Network configuration problem.

[Erik P. Olsen]

On Wed, 2004-07-28 at 05:38, Stewart Nelson wrote:
> Hi Erik,
> 
> > My internet access is through a router owned by my ISP. The WAN side is
> > a fixed address which is translated to 192.168.1.0, netmask
> > 255.255.255.0. Fairly normal, I think. The LAN interface is 192.168.1.1
> > to which my server is connected via an ethernet interface. Address
> > 192.168.1.7 is to a Linksys wireless router, address 192.168.2.0. This
> > is for my customers so I can hook them up to my network whenever they
> > visit my office. This is a fine setup for my customers. The only problem
> > I have and which I have not been able to solve is that I can't see the
> > customer machines on the network from the server but they can see the
> > server. To put it simple, a machine on 192.168.2.125 can ping the server
> > on 192.168.1.1 but I can't ping the other way.
> 
> > What do I need to specify? I am happily running FC2 updated to latest
> > level.
> 
> You probably have the Linksys set up to do NAT (the default, and
> impossible to turn off in many models).  That will block requests from
> 192.168.1 to 192.168.2 .  You could possibly set it up non-NAT, but
> then your Internet router would need to be configured with a static
> route and to do NAT for the other subnet.

No, I don't think it does NAT. How can I verify that? There is nothing
of this kind in the configuration dialogs.

> IMO, if you don't need extra security between your customers and the
> office LAN, it is easiest to set up the Linksys as just an access
> point, not using its routing function.  To do this, disconnect the
> WAN port altogether.  From a PC on its LAN side, change the Linksys
> WAN address to something that does not conflict, e.g. 192.168.3.7 .

But the present address, 192.168.2.1, does not conflict.

> Then, disable its DHCP server, and change its LAN address to 192.168.1.7 .

I can't change the DHCP server. It belongs to the ISP. They'll do the
change for a fee and I loose support if I do. I'll rather change ISP
than their router.

> Connect a LAN port on the Linksys to your office LAN switch.  If neither
> side is auto MDI/MDX, you will need a crossover cable.  Now, your
> wireless clients will get IP addresses 192.168.1.x, handed out by
> whatever does DHCP on your office LAN, presumably either the Internet
> router or your server.  The Linksys will just be a bridge, so you
> don't need any special routes on your server.

I had a similar setup at the very beginning and it worked fine except I
could establish a mail server. The NAT in the WAN router translates
incoming SMTP traffic to 192.168.1.2 and that was never reflected to the
connected subnet due to addressing conflicts. I had to connect the mail
server to the WAN router and reconfigure the wireless router to
192.168.2.0 and that's when I lost connection from the mail server to
the customer machines on the wireless network.

-- 
Regards,
Erik P. Olsen