Long and short of it is that my network was working fine, and today i tried to add a Netgear Wireless Router to the mix, and now part of it doesn't work despite my best efforts. In the place of the new router, i used to have a linux based pc router, and another Netgear access point on the switch. As i said, everything worked fine. Here's what the layout is now:



Now what i'm seeing is this:
Everything works fine on the side of the FS108 switch. No problems there. Everything can get online. I can ping the ME102 access point from this side just fine, but can't ping anything beyond it.

The wireless laptop works fine.

Everything on the hub side (over the wireless), can't see past the ME102 AP to the router, but they can ping the ME102 AP and each other just fine. Nothing on this side can get online.

I've quadrillion checked all of the access point settings and router settings. The SSID, WEP Keys, and everything else are fine.

I'm hoping there's just a huge flaw in the way i set this up. Will the slimp3 be able to see it's server on the switch? Is there a simple rearrangement that i can do to make this all work? Or am i going to have to put the other access point on the switch so the wireless side will work again, thus defeating the reason i got the wireless router?

PLEASE help! I'm at my wits end with this one.

My first guess is that it's a routing issue between the MR814 and the ME102. What routes are setup? I'm not familiar with those two pieces of equipment, so I'm not even sure if the routing can be setup that way.

Nice diagram, BTW. I like how you hand drew it. Everyone else seems to do diagrams in MS paint or photoshop or some sort of graphics program, yet, the animator hand draws it.

I've never touched a MR814; I'm guessing, though, that it needs a route for all the IPs behind ME102, unless they're using NAT.

No routes are setup (showing my networking lack of skills)

So my options for setting up static routes are as follows:

destination IP
IP subnet mask
Gateway IP
Metric


could one of you kindly gents give a simple explanation? the docs are sparse..

Thanks!.

I don't think you should need any routes in this case. The ME102 is essentially just a bridge and the MR814 should be essentially bridging between your wireless and wired networks.

What you have should be working already, as far as I can see.

We don't really have enough detail though to see what you have done wrong. We really need to see the IP addresses, netmasks and gateways you are using on all the devices. They should all really have the same netmask and gateway (the gateway being the MR814).

I'm fairly certain that all of the IP's and netmasks are correct. They are all 192.168.1.xxx, and all use the netmask of 255.255.255.0. The Gateway is set to 192.168.1.1 on everything, which is the IP of the MR814 Router.

That all sounds right, which isn't very helpful

My best guess at the moment would be that the AP in the MR814 doesn't like the ME102 working in APClient mode. That has always been a problem area. You might think having two wireless products from the same company might help, but of course they were probably actually developed by completely different people and bought in (the ME102's hardware and firmware is used by several different companies).

What's driving me nuts is that both sides of the network see the ME102's IP, so there's a connection happening there wirelessly. But for some reason it's like a stopping point, no packets want to go past it either way.

Oh, and i've tried the ME102 in AP mode as well as Bridge mode. no luck.

Might be a silly question, but what IP address for the ME102 does the laptop see? The address on the port connected to the DS108?

If so, then routing through the ME102 should be working.

You were lucky:
I just put in a Linksys wireless network with the able assistance of Cristian who got it working fine with one click of the mouse after I had stared puzzled at the screen for 3 days.
The Rio Receiver goes dead when the microwave starts.
The Cordless phone goes dead when their is anything going on on the network.
The wireless doorbell rings during certain functions and at start up: I only discovered this after I had berated next door's children severely for ringing the doorbell and running away.

Unfortunately, in the eighteenth century nobody thought of putting some cat5 wiring through, the walls are two foot thick and the floors are solid!

Linksys helpline say they know about these things, which doesn't get me very far!

Unless you're creating separate subnets for some reason, you don't want any routing or metrics in the wireless stuff. You do want to make sure that you have it all in bridge mode, if selectable, so they basically act as hubs/switches.
Sorry, I don't know more about the specific netgear devices although I have used the ADSL routers (wired only) and think they're great products.
Try ringing netgear support, when you have a free day to stay on hold. they're usually pretty good and can at least direct you to support pages.

Well it should work - I have almost exactly the same setup, except mine is all Linksys, rahter than NetGear.

I also have the DSL running from a firewall on the main switch.

As for help: Try plugging something directly into the ME102 and see if it works. I had the same problem with a cheap (<£20) switch where it would drop packets for minutes at a time, and then it would work sporadically. I just switched out the switch for a different hub and it was fine.

Paul.

Might be a silly question, but what IP address for the ME102 does the laptop see? The address on the port connected to the DS108?

Unfortunately it probably does count as a silly question

The ME102 is essentially acting as a bridge, so it only has one IP address anyway. The ME102 doesn't do any routing as such (i.e. it doesn't route packets at the IP level, just bridges Ethernet traffic).

Here's my setup if it helps.

I also had to have all of the wireless stuff in APClient Mode (which I know you said worked ok)..

The downstairs wireless router needed to have the other MAC address entered in the configuration screen though.

I don't have a default gateway set on the downstairs WAP either - that might be your problem.

Paul.

I think refering to the Wap11 as a "wireless router" is a bit misleading. In none of it's modes could it be described as routing, it is always acting as a bridge of some description.

Other things to check - on the DSL router is the wireless set to 'Access Point' rather than AP Client or Wireless Bridge? I had loads of trouble with this when I was setting up.

ok, busted - i just quickly threw together the diagram.

Loren,

You may remember way back you tried helping me with a wireless card in my laptop. I had everything configured correctly. We could ping the router but internet access wasn't working. It finally came down to me returning the card and getting another. Once the card was replaced everything worked. So in short, you may just have a bad piece of hardware. Everything looks good according to your diagram, although I'm not an expert, but it should be pretty straightforward.

Also, make sure all your kit has the latest firmware updates. I couldn't get WEP working on my wlan until all my various bits of kit had up to date firmware.

There are other good reasons for updating the firmware on the MR814:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~plonka/netgear-sntp/

I was afraid of that (was going to ask if it was just bridging, but thought I'd punt the question anyway - oh well)

Yikes, nasty netgear hardware!...;)

Paul.

Ah, but it comes in nice blue (metal if you are lucky) boxes, which makes up for it

I've always had good luck with Netgear products, and D-Link. Its the Linksys equipment that always gives me headaches. But then again, we can find horror stories for just about any product.

Loren,
Get the latest firmware for both sides of your wireless bridge and try again (back up your settings first). Since they're both the same brand, you stand a chance.
-Zeke

Heh ...

All my linksys stuff is hidden - the downstairs WAP is under a chair! (don't sit in it though .... - along with the hub, etc)

I hear what you are saying though.

Paul.

Thanks for the posts everyone. My plan is to upgrade the firmware on the router tonight (it's a .1 upgrade), and give it another shot. If that doesn't work... i'll bang my head against a wall a few times and probably stay up til 2am again reconfiguring every little detail until it still won't work, and i'll go back to my trusty old 486 linux router. Technology... bah.

Don't forget that the ME102 has firmware as well (in fact you can also apply the firmware from the LinkSys Wap11 instead, which enables more features).

I've got the latest firmware on the ME102... at least the newest that Netgear recommends. It's one of the earlier models, the 2a's i think. I haven't read anything about applying the Wap11 firmware....

Have you tried tying a device directly into the AP (ME-102), to make sure it isn't a more-than-3-hubs-in-a-row issue?