254 which i tried to connect to via Internet Explorer, but no one (including me) knows the username/password... I thought the DSL modem was the gateway, I'm pretty sure of it because we use an unmanaged switch and I know that unmanaged switches don't have an IP address of their own. But without fully understanding the entire setup, I can't say with 100% certainty that the DSL modem is responsible for the default gateway setting.

Anyway, the gateway is just a side problem... the wireless router is my main concern. So, I got this domain setup, now can anyone give me any suggestions as to how can I incorporate a wireless router as part of the intranet?

I thought I knew a lot about networking, but this is definately been a pain in my ass

 

[vacunita]

The easiest thing to do, without knowing exactly were the wall jack goes to, would be to connect the Wireless router either to the Dell PowerConnect 2016.

You'll have top go into the router and disable the DHCP settings, so it doesn't try to give out addresses.

It should then just act as an extension of the network, and the wireless machines should start picking up addresses from the domain controller.

You'll have to setup the wireless machines to pickup network settings automatically. Hopefully the DHCP is also issuing the gateway information.









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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[djpingpong]

ok.. so here's what happened after I tried your advice...
I plugged the router into the switch and the router got an IP (192.168.16.23) which is what I expected.

Next, I turned off DHCP... I turned off WEP protection.
So it should be automatic when connecting to the router.
However, that's not the case... whether by wire or wireless, I can't get an IP with the computer that's connected to the router.
In fact, once I turn off DHCP on the router... I can't connect back to the router. I have to manaully set an IP on the computer to connect back to the router

Another question came to my mind also... if I turn off DHCP on the wireless router... what if other laptops want to connect to the router.... wouldn't they have problems connecting because they won't be able to grab an IP either

 

[vacunita]

The router getting an IP is to be expected, but the router can't issue IP's when something else is already issuing them in the network.

Technically speaking, the router should allow the assigning of IP's through.

Unless the DHCP has a limit on how many devices it can assign IP's to, and that limit has been reached.

While connected to the router, and having issued an IP manually can you ping the rest of the network? ping the servers IP etc..?

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

When you connected the router to the Dell switch, which port did you use on the router? The WAN port or one of the LAN ports? Basically, if the wireless is not acting as a router (as it shouldn't be, based on vacunita's suggestion), then you DO NOT want ANYTHING plugged in to the WAN port.

 

[attrofy]

2 thoughts come to my mind.

1st, get a WAP (Wireless Access Point) - not a wirless router - this will cut your problems in half. As lwcomputing and vacunita have explained, conflicting routers will always cause troubles.

If you can't switch to a WAP and have to use the router, if you can disable its routing functions, you may have to set the router to some form of "bridge" mode. Most of the Linksys wireless routers do not support this function, and that is why I reccomend the WAP. The WAP will allow you to "clone" the MAC address of the router, and cut your problems down. It's been too long since I have used D-Links or Sonicwall's router software's to speak authoritatively about their features, but it is something to look into.

2nd, depending on how your DSL is configured, it may be providing a static address to the now in-place router (presumably your server), as some DSL companies reccomend this setup when passing into an internal network that is running their own DHCP. It is also possible that the DSL is defaulted to DHCP mode, and it is actually providing leases to the network, thereby bypassing your server.

Something else just popped in my head while typing this, what happens if you plug the DSL directly into the WAN port on the router? ANy reason the router cant provide DHCP leases to the network? Is the server truly providing DHCP? Just because it is DC that doesn't mean it is providing DHCP (speaking from personal experience because I came into a very similar setting, and currently our router is DHCP host, the server is still acting as DC, but it just passes the lease requests through from the router. I set the IP of the server as my gateway, DNS and WINS for the rest of the network). By the sounds of things, your Server is not acting as a Firewall or gateway to the network - it is "after" the switch - so all network traffic comming in from the internet is being spread out to the network equally. Then unless there is something forcing the network traffic back through the *.*.*.254 gateway (published in DHCP and presumably a server controlled device or second LAN port on the server) then all the network traffic is looking to something else "before" the switch to route internet traffic back to the DSL. Since you can't access the 254 device, you don't really know what it is. It could be a second LAN port, another unknown device, or the DSL.

When you plug the router directly into the switch and can't get back to the router except by setting a static IP on the connected PC, it indicates to me that the router is working as designed by conflicting with passing the DHCP info through the router - which like I stated is one of Linksys biggest downfalls for their routers (IMO). My workaround was to put the IP traffic "before" the router on the 192.168.1.* subnet, and everything after the router on the 192.168.2.* subnet. This allowed the router to still route to everything "after" it, but allowed the "upstream" DHCP to route "to" it. This may not be the most glamrous way to work it, but it worked.

One last thing to try, with the router plugged directly into the switch, if you release and renew the connected PC's IP Address - do you get anything? My thinking is if you do not, it is because you disabled DHCP in the router, and probably changed the setting to Static IP. That means the router is functioning correctly, because you now have to assign the attached PC's IP addy (which makes sense because that is what you told it you wanted to do). This further indicates that the router is not passing the DHCP info through the router - as the router is designed to be the 1st device in-line communicating with the DSL.

 

[djpingpong]

Yeah.. I took lwcomputing's advice and got it to work.
The router is plugged into the switch with DHCP disabled.
IP Address assignment is then pass through to the Domain Controller... and everything works fine now.. I've got wireless up and working here at work...

The Gateway is still a mystery to me... but it doesn't effect my work anymore... i'll let some other poor bastard deal with it if it becomes a problem in the future..

for now, i've organized my DNS, DHCP and wireless... thanks all for helping