Win 2003 server and configuring scopes

Fraggable

Platinum Member
Jul 20, 2005
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I am an assistant network administrator at a medium-sized school that has one Win 2003 server with about 140 PCs, 35 WAPs, and 15+ network printers connected to it. We curently have one scope, 10.0.0.50-10.0.0.254 (or 204 valid IPs). As you can see, with the 190 clients plus the few laptops that teachers and miscellaneous counselors, etc bring in, we're running out of IPs to assign.

My question is: If we configure another scope, say 10.0.1.50-10.0.1.254, we also will have to configure the clients on that scope to use subnet mask 255.255.0.0 instead of the current 255.255.255.0, correct? And if that is correct, that would put those clients on a different network than the printers and WAPs?

*****UPDATE*****
We created a new scope, 10.0.1.50-10.0.1.254, and moved all of our WAPs to it. We reserved IPs for each one, and manually configured each to get a specific IP address instead of letting DHCP assign one. So far, we seem to have solved the problem of having to reset them every day.

There's a new issue now. After moving them to the new scope, we cannot log into the WAPs via IE (or firefox (from any client machine or the server itself)) to configure settings of check logs. We used to just type in the IP address of the WAP, enter the password, and get right in. Now when we enter the new 10.0.1.xx IP, it says it doesn't exist. Is there something in the server' TCP/IP properties that we need to adjust?

Any advice is aprecciated.
 

Cooky

Golden Member
Apr 2, 2002
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If you use the /16 mask, everything will be in the same subnet. (both 10.0.0.x and 10.0.1.x networks)
Usually you want seperate subnets for infrastructure devices like routers, switches, and WAPs, and a separate subnet for DHCP clients, etc.
 

Fraggable

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Jul 20, 2005
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I went ahead and configured another scope, 10.0.1.50-10.0.1.254 and subnet 255.255.255.0. I put 3 of our WAPs in it and we will be testing over the next week or so to see if this solves our problem.

One of the reasons we discovered this problem is because we have about 10 WAPs that need to be reset weekly, and a few that need it almost daily. If putting WAPs in their own scope/making more IPs available fixes the problem, I will be a very happy person.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
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there can be only one IP subnetwork per phsyical layer2 network. Otherwise you'll need a router to route between the IP subnets.

that being said it looks like you just need to increase your subnet mask. If you still want to maintain your current addressing then change the network mask for the 10.0.0.0 subnet from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.254.0. This will give you a usable address range from 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.1.254.

Make sure you change this on the DHCP server handing out IP addresses. And if you want to make your life easier, setup DHCP reservations for the access points. That way you are centrally controling your addressing. Do the same for printers as well.

You'll also need to change the mask on any and all routers that are attached to this network.

-edit- this is all part of one scope, by creating another scope you are saying "this is a separate IP network" when in reality that is not what you have. you only have ONE IP subnetwork.

also - you have serious problems if you have to reset an access point. there is no reason one should have to do this unless something is very wrong.
 

Fraggable

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Jul 20, 2005
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Originally posted by: spidey07
there can be only one IP subnetwork per phsyical layer2 network. Otherwise you'll need a router to route between the IP subnets.

that being said it looks like you just need to increase your subnet mask. If you still want to maintain your current addressing then change the network mask for the 10.0.0.0 subnet from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.254.0. This will give you a usable address range from 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.1.254.

Make sure you change this on the DHCP server handing out IP addresses. And if you want to make your life easier, setup DHCP reservations for the access points. That way you are centrally controling your addressing. Do the same for printers as well.

You'll also need to change the mask on any and all routers that are attached to this network.

-edit- this is all part of one scope, by creating another scope you are saying "this is a separate IP network" when in reality that is not what you have. you only have ONE IP subnetwork.

also - you have serious problems if you have to reset an access point. there is no reason one should have to do this unless something is very wrong.

You're saying that I should get rid of the 10.0.1.xx scope and modify the 10.0.0.xx scope to be 10.0.0.50 - 10.0.1.254 (and change the subnet mask to 255.255.254) and put everything (computers, printers, WAPs in it)?

I have also created another scope, 10.0.2.xx, and am experimenting with moving printers into it. Should I not do that either?

We have reserved IPs for all access points now, it seems to have solved the problems with needing to reset them. You wouldn't believe how much time I spend restting those things and how stupid I feel now that it seems so obvious.
 

spidey07

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Aug 4, 2000
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if there are no routers separating those two networks 10.0.0.0 and 10.0.0.1 then yes, modify the scope to a larger subnet mask and allocate your addresses from the range 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.1.254.
 

Fraggable

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Jul 20, 2005
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Originally posted by: spidey07
if there are no routers separating those two networks 10.0.0.0 and 10.0.0.1 then yes, modify the scope to a larger subnet mask and allocate your addresses from the range 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.1.254.

We have one router between the server and the cable modem. Its IP is 10.0.0.1. The server's IP is 10.0.0.2.

We only have one server - with about 30 WAPs and routers acting as WAPs attached.

If we want to be able to assign 10.0.2.xx and 10.0.3.xx addresses too, we should configure our subnet mask to lower than 255.255.254.0 right?
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
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if you want to use the following networks...

10.0.0.0
10.0.1.0
10.0.2.0
10.0.3.0

then your mask would be 255.255.252.0

this gives you over 1000 addresses. if you get over about 300 you may want to look into layer3 switches (routers) to cut down on the number of machines per subnet.

until then, just use the 10.0.0.0 and 10.0.1.0 networks. That is over 500 addresses.
 

Fraggable

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Jul 20, 2005
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We'd like to be able to assign 10.0.2.xx and 10.0.3.xx more to organize things than to be able to assign 1000 addresses.

I guess tomorrow I'll start configuring all the WAPs and routers to that subnet.

Thanks so much for your help, I know I learned all this in networking class but not enough to know exactly what to do. I'll post back letting you know how it goes and if I need more help.