This morning I plugged my new DWL-7100AP (Access Point) directly into my
DI-764 (AP/Router) and its working perfectly as a second access point now.
Why would I want two Access Points sitting, side by side, you ask? Well, my
older DI-764 (802.11a, 802.11b) router/AP doesn't incorporate 802.11g. It
worked beautifully for 802.11a (108MBS) and 802.11b (22MBS). The
DWL-7100AP, which has several modes of operation (AP, PtP Bridge, PtMP
Bridge, Repeater, Client) seemed like the perfect solution to 1) initially
be used as a dumb repeater for now and then later 2) be used as an
over-the-air additional AP to incorporate 802.11g into my net. I'm planning
on getting a "Broadband Phone" in the near future and since these (along
with most of the new 'internet devices' use primarily 802.11g, I wanted to
have that available. True, with going out on the internet your internet
modem is the bottleneck, my cable modem service is 5 MBS, however I have
noted (using online speed tests) that my 802.11a gives a better all-around
pipe on the WLAN after internet traffic comes in off the net. Since
"Broadband Phones" (video of course, lol!) are pretty bandwidth demanding, I
want to make sure that it will have the best pipe available (on the WLAN)
for the cable modem's 5MBS. (Well, online speed tests have been putting it
at 4.4 MBS to, sometimes up to, 4.6 MBS after going through 802.11a -- but
thats close enough to keep me very happy!) Pipping it over 802.11b (11
MBS), I would see internet traffic in the lower to mid 3 MBS range. With
802.11b, it would be in the upper 3's to very low 4'.s For WLAN traffic,
802.11a rockets around 802.11b. So, even though an 802.11g "Broadband
Phone" could've made use of the 802.11b (backward compatible), I wanted to
give it the largest pipe to get to the cable modem as possible. I would
prefer 802.11a, but it seems that consumer stuff is moving away from 802.11a
and going to 802.11g -- unfortunetly. Having used 802.11a for the last
couple years, I've found it to be extremely reliable and an excellent pipe.
With 802.11a (5 Ghz), I never get RFI problerms with cordless phones that,
on rare occassions, I do see with 802.11b. 802.11a (5 Ghz) doesn't have the
range that 802.11b/g (2.4 Ghz), but it still pretty much saturates my house
with a usuable signal. (I view 802.11a's limited range as a "security
feature".) I'm happy enough with this DWL-7100AP that, in the near future,
am thinking of picking up another one as a "repeater". I know with full
certainty that the DWL-7100AP has no problems repeating itself. (Also has
that WDS feature.)
Now that I have an DWL-7100AP in the loop (along with other hardware stuff,
like an 802.11b bridge for game console), I would like the main router
(DI-764) to assign static IP's for things in the net that I want to make it
convienent to get to (without having to look up's IP). This seems pretty
straight forward with the DI-764. Under "DHCP" (which I have enabled to
assign dynamic IP's to things that really doesn't matter what IP it gets --
i.e., laptop and PDA), there is also a "Static DHCP" function. Pretty
straight forward, the "Static DHCP" function simply allows you to assign
static IP's to particular pieces of hardware (assigned to MAC address), but
still keeps DHCP running to dynamically assign IP's for anything else that
connects (and isn't in the "Static DHCP" table). In the "Static DHCP"
function, there it even scans for hardware currently connected and by
clicking "Clone" auto-injects the MAC address into a field so you can assign
it a "Static DHCP" IP address. Pretty convienent and straight forward. I
assigned "Static DHCP" IP's to everything that I want static (for
convienence) such as the DWL-7100AP, 802.11b bridge, and file server -- and
made sure that all of those had "Get Dynamic IP" enabled so it could be
assigned from the DI-764. (The DWL-7100AP also has a DHCP server of it's
own, which I disabled, since the DI-764 is doing my net's DHCP. This is a
pretty cool feature though. If my thinking is right, I could be able to
take the DWL-7100AP with me on the road and use it's DHCP function as a
simple "hub" to create a quick WLAN with others. Be good for to setup a
real quick WLAN for playing multiplayer games.) Its working great, as
expected. Static IP's make it very convienent to get to them, whenever
wanting to configure them.
Its straight forward and pretty easy, but still left with one dumb question
that I could find an answer to on the knowledge base. When assigning
"Static DHCP" IP's, are they "part of the DHCP range" or considered outside
of it?
In other words, (example), say you setup your DHCP Server to dynamically
assign IP's in the following range:
Starting IP: 192.168.0.100
Ending IP: 192.168.0.150
But you also want a few things to have "Static DHCP" addresses:
Hardware A: 192.168.0.100
Hardware B: 192.168.0.101
Should the DHCP Sever's "Starting Address" still be at 192.168.0.100, or
should it be after the last "DHCP Static" IP (i.e., 192.168.0.102).
In other words, is the "DHCP Static" function a "subset" of the "DHCP
Server", or something seperate? I.e., with with the above example (starting
IP at 192.168.0.100), but with "DHCP Static" IP's assigned for .100, and
..101, is there a possibility for the "DHCP Server" to still assign another
piece of hardware the same addresses, which would cause conflicts -- or is
it's smart enough to know that those two IP's are being used "statically"
and won't use them. Right now, I have it setup so that the "Dynamic Static"
IP's are within the range of the "DHCP Server"'s block of starting-ending
addresses. I haven't seem "double assignment" of IP's (yet), but worried
that it could happen later.
Apologies for long post on what, perhaps, is a dumb question that should be
obvious. The simplest things are always the things that throw me off. :^)
Now its off to start playing with creating a private DNS system to create
names for IP's on the WLAN. I promise I won't ask any questions related to
doing so on here. LOL
Thanks!
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