Wireless connection problem....any ideas ??

I've been trying to solve this problem for a while, but I'm just going round in circles, so I'm hoping someone here can help.

I want to share an internet access I have around a wide area, so I've run out two CAT5 cable runs to various points and attached Netgear WG102 wireless access points. All in all, there are three, which cover the whole site.

The modem I have doesn't have DHCP, so I've had to manually set the IP address into the three APs and an admin laptop ( they all conect to the modem through a switch ).

I have checked the admin laptop can get online and I know the APs can, as the clock changes to the correct time, from factory default, so that side of things is okay.

However I've tried a few laptops and my iMac in an attempt to get online via the wireless, but every time the IP address assigned is the address you get when the config is wrong ( 169.224. etc etc ). Every computer I have tried is set to DHCP for the wireless and I have tried various levels on encryption, just in case there is a problem with the AP on un-encrytped links. I have updated the firmware on the APs and I have re-booted them ( and the computers ) several times, but nothing seems to work.

Does anyone have any ideas, please ?

"Every computer I have tried is set to DHCP for the wireless.............."

Well, if you've turned DHCP off, then the computers won't get an IP address ?

Or am I missing something ?

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhcp, is used to automatically assign IP addresses to computers.

If you use DHCP there should be at least one device on your network which is pretty much always switched on and assigned the role of DHCP server. Have you tried statically assigning IP addresses to all your devices? DHCP is useful but by no means essential.

Sorry, I might not have explained this right.

The APs are set to allocate IPs by DHCP and all the wireless PCs I try to connect are set to assign IP address automatically, so I can't understand why I keep getting these 'rogue' IP addresses assigned.

169.x.x.x addresses are assigned by Windows when a device fails to be allocated an IP address by the DHCP server. If multiple machines are failing to be allocated an IP address, the problem is more likely to be in the DHCP server than in the PC's themselves.

That's what I was trying to explain. I cannot get these APs to assign an IP address to any wireless device that connects.

Are you sure the WG102 is a DHCP server? The info I've found on the web is ambiguous. It suggests that some other device on your network must issue the IP address, the WG102 just passes them on.

e.g. "If you enable the DHCP client on the WG102 (it will get its IP address from the DHCP server in the network) than it will serve multiple DHCP requests coming from wireless device."

Hi, configure your LAN (Local Area Network) with static IP Address, write it all down and have a print out of which computer is given which static IP Address.

Follow these instructions� http://www.homenethelp.com/web/howto/static-ip-address.asp

Easy to follow and understand Network configuration Tutorial...
http://www.networking.windowsreinstall.com/directconnectionnetwork/index.htm

as far as I can see these access points are purely wired to wireless bridges and don't have DHCP server capability.

They will have DHCP client functions to get themselves an IP address although in your case this doesn't help as there is no DHCP server in the "modem".

Presumably the "modem" is actually a router, if not there must be another router in the system. More data required.

Thanks for the replies everyone. The DHCP needs to be provided by another piece of equipment and the modem doesn't offer that service.
I had a beer epiphany earlier and realised my mistake. Time to build some IP Cop installs :-)

Thanks again.

Edited by Foxile (Sat 19-Jul-08 17:58:04)