Raylink wireless cards to an access point

I have a current wireless network between 2 Win 2000 machines using
Raylink wireless. I have acquired a W4 Raylink access point, and have
verified to the PCMCIA card in it can communicate with my existing 2
cards. I would like to take my DSL of of computer 1 and route it
through the access point to both machines via wireless. DSL when hooked
to access point does reset IP by itself on setup. What do I need to do
to existing wireless cards to make them connect on internet signal from
access point and retain my LAN?
Thanks,
frosty

On 2 Jan 2005 13:21:05 -0800, "2frosty" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a current wireless network between 2 Win 2000 machines using
>Raylink wireless. I have acquired a W4 Raylink access point, and have
>verified to the PCMCIA card in it can communicate with my existing 2
>cards. I would like to take my DSL of of computer 1 and route it
>through the access point to both machines via wireless. DSL when hooked
>to access point does reset IP by itself on setup. What do I need to do
>to existing wireless cards to make them connect on internet signal from
>access point and retain my LAN?

Just a note. Raylink is frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS)
802.11 and not compatible with the more common direct sequence spread
spectrum (DSSS) 802.11b/g. 2Mbits/sec maximum connection speed and
about half that in thruput. This could be slower than your DSL.

You need an ethernet router. The access point will work with any
*ONE* of your two wireless cards at one time as the access point has
no way to share a single IP address. You install the router between
the DSL modem and the Raylink access point. There's not much you need
to do on the W2K machines. The router will deliver NAT private LAN IP
addresses, gateway, and DNS addresses to each of the W2K machines on
192.168.xxx.xxx.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

My ISP assures me my Speedstream DSL modem is a router/modem, so I
believe that if I set the 2 wireless cards to IP's in the family of the
Access point IP 192.168.254.1, (i.e. 192.168.254.2 & 192.168.254.3) and
assign all a common ESSID, I should be good to go. Am I correct in this
assumption? Have been told by others to set both wireless to
automatically get IP, but that does not seem to work.
Thanks,
frosty
>
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 2 Jan 2005 21:45:36 -0800, "2frosty" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>My ISP assures me my Speedstream DSL modem is a router/modem,

Well, you didn't bother to mention what type of DSL modem/router you
were using in the past message, and you still find it difficult to
disclose the model number. Yes, it's important.

Mini-rant: If you want accurate answers, kindly supply:
1. What problem are you trying to solve.
2. What do you have to work with.
End of mini-rant:

>so I
>believe that if I set the 2 wireless cards to IP's in the family of the
>Access point IP 192.168.254.1, (i.e. 192.168.254.2 & 192.168.254.3) and
>assign all a common ESSID, I should be good to go. Have been told by
>others to set both wireless to
>automatically get IP, but that does not seem to work.

I can't tell from here. 192.168.254.1 is the default IP address used
by Netopia/Cayman routers, not Speedstream. Depending upon model,
Speedstream/Efficient/Siemens uses 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.254.254. I
think you may have the wrong IP address, but I can't tell from here
because you haven't bothered to supply the model number.

I suggest you determine why the DHCP server in your unspecified model
router doesn't supply a DHCP assigned IP address. You can try to
assign a static IP to one of the W2K machines for troubleshooting, but
first figure out the correct IP address. Also, you should set the
gateway IP address to the IP address of the router. Just to be
complete, set the DNS addresses to that of the router (if it has a DNS
cache) or to that of the ISP's DNS servers.

You might wanna try a little experiment. Download and install the
DHCP query tool at the bottom of:
http://www.weird-solutions.com/download/demo.html
I think (not sure) that it will work even if you don't have an IP
address assigned to your computah as DHCP queries are broadcasts. I'm
too lazy to try it without an IP right now, but it would be nifty if
it worked for such problems.

>Am I correct in this assumption?

Assumption, the mother of all screwups.

Incidentally, what's a W4 Raylink access point? I couldn't find any
refernce to a W4 on their web pile.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:46:03 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>You might wanna try a little experiment. Download and install the
>DHCP query tool at the bottom of:
> http://www.weird-solutions.com/download/demo.html
>I think (not sure) that it will work even if you don't have an IP
>address assigned to your computah as DHCP queries are broadcasts. I'm
>too lazy to try it without an IP right now, but it would be nifty if
>it worked for such problems.

I just tried and it works. I set my W2K machines IP address and
gateway to a useless IP address (and lost connectivity). I then tried
the above utility and it successfully disclosed the correct IP address
of the DHCP server. This is gonna be handy.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

The secret modem is a Speedstream 5200, which I have just discovered
did not have the firmware upgrade to enable the router functions it has
laying in latency. Upgrade has now been done. IP assigned by
router/modem (the Speedstream 5200) to Ethernet card is indeed
192.168.254.1 with a default gatway and DHCP server of 192.168.254.254,
in router functions on router/modem, under DHCP server heading in the
secretive Speedstream 5200, it lists the table of IP's as 192.168.254.1
to 192.168.254.253, with the .254 as referenced above reserved for the
gateway and DHCP server functions. Subnet masks are all listed as
255.255.255.0.
If my logic is correct then I should be able to hook the access point
to the DSL router/modem, reset the access point to the same settings
now used on my ethernet card,(IP 192.168.254.1) , set my wireless cards
to IP between 192.168.254.2-253 and it should be ready to haul internet
The raylink W4 is a 802.11 access point built by Raytheon under the
corporate name of Raylink, go to this site and it will give you the
basics.
http://www.cms.com.hk/raylink_ap.html

On 3 Jan 2005 14:14:38 -0800, "2frosty" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The secret modem is a Speedstream 5200, which I have just discovered
>did not have the firmware upgrade to enable the router functions it has
>laying in latency. Upgrade has now been done.

Ahah. That explains why DHCP wasn't working.

>IP assigned by
>router/modem (the Speedstream 5200) to Ethernet card is indeed
>192.168.254.1 with a default gatway and DHCP server of 192.168.254.254,
>in router functions on router/modem, under DHCP server heading in the
>secretive Speedstream 5200, it lists the table of IP's as 192.168.254.1
>to 192.168.254.253, with the .254 as referenced above reserved for the
>gateway and DHCP server functions. Subnet masks are all listed as
>255.255.255.0.

That sounds normal and correct.

>If my logic is correct then I should be able to hook the access point
>to the DSL router/modem, reset the access point to the same settings
>now used on my ethernet card,(IP 192.168.254.1) , set my wireless cards
>to IP between 192.168.254.2-253 and it should be ready to haul internet

Let the surfing begin. But first, a little housekeeping. I suggest
you NOT set your ethernet port/card to a static IP address, as you
apparently are suggesting, but to use DHCP from the router to assign
the IP address. Same with the wireless.

>The raylink W4 is a 802.11 access point built by Raytheon under the
>corporate name of Raylink, go to this site and it will give you the
>basics.
>http://www.cms.com.hk/raylink_ap.html

Retch. Frequency hopping 802.11 2Mbits/sec maximum. I was dealing
with those about 8(?) years ago and didn't have anything nice to say
about them. Big problem with the access point is overheating and
hangs on high sustained traffic. If you try to mix it with other FHSS
devices such as those from Symbol or Breezecom, you'll find that
Raylink clients only work at the slowest 1Mbit/sec speed. If DHCP
doesn't work through the Raylink, look for a setting in the Raylink
telnet config something like "pass broadcasts".

Incidentally, here's some horrible photos of what's inside the card:
http://jeffl.ihwy.com/raylink/raylink.html
I haven't seen ceramic flip chips in about 10 years.


--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
# (E-Mail Removed)
# (E-Mail Removed) AE6KS