Wireless setup on home LAN

[Joseph Guarino]

Hello Don,

It might make sense to recycle the BEFSR41 and just go with the newer
WRT54G with something like OpenWRT or DD-WRT loaded on it.  You will
have to find out which hardware version you have of the WRT54G to see if
you can load those.  The features therein dwarf any stock Linksys
feature set and would be much more highly configurable.  Check it out...
 

http://openwrt.org/
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Thanks,
Joseph Guarino 
Evolutionary IT - Best Practice IT
Website: www.evolutionaryit.com
Blog: www.evolutionaryit.com/blog
888.404.5074 (Office)
617.953.9514 (Mobile)
 

> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:50:48 -0400
> From: Don Levey <lug-TwWeWiF2EGRi+ztankeudA at public.gmane.org>
> Subject: Wireless setup on home LAN
> To: BLU Discussion List <discuss-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
> Message-ID: <48EC2008.3010308-TwWeWiF2EGRi+ztankeudA at public.gmane.org>
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> [This is not a short post/request, so I'll say it here: thanks for
> your time if you choose to read this]
> 
> I've got a home LAN fronted by a Linksys BEFSR41 connected to my cable
> modem.  Behind it I've got several machines connected via two
> different hubs, and everything works well.  Since everything is
> working properly, of course I figured I'd fool with it.
> 
> I'm trying to add a wireless router, a Linksys WRT54G.  The goal is
> simply to add wireless capability to this network.  I'm running into
> problems.  I've got the WRT54G set up in "Router" mode, and have set
> up WEP in the wireless section of the on-line config.  The main setup
> is for receiving network information via DHCP on the WAN interface,
> and I've set up a static IP for the internal interface.  I've disabled
> DHCP on this router, as the BEFSR41 is running DHCP and I don't want
> conflicts.  I may be mistaken, but this should still provide clients
> connecting via wireless with the ability to configure via DHCP.  So
> far I have two ethernet cables going into the WRT54G, one in the WAN
> interface and one in one of the LAN interfaces.  Each of these cables
> is connected to the hub connected to the BEFSR41 - is this a mistake?
> 
> The problem is in getting my laptop (and my wife's) to get a
> connection that works, using Fedora (9 & 6, respectively).  I can get
> Wireless Assistant to give what *looks* like a connection, and I can
> get an IP assigned if I choose a static address, but I can't ping to
> anything (including internal servers).  Here's output from wlassistant:
> 
>     Loaded application options.
>     All interfaces: eth0, sit0, wlan0, wmaster0
>     Wireless interface(s): wlan0
>     Permissions checked.
>     DHCP Client: dhclient
>     All executables found.
>     scan: /sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan
>     Networks found: 2
>     ACTION: CONNECT.
>     Running DHCP client found.
>     kill_dhcp: /sbin/dhclient -r wlan0
>     No pre-connection command specified.
>     iwconfig_set: /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode managed channel 2 key
> restricted xxxxxxxxxx essid cerberos
>     iwconfig_ap: /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 ap 00:1A:70:82:0F:D0
>     ifconfig_manual: /sbin/ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.193 netmask
> 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
>     resolv.conf: domain the-leveys.us
>     resolv.conf: nameserver 192.168.1.80
>     resolv.conf: nameserver 4.2.2.1
>     route_add: /sbin/route add default gw 192.168.1.1
>     ==>stderr: SIOCADDRT: File exists
>     No post-connection command specified.
>     CONNECTION FAILED.
>     disconnect: /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode managed key off ap off essid off
>     Application options saved.
>     Kernel socket closed.
> 
> Here's what happens with DHCP:
> 
>     Loaded application options.
>     All interfaces: eth0, sit0, wlan0, wmaster0
>     Wireless interface(s): wlan0
>     Permissions checked.
>     DHCP Client: dhclient
>     All executables found.
>     scan: /sbin/iwlist wlan0 scan
>     Networks found: 2
>     Network settings updated.
>     ACTION: CONNECT.
>     Running DHCP client found.
>     kill_dhcp: /sbin/dhclient -r wlan0
>     No pre-connection command specified.
>     iwconfig_set: /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode managed channel 2 key
> restricted xxxxxxxxxx essid cerberos
>     iwconfig_ap: /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 ap 00:1A:70:82:0F:D0
>     ifconfig_dhcp: /sbin/dhclient wlan0
>     Running DHCP client found.
>     kill_dhcp: /sbin/dhclient -r wlan0
>     CONNECTION FAILED.
>     disconnect: /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 mode managed key off ap off essid off
>     Application options saved.
>     Kernel socket closed.
> 
> I'm not surprised that the second didn't work given that I can't seem
> to get beyond that router.  Using network configuration
> gives similar results.  Using DHCP:
> 
>     Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
>         SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
> 
> Using static IP:
>     (Same error, but claims to be "active" and connected)
> 
> In either case, using a static IP ifconfig shows that the IP is
> associated with the interface.  I cannot, however, ping any machine at
> all.  I can ping the assigned address.
> 
> Has anyone out there done this before?  What am I missing/doing wrong?
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