Network question - wireless bridge

[jgantert]

I'm having trouble with DHCP working across my wireless bridge.

Here's my setup:

Cable Modem->MR814v2 Wireless router-> AIR ->WGE111 Wireless Game Adapter->FS605 5 port switch -> XTV & Xbox

I can easily connect one device (XTV or Xbox) and as long as I power cycle the wireless gaming adapter between each use, everything is fine. However, I can't seem to get it to work where I use both devices at the same time. The first device comes up ok, then the second device doesn't get the DHCP.

Any ideas? I've searched a little bit, and I might try static IPs and network info to see if that works or not.

Also, could I get another WGE111 and have:

router -> AIR -> WGE111 -> Xbox
& -> WGE111 -> XTV

Or won't the router talk to two gaming adapters at the same time?

Thanks in advance,
-John

 

[charper1]

Setup static for sure. Are you using WEP; its a good idea if your not.

 

[damaged]

What charper1 said, to expand on this, and if one or more of the devices supports viewing the network information that works alone with DHCP enabled, than you should note the following parameters to use with the static (DHCP disabled) setup:

IP Address (the last dot-quad in the ip must be unique for each device, but within same subnet)

Subnet Mask (will look something like 255.255.255.0)

Gateway (this would be either the MR814v2 or (more likely) the comcast modem, depending on how you have the MR814v2 configured)

DNS Server(s): could either be your

First, disable all DHCP servers in your setup (UNLESS you have other devices (your PC etc) that depend on it).

Set up those known values in all devices you wish to operate at once statically, but make sure the last part of the IP address of each device is unique and falls on the same subnet (i.e. if the ip on the working dhcp enabled device is 192.168.1.254, you do not want another device assigned 192.168.1.254, you will want, for example, 192.168.1.1 for the 1st device, 192.168.1.2 for the second, and so on then all devices will be on the same subnet (192.168.1.).

Don't use my example addresses, use the ones gotten from the first step (although they _may_ be the same).

If you have any more questions or issues, please feel free to post them along with any pertinent information.

 

[jgantert]

Yeah, I'm using WEP and MAC address filtering (only allowing the MAC address of the gaming adapter).

Right now, I have the router (192.168.0.1) as my gateway and DNS servers. As comcast is notoriously bad for DNS servers, I'll keep that value the same so I only have to change it on one device if I have to. As for the gateway, should I use the cable modem's gateway instead? Couldn't that change, tho?

Thanks,
-John

 

[damaged]

On your comcast modem you should have a gateway to the internet that ONLY the comcast modem should use, _and_ it should also have a LAN gateway (this is the one you want, it too would be assigned a 192.168.0. IP address), so you want to use the gateway address on the comcast modem that is NOT the public IPs gateway.

For example:

A router has an (PUBLIC/WAN) inet addr of 68.33.27.210 and a gateway of 68.33.27.1, on this router, it has an ethernet connection connected to a switch to share this connection with my LAN, the ip assigned to that LAN interface is 192.168.0.2 which is connected to the switch, on this switch I also have a PC with an ip address of 192.168.0.3, I would set the gateway for this PC to 192.168.0.2(the routers internal gateway ip), NOT 68.33.27.1 or 68.33.27.210 (which is the external gateway ip and inet ip respectively).


Assuming the MR814v2 is NOT in bridge mode (i.e. it has a LAN ip/gateway/dns assigned by the comcast modem), then you will want the comcast modem to stay the same, you want the MR814v2 to use the comcast modem INTERNAL/LAN ip address as the gateway for the MR814v2, then you want the devices behind the MR814v2, to use the LAN ip address of the MR814v2 instead of the comcast modems' for the gateway.

All devices should be in the same subnet (192.168.0)

(all public ips were pulled from thin air for this example)

This would be easier if I knew the values of the devices.

So, can you post here all the LAN values for the comcast modem, and the AL of the MR814v2 gateway info, i.e., the ip addresses, the subnet masks, and DNS servers?

 

[jgantert]

Assuming the MR814v2 is NOT in bridge mode (i.e. it has a LAN ip/gateway/dns assigned by the comcast modem), then you will want the comcast modem to stay the same, you want the MR814v2 to use the comcast modem INTERNAL/LAN ip address as the gateway for the MR814v2, then you want the devices behind the MR814v2, to use the LAN ip address of the MR814v2 instead of the comcast modems' for the gateway.

This is my setup, so I am correct using 192.168.0.1 for the gateway then. I'ld rather not post my IPs, btw.

I'll try it out this evening and see what happens. Usually I'm pretty good at setting this stuff up, the WGE111 just stumped me for some reason. It looks like it is actually acquiring the MAC address of the xtv or xbox device (whichever it sees first), then the second device to go online isn't visible to the router.

