Network configuration problem.

[Stewart Nelson]

Hi Erik,

> > I believe that your trouble was the conflicting DHCP servers.  Try this
> > again, after disabling the Linksys DHCP server, and resetting the Linksys
> > LAN address to 192.168.1.x that does not conflict with other hosts on
> > your LAN, and is out of the range of addresses handed out by your Internet
> > router.
> 
> I am a little confused. I want to be sure I understand precisely what
> you want me to do:
> 
> 1. Disable DHCP in the wireless router

Correct.

> 2. Change the router's WAN address to 192.168.1.x.

Correct.

> I could probably go back to the original 192.168.1.7.

I suspect that could cause trouble.  The 5711 might not be smart
enough to snoop traffic and know that .7 is in use, and it could
hand .7 out to a dynamic host, causing a conflict.  Even if it
does work correctly, you could still get in trouble if you had
the Linksys offline for a while, someone else got .7, and then
you would have a conflict when the Linksys was reconnected.

I assume that the 5711 is at 192.168.1.1 and your Fedora file
and mail server is at 192.168.1.2 .  Can you use .3, .4 or .5
for the Linksys?  If those are already taken, choose an address
that DHCP should never hit.  For example, if the 5711 assigns
addresses starting from the bottom, use .200 .

Be careful that you don't lose control of the WRT54G .  If you
have changed the LAN address and turned off its DHCP (and have
it disconnected from the 5711), then you will need to set up
a PC with a compatible static IP address to continue configuration.

After making the changes, connect a LAN port on the WRT54G to
your office switch, leaving the WAN port unconnected.

> 3. Define static addresses for the computers on the wireless LAN.

You would not normally need static IPs.  DHCP requests from
wireless clients will be bridged by the WRT54G to the 5711, which
will hand out an available IP.  The 5711 will not know the difference
between wired and wireless hosts, and will assign unique 192.168.1.x
addresses.

> 
> One question: The internet router's addressing range has 192.168.1.1
> through 192.168.1.5 as fixed and reserved addresses. All the rest up to
> 192.168.1.254 are assigned by its DHCP. Won't that conflict with the
> same addressing range in the wireless LAN if I set the address to
> 192.168.1.7?

You should make sure that your static assignments don't conflict.
There should be no problem with the dynamic ones, because the 5711 will
assign unique addresses to all dynamic wired and wireless clients.

> The server should be able to ftp to the computers on the wireless LAN
> and the various computers should communicate by e-mail using mail server
> on the main server.

If you don't mind telling, I'm quite curious about your application.
It is quite normal to allow one's customers to access the Internet, or
permit them to retrieve data from or upload data to a server.
But accessing their FTP server seems strange.  The vast majority of
notebooks and desktop workstations wouldn't even have an FTP server
installed.  And if they had a machine intended for use as a server,
it probably wouldn't have a wireless client interface.

--Stewart