Creating hotspot with 5 wl-500g (long post)

[spoonman_666]

At my company I am trying to create a hotspot on the ground floor of the building.

I've done a site survey:
- 5 Accesspoint needed
- Power is available at the different spots
- There are also UTP outlets to our server room

This is what I have:
- ADSL to the Internet in the server room
- Latest Firmware 1.8.someting
- Hub (when needed to connect the Access Points)
- No need for encryption.

I like to provide visitors with free access to the Internet. I must be a totally seperate network from our corporate network.

What is the best way to do this? Is it possible to connect the AP's with UTP (root-mode or something)?

I tried Hybrid on every AP the same channel and SSID and the Mac addresses of all AP's in the list. One AP with DHCP server and connection with the ADSL modem on the WAN port. This doesn't work.

Thanx in advance for any reply.

[Styno]

I think you should use AP's. There's no need for a full featured router @ every hostspot (However, the router can work as an AP).

In the server room the UTP connections are patched to the firewall/router of you company. At that point the separation of the hotspots and the company's network takes place.

[Antiloop]

1 WL500g must act as normal router/home gateway so that it functions normally do this first

after it's running switch to HYBRID mode (in bridge menu)on all 5 Routers
add mac addresses of remote WL500g in Remote List (so router 1 must contain mac address of the 4 others, router 2 must contain mac address of the 4 others etc etc..)

Turn of DHCP at all Routers except the first WL500g

assing static (lan) IP to every WL500g

WL500g (1) 192.168.1.1 (already default)
WL500g (2) 192.168.1.2
WL500g (3) 192.168.1.3
WL500g (4) 192.168.1.4
WL500g (5) 192.168.1.5

also make sure WL500g does not give away DHCP address from 192.168.1.2 but starting from 192.168.1.6

hope this clearify's it a bit..

[spoonman_666]

Thanks Antiloop that helps but...

DHCP is not working when out of range of the AP with DHCP server turned on.

Somebody with the same problem here?

[Styno]

I still think you should keep the firewalling and routing stuff at a central point in your network (like your company's router) and use simple AP's for the hotspots. This will make administration and security easyer maintainable..

Don't stare blindly on the possibilities of the WL-500g, this is not a home gateway project you said.

Just my 2cents

[Antiloop]

Thanks Antiloop that helps but...

DHCP is not working when out of range of the AP with DHCP server turned on.

Somebody with the same problem here?

turning on WDS does bridge all of the WL500g's so it bridges the DHCP to all other AP's assuming they are all in range of eachother


and for keeping it seperated as styno said you need to do that on your regular network itself

there are a few possibilities
you could also disable WDS and connect a lan cable from every 'AP' to the WL500g(DHCP)

[spoonman_666]

See attached file.


ps I know about keeping routing and firewall central but the cheapest way for now is a separate network.

[Jeroen Vonk]

Turn of DHCP at all Routers except the first WL500g

It's not a problem to have more than just one DHCP servers on a single segment, as long as they don't have overlapping IP ranges. So if the first DHCP server gives away IP addresses from e.g 192.168.1.50 - 192.168.1.150, you can have a second DHCP server with the range 192.168.1.151 - 192.168.1.250.

In fact I think in this case it's a good idea to have multiple DHCP servers because the network will still function if the first DHCP server fails.

[Jeroen Vonk]

I tried Hybrid on every AP the same channel and SSID and the Mac addresses of all AP's in the list. One AP with DHCP server and connection with the ADSL modem on the WAN port. This doesn't work.

Setting the same channel on all AP's is not a good idea. (in fact it's wrong ) A channel represents the center frequency that the AP uses, channel 1 uses 2.412 GHz, channel 2 uses 2.417 GHz. A channel uses about 30 MHz so channel 1 and 2 overlap 15 MHz. Using 2 AP's this way causes interference and you can notice degraded performance and possible roaming doesn't work well which in your case is important.

Channel 1, 6 and 11 do not overlap, so you can use a combination of those channels. With just three channels it's possible to create a grid with minimal overlap.

Something like this:
1 6 11
6 11 1
11 1 6

You want to create a complete seperate network which is not connected to you company network. Do they share the same internet connection? If so, I would suggest using a router/firewall to be placed between your company network, the wireless network and the internet connection. You can use an Asus AP for this, but to be honest I think these AP's are more suitable for home use. (on the other hand, they work quite well and they could be used.)

There are quite a few solutions for your "problem" so I think it's not possible to give you the perfect answer/solution based on the information you gave us.

Do the seperate networks share the same internet connection? (perhaps it's cheaper to use a seperate internet connection for wireless users. In the Netherlands an decent ADSL connection costs less than 60 euro/month, so that's also a possibility)
Do you want your company user's to be able to access the internal network from the wireless network?
What's the budget?
Should the wireless network be fail safe?
How much time are you willing to spend on the network?
etc etc etc

Regards,
Jeroen

[spoonman_666]

I went for the solution in the drawing. It works. I have got a question about the channels. Why is it that when you select "Hybrid" is says that you have to select the same channel for every AP?



About creating a seperate, in my case it is the cheapest way. It does not have to be fault proof and always available. I live in the Netherlands and ADSL is cheap.

[Jeroen Vonk]

I went for the solution in the drawing. It works. I have got a question about the channels. Why is it that when you select "Hybrid" is says that you have to select the same channel for every AP?

A bridge is a connection between 2 network segments. I've never tried to use an Asus AP as a bridge, so I don't know much about it.

But if all AP's are connected to the router by a LAN cable then you can configure all AP's as "AP only." (with different channels like I described earlier.) If they are not connected with a cable, then i just shut up and let people who know how to configure it do the talking.....

About creating a seperate, in my case it is the cheapest way. It does not have to be fault proof and always available. I live in the Netherlands and ADSL is cheap.

Then you are absolutely right to create a wireless LAN this way. Should also be fun and nice for visitors

[Antiloop]

A bridge is a connection between 2 network segments. I've never tried to use an Asus AP as a bridge, so I don't know much about it.

But if all AP's are connected to the router by a LAN cable then you can configure all AP's as "AP only." (with different channels like I described earlier.) If they are not connected with a cable, then i just shut up and let people who know how to configure it do the talking.....


Then you are absolutely right to create a wireless LAN this way. Should also be fun and nice for visitors

when 'bridging' with wds you create a roaming network

i'm using that particulair configuration at this moment as test setup
it's working very well. when i switch off one of the WL500g my notebook roams to the other

[Jeroen Vonk]

when 'bridging' with wds you create a roaming network

In the Asus configuration manager -> wireless -> bridge, if you look at the picture when selecting AP mode you see a single AP if you select AP only. But if you select WDS only, you see 3 segments wireless which are connected with 3 AP's in WDS mode. This is the scenario I was talking about, if the AP's are not connected by wire, this is the mode to use them. (and of course for the AP's to be able to communicate to each other they should all have the same channel.) This will propably also work if all AP's are connected by wire, but you will most likely notice a degraded performance.

However if all AP's are connected to a switch by wire, you should select AP only and configure the channels with minimal overlap in frequency for better performance. So adjacent AP's should have different channels. (channels 1, 6 and 11 do not overlap)

I think the manual and Asus configuration manager are not very clear about this. It seems that WDS is the way to go if you have more than just 1 AP, but only if they are not connected by wire. (which is absolutely not clear from the picture.)