Hi Guys, I need a bit of networking help and before we pay someone to do it I thought maybe someone here could help me. Seems easy but then again I can be pretty dim when it comes to networking.

In our office we've got several computers on the network. These are the pieces of equipment we currently have:

Alcatel Speedtouch Modem
3Com OfficeConnect Dual Speed Hub8
Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall (FVS318)

It goes Alcatel > 3Com > Netgear Firewall > User PCs. Someone put a sticker on the 3Com Hub that says "not behind firewall/NAT. Uses external IP address. Don't plug users computers here."

What we need is to add wireless connectivity for 2 laptops in the office. For this, the office girl ran out and bought a normal Netgear wireless router (model number WGR614). With the pieces of equipment that I have, what do I need to do to allow our network to go wireless? Where does the new Netgear router plug in, and how do I configure it to act as just (I think) an access point?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The Wireless Router probably has one port labelled "WAN" or "Internet" or something like that. Don't plug anything in there.

The VPN, I assume, has multiple ports where your user PCs are plugged in. Either that or there's another switch/hub behind it that you haven't mentioned. Plug one of the regular ports from the new router into one of those ports. That is, plug the Wireless Router in as if it were a regular user PC, making sure not to use the Internet/WAN port.

Next you need to assign it an address in the same way you'd assign an address to a PC. Either manually or via DHCP. Follow the directions that came with it for that. You're trying to assign its internal IP, not the Internet/WAN one.

After you do that, you should be able to pull up its configuration in a browser. See if there's some way to disable the Internet/WAN port. If not, it's no big deal; nothing will try to use it as a router anyway. Also disable its DHCP server, assuming you either already have one or you don't want one. (You could leave it enabled if you actually do want to use it.)

That's really about it. Note that this means that your wireless network is on your private LAN, so make sure it's as secured as possible. If you'd rather have it as a separate network, which is actually pretty reasonable, let us know and we'll help you out there.

Thanks Bitt. Gonna give this a crack and see how it goes...

Ok so here is the problem I ran into (and I should have noticed this earlier). You are correct, the VPN has eight ports which connect to user PCs. Problem is, between all the computers and the printserver, all of the ports are being used. There is no available port to plug the Netgear wireless router into. Also, there does not seem to be any other switch or hub installed.

So I imagine we have to get a new firewall with more ports? Or might there be another way to do things? Also, if a new piece of equpment is what we need, a simple suggestion would be appreciated. CompUSA is right down the street.

Unless there's some arbitrary limitation (and there might, unfortunately, be one), you can just buy a hub or switch and plug it into one of those ports.