Wireless router vs. Hub?

[333kenshin]

Hey all,

I work for one of those huge cities in one of those huge public schools you have heard about on TV. We have recently managed to purchase a set of laptops with wireless cards buit in. The problem is that we have only one wireless hub and have to move it around from place to place.

I know I could buy more wireless hubs, but I have found that "wireless broadband routers" are often on sale for less than hubs and include printer ports.

Question: Will a "broadband wireless router" work in my situation? Will there be any disadvantages of using NAT and private IPs behind the router?


Details:
network is your standard 100Mbs with DCHP. We are using microsoft networking to share files, but i could live with losing that functionality. In general, all we need to is access the internet, send email, and print.

Thanks everyone,

-Josh

 

[nweaver]

1. Turn off DHCP
2. Plug your Wired LAN into one of the switch ports.
3. Take the extra money and buy Ice Cream, your "Router" is now an "Access Point"

 

[Devistater]

What do you mean by "wireless hub" ? Do you mean a wireless access point (AP)? It should be able to reach at least a couple hundred feet in all directions, do you need more range than that?

Do you have an existing wired router or wired switch?

 

[JackMDS]

Link to: Using a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access Point

:sun:

 

[333kenshin]

Thanks for all the responses. I'll definatly try this.

Devistater, sorry if i was unclear, I'm admittedly bad with the terminology.

There isn't an issue of range, but numbers. My campus fills a city block and there is only one AP that we have to move around when we need wireless coverage in a certain area. The wired network I am on uses a DHCP server to dole out Internal IPs (10.x.x.x).


From reading the responses, I think what I want to do is to make my "router" into an "access point" so that the computers can connect through it to the wired network's DHCP server. I realize this may sound like a cheap hack, but we are going to have to use personal money to buy this equipment.

Some follow-up questions, if anyone could respond...

1. Can all "broadband routers" be converted to APs? are there any brands I need to worry about?

2. Why couldn't I just plug in the broadband router like I do at home? my laptops would get 192.168.x.x addresses behind a 10.x.x.x address which would transate to external IP.

3. Finally, does anyone know how i could use either a seperate or integrated (into the router) print server so that, say, 30 laptops could all easily print to the same printer?

Thanks for all the info,

-Josh

 

[Devistater]

1) Most can, you just disable all routing features.
2) You can try, I've used an AP behind a router before, it worked fine for me.
3) Find a router model that offers this and download the manuals and documentation on the internet for it before you buy it. Read them and see what it says about "how to use." Make sure you research this first, some require special printers. Also, I've seen separate print servers that may be cheaper than getting it built into router, just depends on the sales. If you still have questions, call the 800 product information number that most companies have.

Wireless stuff can be iffy when you start mixing and matching. Sometimes you just have to play with it to get it to work. I'd highly reccomend buying whatever you end up getting at a place you can return it to if you can't get it to work.


Personally for router I'd reccomend a linksys wrt54g (or gs) they go on sale for around $50 many times, and they are chock full of features. In addition, since the firmware is open source, you can d/l 3rd party firmware that can add features to it that normally are only in $1000 + routers.

Heck you may even want to look into setting up a mesh network, maybe look into getting funding from the college to cover your whole campus.

 

[JackMDS]

A Wireless Cable/DSL Router is a combo unit of Routing Circuits, 4 port switch, and Gateway mode Access Point (few might be WDS).

You do not convert any thing you just use the Access Point Part (as per the instruction in the link in my previous post) of the Wireless Router.

When you Extend a Wireless Network using a Cable/DSL Router you have two choices.

1. You use the additional Wireless Router as an Access Point and you would get a coherent single Network with the capacity to Share Files, Printers, etc.

2. You use the Router as a Router and you would get two Independent Networks that would Not share resources (Files, Printers, etc.) but would be able to share one Internet connection.

This page explains the latter:

Wireless Segregation: - http://www.ezlan.net/shield.html

3. Installing a wired or wireless printer server will let all computers that are on the same network capable of using the same Printer.

4. Since you seem to be into Networking it will be advantages to you get a Good Networking Book and try to get a better grasp of the underlining concepts.

:sun:

 

[spidey07]

why not develop a plan for a wireless network? Write up the requirements and submit for bid to local integrators/resellsers in the area with experience with this kind of thing.

You could provide top notch wireless service AND have it be secure and rock solid reliable.

 

[333kenshin]

Thanks everyone, I think I got what i need.

As for why I don't develop a proper plan, it's becuase I'm very low on the totem pole in the second largest school district in America. When teachers need to get things done, they often have to spend their own money.

Just a little rant, hug a teacher today...

 

[Devistater]

I'm thinking his routers or AP's are far enough away from each other he can run them independantly.

Hug a college teacher? Wow I dunno if I'd dare do that lol, the male ones would start looking at me funny. And the female ones would probably file harrasment suits in todays enviroment.

 

[dnoyeb]

My advice is to buy a ZyXEL wireless access point or router. There are models that can authenticate with a RADIUS server, and some that have such a server built in. This way you wont have to go to each AP at each location and update its tables with who is allowed to use it, etc. You just point each AP to the RADIUS server and put all the authentication info on that server. Check their website. I found their products much more feature rich than Linksys and Netgear and SMC. Their products tend to use Linux it seems.

I know in colleges you have lots of rooms and that makes wifi hard to do with just one AP. Oh and as for plugging the network plug into the LAN port, I don't know why people keep suggesting this. Its not going to work unless you have a crossover cable. If your plugging in another network devices LAN port, you will need to use your WAN port. You cant plug one routers LAN port into another routers LAN port.

OK I see a problem now that I thought about it. Its a router. So it is looking at the IP addresses, and not just the MAC addresses. So if you tell a computer on the LAN to send a packet to an IP address that is the same as the LAN subnet, then the router will look for that target on the LAN only. The router is oblivious to the fact that the subnet on both sides of itself is the same. Esentially you need a way to turn OFF the router and have it function as a simple switch with an uplink port as opposed to a WAN port.

So instead you want to buy an AP that is not a router but a switch or hub.