Network setup question

[Rommels]

I have a friend who wants me to take his Aircard (A 595U) which is usb and hook it up to his dell tower, he then wants me to hook his WRT54G to the tower to wirelessly connect to his other computers.

Can somebody please point me in the right direction as to what is needed to get it going for him? Just a general nudge, I think I can figure the rest out.

 

[JackMDS]

Without describing precisely your system Internet/Network hook up, and what the other guy wants to achieve while being connected to your system, the question can not be answered.

 

[Rommels]

He has a Dell Dimension 4550 tower running xp home, he connects to the internet with the aircard 595u which is usb, he then wants to share that internet wirelessly through the house via the wrt54g by connecting it to the dell 4550 which has internet via the aircard 595u.

Internet>Aircard 595u (USB)>Dimension 4550>WRT54G>Computers with wireless.

Make since?

He doesn't want to connect to my system at all.

 

[JackMDS]

Some of these cards pose sharing problem.

Howvevr no harm done to try, he needs a wired card in the Dell, the wired card should be conneceted to a regular port on the Wireless Router. The Wireless Router should act as an AP only (configuration here, http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html ).

Then Windows ICS should be used as a software Router between the Aircard and the rest of the system.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_ics/

If ICS does not work well this software can be tried instead, http://www.analogx.com/CONTENT...load/network/proxy.htm

 

[Scarpozzi]

He'd be better off setting up his WRT54G as a firewall/router and then connecting his Dell via the aircard.

If he's worried about his Internet provider requiring him to register the WRT54G, it should have an option to spoof his computer's MAC address (hardware identifier on his network card)

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
He'd be better off setting up his WRT54G as a firewall/router and then connecting his Dell via the aircard.

If he's worried about his Internet provider requiring him to register the WRT54G, it should have an option to spoof his computer's MAC address (hardware identifier on his network card)

no, he really isn't


Aircard->Computer doing ICS (basiclly a router)->WRT54G (Acting as a router)->Clients is a bad setup. You don't really want to daisy chain routers unless you have a specific reason to. Jack had it right, make the WRT a switch/AP and use ICS on the Dell.

 

[OoteR02]

Daisy chaining does not hurt anything, persay.. the issue is the fact that if that computer is turned off at anytime, everything else is offline.

 

[JackMDS]

Attention Router Mavens.

The Internet source is USB AirCard.

 

[Rommels]

Yeah, we gave up...
I had the dell online with the AirCard.
I turned on ICS on the dell and turned on all the functions like dhcp and what not.
I hooked the wrt54g to the dell via the 1st port and was able to access the wrt's setup pages.
I changed the wrt's ip to 192.168.1.2 so it wouldn't conflict, I also turned it from gateway mode to router mode, as well as turned off dhcp on it.
I tried all kinds of stuff but after several hours I thew in the towel.

BTW, the wrt was a version 3.

Thanks for the help though, even though I couldn't make it work ;p

 

[OoteR02]

You need to bridge the two connections.. ICS won't do this on its own.

 

[JackMDS]

ICS is a Bridge/Router software. When sharing Internet connection Birding per-se is useless since it does not Routes.

Rommels I would try first to see if ICS, or the replacement that I linked to above works without the Linksys when the two computer are crosswire one to the other. If it does not work it means (as I hinted above) that the AirCard does not lend itself to share.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: OoteR02
You need to bridge the two connections.. ICS won't do this on its own.

bridging probably won't help, as they are probably restricted to a single IP.


OP, try connecting the aircard->PC with ICS->Crossover cable to another PC (non cross if you have gig ports) and see if that works. If so, it's a simple router config issue.

 

[Rommels]

I tried to setup a bridge between the aircard and the lan connection but it wouldn't allow that to happen.
I won't see this friend for a while because he lives kinda far away, I'll keep these ideas in mind though for next time I see him.

I personally think he should save the headache and get something like this...
D-Link 3G Mobile Router DIR-450
I think Linksys makes one (WRT54G3G) also but it is currently only available in Europe.

 

[OoteR02]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
ICS is a Bridge/Router software. When sharing Internet connection Birding per-se is useless since it does not Routes.

If it's windows zero config running that wireless, he will likely have to bridge the connections (I had to). I fought with ICS for a day trying to get it to share a wireless internet/ethernet connecting.. I'm not sure how that USB adapter would be managed/controlled from within windows.. I'm not even certain of the type of connection it would show as, as I have never used a card like that (its N/A where I live..)


Here's what I managed to get working.. eventually.. It was with a PCI 54g card in a Dell (PC1) computer.. sharing to other computers via a switch and ethernet cable. It may or may not pertain to you depending on the way windows handles your USB wireless adapter.

router > wireless/WRT54G > PC1 > ethernet cable > Switch > PC2

Initially it wouldn't work at all.. Finally I disabled ICS and created the bridge from the wireless to the wired ethernet (PC1), set the IP statically on PC2 and had internet/network with no problems, including connectivity with another PC (PC3) connected directly to the router.


In theory if he builds the bridge correctly, he should be able to plug it into the wan side of the router, configure it with an ip that the other computer can communicated with and go from there..

That is where my suggestion came from. For all I know the USB compared to PCI is making Windows fight it..

It's stupid things like this that make me like linux even more, although that opens a whole other can of worms just getting it to connect to the wireless

 

[nweaver]

in your case bridging worked, as you were extending your network (YOUR network). Bridging won't usually work on an ISP network, as they restrict you to a single IP (unless you happen to be paying for multiple IP's)

ICS is a NAT solution, similar to a SOHO router. It lets you take 1 public IP and share it with multiple computers behind the public IP.

The biggest issue is will windows ICS support the 3G card?

 

[OoteR02]

touche.

and i'm willing to bet it wont. I used to share dialup modem connections w/out a problem to the ethernet port, but sharing the wireless card (it was my network, but it was also the "internet" as far as ICS is concerned) was simply not workable.

EDIT: they must have one of the AT&T gateways.. they do the routing..

/me is done.

 

[JackMDS]

AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem.

AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem.

AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem. AirCard USB Modem.

 

[Rommels]

LOL Jack...so true...
The AirCard would do ICS, we just gave up though on the day I was there because the trial and error of it all was too frustrating.
Windows wouldn't allow a bridge as I said earlier.

What we have learned:
AirCard USB Modem.
If you want to share a 3G network connection use a 3G compatible router, unless you have the patience of a sloth.
That I should have visited a EVDO dedicated forum (EVDO Forums) to read up on others experiences. (I still love you ATech ;p)