Question

Connecting wired network (switch) to Wireless Access Point

Asked by: nkewney

Dear Experts,

I have a local network consisting of 4 PCs connected into a switch.

I have a Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Point connected to my main router.

What hardware do I need to connect to the switch to enable my 4 wired clients access to Aironet's wireless network?

Will the 3COM OfficeConnect device do it?

Thanks

Nick

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Asked On
2009-03-05 at 12:37:28ID24203325
Topics

Wireless Technologies

,

Network Routers

,

Networking Hardware

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: raymondzwartsPosted on 2009-03-05 at 16:50:26ID: 23812942

How is the current switch (with 4 pcs) connected to the other 2 components (router & aironet) ?

What do you mean with access the wireless network ? as in reaching the wireless connected clients ?

 

by: nkewneyPosted on 2009-03-05 at 17:02:16ID: 23813018

The switch is not connected to the aironet at all.

I'm looking for a solution to connect the switch to the aironet wirelessly.

Thanks

Nick

 

by: EfrenMPosted on 2009-03-05 at 17:04:07ID: 23813025

you would need a wifi at the starting point then configure aironet to extend that signal

 

by: raymondzwartsPosted on 2009-03-05 at 17:25:06ID: 23813118

this would require 1 additional aironet (or other vendor Wireless Access Point). Connect that AP to your switch (wired) and connect the two AP's toghether to form a wireless ethernet bridge.

 

by: nkewneyPosted on 2009-03-05 at 17:56:01ID: 23813258

The switch is a 3com officeconnect 3CRWER100-75.

It has built in wireless but I'm assuming I can't use it as a bridge?

Nick

 

by: engeltjePosted on 2009-03-06 at 00:20:50ID: 23814658

You can setup the 3CRWER100-75 as a wireless bridge.

What you need to do:
The 3CRWER100-75 has a WDS tab. You need to enable WDR which is in fact bridging.

Note that you need both devices to have the mac adress of each other for bridging, both devices must be on the same channel and both devices need the same SSID.

There should be no extra hardware needed to bridge both devices. I do not have experience in bridging 3com to a Cisco, but I assume it should be possible as it works fine with linksys., which is a division of Cisco.

 

by: asdlkfPosted on 2009-03-06 at 01:48:13ID: 23815107

uh, just get a dlink 811 wireless bridge.

or, google "wireless bridge"




once you have it, give yourself a static IP address and plug yourself into the LAN port of the wireless bridge. go to http://192.168.0.254 (or what ever the device's default IP is - see the manual) and have it do a broadcast discovery, then find your wireless router in the list, enter the WEP/WPA/whatever key and tell it to connect.

Once it reboots, you should be able to change your computer back to DHCP and get an IP from the router while plugged into the wireless bridge.

Once this is working, just plug your switch into the bridge and from then on you can basicly think of the switch as being cat-5'ed into the router.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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