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Summary: Adding a wireless access point can be a little frustrating if you're behind a router and the access point is also trying to be a router.
How do I get my wireless access point to work with my existing router?
This is the scenario: you have an existing cable, satellite, or DSL connection to the internet that is connected to a broadband router or PC providing Internet Connection Sharing that in turn connects to your ethernet local area network. You want to add a wireless access point. Sounds easy, and it is. However there is a gotcha, and the name of the gotcha is NAT - Network Address Translation.
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The short answer is to make sure the wireless access point is not also attempting to provide NAT. How you do that will vary based on the access point, so check your documentation for NAT or for providing DHCP services to wireless clients and turn that off.
NAT is a technique that lets multiple machines on one side of your router share a single internet connection, and most importantly a single internet IP address as well. The router does this by handing out local IP addresses to each machine on your local network and translating between those addresses and the "real" internet IP address when the local computers access the internet.
Many wireless access points can be also configured to act very much like a broadband router. In fact there are several combo devices that are both a broadband router and wireless access point in one package. In either case, they may also be able to provide NAT functionality between the wireless and wired networks.
If NAT is turned on at both the broadband router and the wireless access point, all wireless devices are going through two levels of NAT to access the internet. Not only is that adding unnecessary overhead, but it also introduces some real problems. NAT "protects" the "local" devices from the remote devices ... in this case, the wireless access point will "protect" the wireless machines from the rest of your local network. In effect, it'll make them inaccessible.
So as I said earlier, the solution is fairly simple. You only need one level of NAT between the internet and the rest of your LAN. Anything on your local network is safe and does not need additional NAT. Make sure that NAT or DHCP is turned OFF on the wireless access point. (To be clear, the wireless access point may still use DHCP to get an address for itself, but it should not provide DHCP functionality to wireless devices.)
Related:
Ask Leo! - How should I set up my home network?
Article C1841 - September 18, 2003
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Unless your DSL modem has wireless capability, then yes, you'll most likely
need to purchase a router.
Leo
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Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at June 21, 2007 8:07 PMjCCIAHH1RydaS9JWApve4bM=
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hi wen i connect my pc to my router its says connected but cant get on net so i press repair connection and come up renewing my netwrd address when it dos that i still cant get on net drivin me mad
Posted by: patrick flanagan at June 23, 2007 11:53 AMhow to connect my wireless router to free hotspot?
Posted by: Real G at September 17, 2007 7:23 PMI am trying something a little different and YES I have turned OFF NAT and DHCP as you suggested in the article but no help with this problem,
Posted by: Anne at January 2, 2008 7:45 PM.... curious as to not having a problem when it was turned on..??
I have an Access Point connected as a wireless device about 150 feet from my router in another building.
My computer is connected to the wireless AP and everything works..
But when I add a voip adapter between the wireless AP and the computer, nothing works.
Without the voip device in the line everything works fine. Could you help?
Thanks
Hi,
Posted by: vijay at January 18, 2008 5:03 AMDid you check for the Range of IP that is provided for your VOIP BOX ? Does it carry any static IP ??
I don't understand this. Lol I'm not too good with this stuff. I have a wired router. I bough a D-link G-122 usb wireless adapter. Trying to figure out how to connect that and make a wireless access point so I can play my psp with online players. I hope this makes sense. If you know anything about this please help me. Thanks so much!
Posted by: Tresela at February 1, 2008 10:39 AMThis is an excellent article about DSL. However,
Posted by: Lawrence at February 21, 2008 12:53 PMsatellite DSL should be considered as an alternative, particulary in rural areas without regular DSL access.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/Satellite-DSL.html
I have comcast modem-router all in one. is it better to use that or buy a separate router to be able to connect an internet DVR with 4 cameras?
Posted by: hayaty bassal at July 16, 2008 1:58 PMthank you
I already have a great modem and have just recently bought a wireless capable laptop. Is there something that can be connected to one of the LAN ports on the back of the existing modem that sends out a wireless signal, enabling the laptop to use that internet?
Posted by: Steve at December 5, 2008 9:02 PMHi Leo! Great article
I actually have a pretty specific question...I use an encore wireless router and I just purchased an Edimax access point, now here's the deal...
I want to use it to "enhance" the wireless signal to make it go to the other side of my house (1 story only), I wanted to use the universal repeater mode so I had to downgrade it...what I've done is basically detect my wi-fi connection and make the edimax enhance it but it seems there is no luck...
When checking on my notebook for the actual connections I am able to see that the MAC address (or SSID I believe) is the same one than the one from my original router, not the Edimax...
Am I mistaken or the MAC address shown should be the one from the Edimax?
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I tried to configure it as an AP+WDS and I get "connected" but I don't have any data transfer (I can't do anything), so...if you have any clue on this it would be awesome and a great help
Thx for your time!
Best regards
Posted by: Cristian at April 28, 2009 7:15 PM