Wireless newbie; Can i use WAP11 without a hub?

I just bought an linksys WAP11 & WMP11 and just want to link a PC (XP)
and laptop (W2K) for filehsaring etc. At the moment I don't have a hub
and I that might be a problem?

The WMP11 is installed in the PC and it detects the ESSID from the WAP
no problem. I turned of the 'use windows to confiure my wireless
network setting' option as many user seem to recommend.

The WAP11 is connected to the laptop using a crossover cable. I did al
IP settings manually as follow:

Laptop: 192.168.0.1
WAP11: 192.168.0.255
WMP11: 192.168.0.131
PC: 192.168.0.10

All on subnet 255.255.255.0 of course!

When I ping the WMP11 from the laptop I can actually see the WMP11
receiving (using the statusmonitor) the corresponding packages. But
that as the best I got so far! The ping command returns reuest
timeouts. I have tried several other comibinations but nothing seems
to work.

Do I just HAVE to buy a hub? Can this be any kind of hub (cimple and
cheap) or can the PC somehow be setup to do this?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Toine

Toine,

As long as you don't want to add any more wired devices to the LAN, you have
no need for a hub or switch. If you want to add more wired devices, get an
Ethernet Switch, not a hub. A hub doesn't provide the security that you
want when you're connecting to a Wireless Access Point. A switch will give
you better performance most of the time, and should cost about the same as a
hub. If you do install switch, replace your crossover cable with a straight
cable.

One mistake I see is that the address of your WAP11 is invalid. BTW,
255.255.255.0 is your subnet MASK, not your subnet ADDRESS. In any subnet,
the first and last addresses are reserved. For subnet 192.168.0.0 with
subnet mask 255.255.255.0, the reserved addresses are 192.168.0.0 (the
subnet address) and 192.168.0.255 (the subnet broadcast address). Looking
at the WAP11 User Guide, I see that the default IP address for the WAP is
192.168.1.251. Have you changed the IP address from the default? I
recommend that you keep the factory default, and put all your other devices
in the 192.168.1.0 subnet as well.

Having the wrong IP address on the WAP would prevent you from surfing to the
WAP's administration page, but I don't think it should stop the laptop from
talking to the desktop. So there must be additional problems. If you're
using WEP, turn it off until you get basic connectivity working. Configure
the WAP as close to factory defaults as you can. Once that's working, you
can change the administration password and SSID. If that's working you can
experiment with WEP.

Ron Bandes, CCNP, CTT+, etc.

"Toine" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> I just bought an linksys WAP11 & WMP11 and just want to link a PC (XP)
> and laptop (W2K) for filehsaring etc. At the moment I don't have a hub
> and I that might be a problem?
>
> The WMP11 is installed in the PC and it detects the ESSID from the WAP
> no problem. I turned of the 'use windows to confiure my wireless
> network setting' option as many user seem to recommend.
>
> The WAP11 is connected to the laptop using a crossover cable. I did al
> IP settings manually as follow:
>
> Laptop: 192.168.0.1
> WAP11: 192.168.0.255
> WMP11: 192.168.0.131
> PC: 192.168.0.10
>
> All on subnet 255.255.255.0 of course!
>
> When I ping the WMP11 from the laptop I can actually see the WMP11
> receiving (using the statusmonitor) the corresponding packages. But
> that as the best I got so far! The ping command returns reuest
> timeouts. I have tried several other comibinations but nothing seems
> to work.
>
> Do I just HAVE to buy a hub? Can this be any kind of hub (cimple and
> cheap) or can the PC somehow be setup to do this?
>
> Any help greatly appreciated.
>
> Toine

Toine wrote:


> Do I just HAVE to buy a hub? Can this be any kind of hub (cimple and
> cheap) or can the PC somehow be setup to do this?

You shouldn't have to buy a hub. A access point should be able to
connect two wireless devices without being connected to a wired network.
But in reality you might need to do this. As far as I remember the WAP11
had this strange behaviour that meant it did require a
ethernetconnection to something to work. Anybody else that remembers
something about this?

Mads

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your feedback. I must have been a bit tired after some
frustrating hours, when I posted my problem yesterday. The WAP isn't
on the broadcast address but on 192.168.0.251. I did turn off WEP to
make it as simple as possible.
I'll take up your advice and will reset everything to default and try
again.

Toine

"Ron Bandes" <RunderscoreBandes @yah00.com> wrote in message news:<kjarc.108640$(E-Mail Removed) .net>...
> Toine,
>
> As long as you don't want to add any more wired devices to the LAN, you have
> no need for a hub or switch. If you want to add more wired devices, get an
> Ethernet Switch, not a hub. A hub doesn't provide the security that you
> want when you're connecting to a Wireless Access Point. A switch will give
> you better performance most of the time, and should cost about the same as a
> hub. If you do install switch, replace your crossover cable with a straight
> cable.
>
> One mistake I see is that the address of your WAP11 is invalid. BTW,
> 255.255.255.0 is your subnet MASK, not your subnet ADDRESS. In any subnet,
> the first and last addresses are reserved. For subnet 192.168.0.0 with
> subnet mask 255.255.255.0, the reserved addresses are 192.168.0.0 (the
> subnet address) and 192.168.0.255 (the subnet broadcast address). Looking
> at the WAP11 User Guide, I see that the default IP address for the WAP is
> 192.168.1.251. Have you changed the IP address from the default? I
> recommend that you keep the factory default, and put all your other devices
> in the 192.168.1.0 subnet as well.
>
> Having the wrong IP address on the WAP would prevent you from surfing to the
> WAP's administration page, but I don't think it should stop the laptop from
> talking to the desktop. So there must be additional problems. If you're
> using WEP, turn it off until you get basic connectivity working. Configure
> the WAP as close to factory defaults as you can. Once that's working, you
> can change the administration password and SSID. If that's working you can
> experiment with WEP.
>
> Ron Bandes, CCNP, CTT+, etc.
>
> "Toine" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> > I just bought an linksys WAP11 & WMP11 and just want to link a PC (XP)
> > and laptop (W2K) for filehsaring etc. At the moment I don't have a hub
> > and I that might be a problem?
> >
> > The WMP11 is installed in the PC and it detects the ESSID from the WAP
> > no problem. I turned of the 'use windows to confiure my wireless
> > network setting' option as many user seem to recommend.
> >
> > The WAP11 is connected to the laptop using a crossover cable. I did al
> > IP settings manually as follow:
> >
> > Laptop: 192.168.0.1
> > WAP11: 192.168.0.255
> > WMP11: 192.168.0.131
> > PC: 192.168.0.10
> >
> > All on subnet 255.255.255.0 of course!
> >
> > When I ping the WMP11 from the laptop I can actually see the WMP11
> > receiving (using the statusmonitor) the corresponding packages. But
> > that as the best I got so far! The ping command returns reuest
> > timeouts. I have tried several other comibinations but nothing seems
> > to work.
> >
> > Do I just HAVE to buy a hub? Can this be any kind of hub (cimple and
> > cheap) or can the PC somehow be setup to do this?
> >
> > Any help greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Toine

> You shouldn't have to buy a hub. A access point should be able to
> connect two wireless devices without being connected to a wired network.

For two wireless devices you don't need an access point either as long
as the devices are within range of each other. (Not just restricted to
just two machines either).

David.