Wireless Networking Problem
03 October 2005, 08:56 PM
#1
Wireless Networking Problem
OK guys, another one for you:
I have a cabled Lan where I have decided to add a wireless access point so I can use a laptop and roam around without dangly cables getting in the way.
The access point and usb wireless dongle are fine and talk to each other. I can also see my other workstations and can ping around the network to my hearts content.
The problem occurs when I want to access the web. Despite the fact that the access point has an IP & subnet within the range of the IP's I use on the other systems, and uses the same default gateway and DNS server address as on the other kit, I keep getting errors along the lines of "www.scoobynet.co.uk cannot be found".
Have tried using both fixed and variable (DHCP generated) IP addresses on the access point, I'm not getting far with this problem.
The whole thing feels like a DNS server address problem and yet I can't see why that would be as the same dns server addresses work on the other cabled workstations fine, and I can access the net with no trouble.
Ideas anyone please? Cabled networking is a doddle compared to this wireless malarky.
Thanks
WB
I have a cabled Lan where I have decided to add a wireless access point so I can use a laptop and roam around without dangly cables getting in the way.
The access point and usb wireless dongle are fine and talk to each other. I can also see my other workstations and can ping around the network to my hearts content.
The problem occurs when I want to access the web. Despite the fact that the access point has an IP & subnet within the range of the IP's I use on the other systems, and uses the same default gateway and DNS server address as on the other kit, I keep getting errors along the lines of "www.scoobynet.co.uk cannot be found".
Have tried using both fixed and variable (DHCP generated) IP addresses on the access point, I'm not getting far with this problem.
The whole thing feels like a DNS server address problem and yet I can't see why that would be as the same dns server addresses work on the other cabled workstations fine, and I can access the net with no trouble.
Ideas anyone please? Cabled networking is a doddle compared to this wireless malarky.
Thanks
WB
03 October 2005, 09:15 PM
#2
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Any wireless security enabled that could be causing issues such as WEP? My access point was a b!tch to get working and was a case of playing about setting static ip's and making sure encryption was set the same on all devices. DHCP on the access point just never worked and couldn't be ar$ed to get it working once static ips sorted the issue. Also any firewall software running on either the router or on the clients?
03 October 2005, 09:20 PM
#3
Bravo,
I am using WEP; however the problem occurs whether WEP is turned on or not. I have tried a basic open system with absolutely no security set and its the same problem. I only tried dhcp as a desperate measure, the access point and dongle are on static IP addy's.
The only security measure I have had on from the start was to turn broadcast SSID off. Surely this should not make any difference?
I have a firewall between the access point and my router but all other traffic goes through the same route fine.
Any other ideas? Doing my head in.
Thanks
WB
I am using WEP; however the problem occurs whether WEP is turned on or not. I have tried a basic open system with absolutely no security set and its the same problem. I only tried dhcp as a desperate measure, the access point and dongle are on static IP addy's.
The only security measure I have had on from the start was to turn broadcast SSID off. Surely this should not make any difference?
I have a firewall between the access point and my router but all other traffic goes through the same route fine.
Any other ideas? Doing my head in.
Thanks
WB
03 October 2005, 09:24 PM
#4
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default gateway on the lappy? your other w/s will be on the same subnet so they'll be seen but anything outside of it may not.
Do a tracert to somewhere like here and see what the FIRST failure is... that's where the fault is
Do a tracert to somewhere like here and see what the FIRST failure is... that's where the fault is
03 October 2005, 09:26 PM
#5
Could this be something to do with the NAT? On some routers on some IPs you may need manually forward your internal IP address so that it connects to the external IP you connet to the ISP. Either that or you may need to tinker with your Internet Explorer settings. Maybe worth checking to see if the 'Automatic Detect settings' box under LAN settings is ticked.
03 October 2005, 09:29 PM
#6
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Also broadcast the ssid until its working, this is one less thing to eliminate from the problem then. I don't broadcast my ssid but occasionally it can't be found, have to broadcast it, network picks it up then can disable it again. Are you using your routers address as the dns or your service providers dns addresses?
03 October 2005, 09:33 PM
#7
Kieran, Jpor,
I'm not using a wireless card on the laptop but a usb dongle. IP address range on this is fine, and as I have said, I can ping round on the internal lan with no problems.
With regard to first point of failure if I ping eg scoobynet's resolved IP addy in DOS I get a timeout error, which confuses the hell out of me. What it does tell me is that this is not an error connected to IE ( I use Mozilla, btw).
If it was a NAT problem I would expect at least on of the cabled workstations, if not all, to exhibit the same problem.
Any other thoughts please?
WB
I'm not using a wireless card on the laptop but a usb dongle. IP address range on this is fine, and as I have said, I can ping round on the internal lan with no problems.
With regard to first point of failure if I ping eg scoobynet's resolved IP addy in DOS I get a timeout error, which confuses the hell out of me. What it does tell me is that this is not an error connected to IE ( I use Mozilla, btw).
If it was a NAT problem I would expect at least on of the cabled workstations, if not all, to exhibit the same problem.
Any other thoughts please?
WB
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03 October 2005, 10:05 PM
#10
Originally Posted by **************
Well it has to be the firewall then. If all internal traffic is going through the access point without issue its not that, the problem is only for external access which is controlled by the firewall.
Put another way, any device on the cabled part of the lan that seeks access tothe web gets it, anything going through the wireless point does not. Therefore problem lies with the access point somehow.
WB
03 October 2005, 10:27 PM
#11
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Hmm i'm just trying to compare it to mine as I have the same setup by the sound of it. I have the access point plugged into one of the ports on the router with the other 3 ports going off to wired lan connections. I have 2 laptops accessing the access point.
The reason it can't be the access point is because you have said anything on your wiresless side of the access point can talk to anything on the wired side of the access point thats internal.
Its not DNS as ip addresses don't ping either.
Can your laptop ping the router? Have you tried setting the default gateway on the laptop as the access point and setting the access points default gateway as the router?
The reason it can't be the access point is because you have said anything on your wiresless side of the access point can talk to anything on the wired side of the access point thats internal.
Its not DNS as ip addresses don't ping either.
Can your laptop ping the router? Have you tried setting the default gateway on the laptop as the access point and setting the access points default gateway as the router?
03 October 2005, 11:19 PM
#12
Bravo,
The plot gets thicker; just been experimenting and the results are as follows:
Using the existing dns server addresses in the access point, and any combination of fixed ip addresses I can ping any workstation in the network, ping the cabled router, ping my external ip address.
I used the external gateway address as my default gateway, as suggested, and while I can ping it (see above) I still can't get my web client to see Scoobynet or anything else. Error message is the same as before.
So I'm now not sure what I'm dealing with here. Seems I can now ping around, internally and externally, but can't view via the browser nor send/receive emails via my mail client.
Not sure where to go next. Your thoughts?
WB
The plot gets thicker; just been experimenting and the results are as follows:
Using the existing dns server addresses in the access point, and any combination of fixed ip addresses I can ping any workstation in the network, ping the cabled router, ping my external ip address.
I used the external gateway address as my default gateway, as suggested, and while I can ping it (see above) I still can't get my web client to see Scoobynet or anything else. Error message is the same as before.
So I'm now not sure what I'm dealing with here. Seems I can now ping around, internally and externally, but can't view via the browser nor send/receive emails via my mail client.
Not sure where to go next. Your thoughts?
WB
04 October 2005, 08:38 AM
#13
Sorry, but have you actually tried turning the firewall off, rather than assuming it's not the problem? I find it's the cause of at least half of all network issues. You firewall may have a problem with the access point if it doesn't trust it.
M
M
04 October 2005, 08:45 AM
#14
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OK what I was suggesting is that you make the access points ip address your laptops default gateway and the access points default gateway must be the internal address of your router, not the external address. That way your telling the laptop its external traffic must got through the access point and the access point is being told that all its external traffic must go through the router.
You shouldn't have to do this and that the internal address of your router should be the only gateway address needed for any device on the network but its worth a try. The only time you should need different gateways is if you are using different subnets which you have said you arn't as all ips and subnets masks are the same on your network.
Off to work now so will have a read back on what you find tonight mate, hope you get it working as my access point did my head in for about an hour when I got it when I thought it was going to be a 2 minute job! (encryption was the main issue for me)
You shouldn't have to do this and that the internal address of your router should be the only gateway address needed for any device on the network but its worth a try. The only time you should need different gateways is if you are using different subnets which you have said you arn't as all ips and subnets masks are the same on your network.
Off to work now so will have a read back on what you find tonight mate, hope you get it working as my access point did my head in for about an hour when I got it when I thought it was going to be a 2 minute job! (encryption was the main issue for me)
04 October 2005, 07:35 PM
#15
Bravo,
Tried your ideas as suggested above but no joy. I then rang Netgear's helpdesk today for some help (based in India, suprise surprise). After half an hour, 10 minutes of which was spent by the guy registering my product onto their database, I am now worse off than I was before I made the call.
The usb dongle won't talk to the access point and generally speaking the usb dongle won't set itself to the IP addresses I am feeding it.
Totally frustrated, gone out to give the dog a good kicking
Later on this evening I will strip everything down and start again from scratch and see how I get on. If I don't then the kit is going back and I will be asking for my money back.
Thanks for your help on this so far, much appreciated..
I will post up tomorrow on where I am at.
The thing that pees me off is that if this was a cabled item I would have been done in 5 minutes!
Tried your ideas as suggested above but no joy. I then rang Netgear's helpdesk today for some help (based in India, suprise surprise). After half an hour, 10 minutes of which was spent by the guy registering my product onto their database, I am now worse off than I was before I made the call.
The usb dongle won't talk to the access point and generally speaking the usb dongle won't set itself to the IP addresses I am feeding it.
Totally frustrated, gone out to give the dog a good kicking
Later on this evening I will strip everything down and start again from scratch and see how I get on. If I don't then the kit is going back and I will be asking for my money back.
Thanks for your help on this so far, much appreciated..
I will post up tomorrow on where I am at.
The thing that pees me off is that if this was a cabled item I would have been done in 5 minutes!
04 October 2005, 08:47 PM
#16
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Nightmare mate. How about taking everything else off the router and having just the 3 devices to concentrate on, ie just the router, the access point and the one laptop.
Set the routers internal address to 10.0.0.1 the access point to 10.0.0.2 and the laptop's usb wireless network dongle to 10.0.0.3
The gateway is obviously 10.0.0.1 and make the subnet mask 255.0.0.0 for all 3 devices. Turn off any dhcp on the access point and router.
Don't have any encryption on and broadcast the ssid of the access point.
It can't get any more simple than that and if that doesn't work then there are other factors interfering, either the routers firewall is stopping external traffic from the laptop either by mac address or ip address or the access point is faulty (although don't believe this as it wouldn't let any traffic through if it was faulty).
Set the routers internal address to 10.0.0.1 the access point to 10.0.0.2 and the laptop's usb wireless network dongle to 10.0.0.3
The gateway is obviously 10.0.0.1 and make the subnet mask 255.0.0.0 for all 3 devices. Turn off any dhcp on the access point and router.
Don't have any encryption on and broadcast the ssid of the access point.
It can't get any more simple than that and if that doesn't work then there are other factors interfering, either the routers firewall is stopping external traffic from the laptop either by mac address or ip address or the access point is faulty (although don't believe this as it wouldn't let any traffic through if it was faulty).
04 October 2005, 10:24 PM
#18
Fixed It
Well, would you believe it, I stripped everything back to basics, deinstalled and reinstalled the USB dongle driver, hard reset the access point so it went back to factory settings, set my IP addresses to the ranges that I used before, used the same DNS server settings as before, left SSID on and changed nothing else and..........it worked!
Apart from my approach tonight, which was to change one setting at a time then test the effect out, from a technical perspective I have done absolutely NOTHING differently from what I have been doing for the last 3 nights, including leaving the firewall in! Unbelievable.
Anyways, one by one I have managed to set up 152/156 bit security, mac address access control, constant 108mbits speed, etc, and, so far, its remained stable. I'm typing this from the new install as we speak.
So I guess its been sods law operating here big time.
Thanks to you guys for your help, especially to Bravo for hanging in there, very much appreciated.
Cheers
WB
Apart from my approach tonight, which was to change one setting at a time then test the effect out, from a technical perspective I have done absolutely NOTHING differently from what I have been doing for the last 3 nights, including leaving the firewall in! Unbelievable.
Anyways, one by one I have managed to set up 152/156 bit security, mac address access control, constant 108mbits speed, etc, and, so far, its remained stable. I'm typing this from the new install as we speak.
So I guess its been sods law operating here big time.
Thanks to you guys for your help, especially to Bravo for hanging in there, very much appreciated.
Cheers
WB
04 October 2005, 10:32 PM
#19
Guest
Posts: n/a
Nice one and glad its working. The hard reset back to factory settings on the access point was probably what fixed it. My router wasn't allowing any traffic out tonight, thought the adsl was down until I saw the router had an ip address. Rebooted it via the web portal but still didn't work. Had to physically power it down and switch it back on and hey presto all was working again. Hardware reliability just isn't what it should be with todays technological advances!
04 October 2005, 10:40 PM
#20
Originally Posted by **************
Hardware reliability just isn't what it should be with todays technological advances!
You can say that again. Imagine depending on one of these things to get you to the moon and back. No bloody chance
Thanks again mate.
WB
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