-John

 

[damaged]

This is my setup, so I am correct using 192.168.0.1 for the gateway then. I'ld rather not post my IPs, btw.

I'll try it out this evening and see what happens. Usually I'm pretty good at setting this stuff up, the WGE111 just stumped me for some reason. It looks like it is actually acquiring the MAC address of the xtv or xbox device (whichever it sees first), then the second device to go online isn't visible to the router.

-John

LAN ips are non-routable, posting 192.168.0 ips are of no use to a malicious person they cannot be used over the internet, however, if this is your stance, I cannot help further without unnecessary work on my part, and not knowing your internal (HARMLESS) LAN settings exactly, you only make it harder for me to help YOU, so, good luck.

If you do a whois on 192.168.0.1 you get:

OrgName: Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
OrgID: IANA
Address: 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
City: Marina del Rey
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 90292-6695
Country: US

NetRange: 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
CIDR: 192.168.0.0/16
NetName: IANA-CBLK1
NetHandle: NET-192-168-0-0-1
Parent: NET-192-0-0-0-0
NetType: IANA Special Use
NameServer: BLACKHOLE-1.IANA.ORG
NameServer: BLACKHOLE-2.IANA.ORG
Comment: This block is reserved for special purposes.
Comment: Please see RFC 1918 for additional information.
Comment:
RegDate: 1994-03-15
Updated: 2002-09-16

Blackhole = not internet PUBLIC addressess see RFC 1918:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1918.html
and: http://www.faqs.org/qa/rfcc-618.html

 

[jgantert]

Sorry, I thought you ment my cable modem IPs.

Here's what I have setup now that I switched to static IP.

Router: 192.168.0.1

Wireless Game Adapter: 192.168.0.63
Xbox: 192.168.0.64
XTV: 192.168.0.65
Both have gateway and DNS at 192.168.0.1

When I power up the XTV, its ok. Then when I power up the Xbox, I get unable to connect to gateway. Could it be that the wireless gaming adapter is only allowing one device thru?

-John

 

[damaged]

Sorry, I thought you ment my cable modem IPs.

Here's what I have setup now that I switched to static IP.

Router: 192.168.0.1

Wireless Game Adapter: 192.168.0.63
Xbox: 192.168.0.64
XTV: 192.168.0.65
Both have gateway and DNS at 192.168.0.1

When I power up the XTV, its ok. Then when I power up the Xbox, I get unable to connect to gateway. Could it be that the wireless gaming adapter is only allowing one device thru?
-John

_If_ the Wireless Game Adapter uses 192.168.0.1 (comcast modems lan ip) as the gateway AND DNS server, then:

The gateway on your devices behind the wireless game adapter should all use 192.168.0.63 for the gateways and DNS addresses too.

So set DNS and gateways to 192.168.0.63, if you get DNS errors, than change ONLY the DNS' to 192.168.0.1, but, leave the gateway as 192.168.0.63, if DNS errors STILL occur, for testing, you can set the DNS ip to you ISPS real dns server ip, to see if it resolves.

Basically, it's like this, comcast modem uses ISP assigned gateways and dns (using WAN/Public ips, you don't touch/control these), THEN, your WGA uses comcast modem as its gateway and DNS (using LAN ips), and then everything behind the WGA will use the WGA as theier gateway (and maybe DNS, see above).

Note that there are other ways to do this, you can setup the WGA (if it allows it) in bridge mode, in which it would not get a LAN ip at all, it would just forward the ethernet frames directly to the comcast modem, in this case, you would use only comcast modem as the gateway and dns.

Regarding your thoughts on MAC filtering, I am not familiar with that specific device (the WGA), but it could very well filter and/or limit all MAC addresses that do not have their own products' MAC prefix. (All ethernet devices have a unique MAC prefix (the first 2 parts of a MAC) associated with their brand/company).

 

[jgantert]

No luck, even with the gateway at 192.168.0.63, the Xbox still says cannot reach gateway.

That WGE111 has to be doing something. Maybe once it gets one device, it stops looking for devices? I dunno.

I'll just have to swap it with a Linksys and see if that helps.

-John

 

[damaged]

I appended to my post above your last one, read the added info regarding WGA in bridge mode.

 

[jgantert]

I appended to my post above your last one, read the added info regarding WGA in bridge mode.

This is probably the problem. No bridge mode on the WGE111. I thought that a wireless gaming adapter was just a wireless bridge. But I guess not.

BTW, with the Xbox trying to connect, I notice on the WGE111, that the internet light doesnt flash, but the ethernet light does. (Meaning, the traffic on the local LAN is not being passed thru to the wireless connection).

Ugh. BTW, thanks for all the help!!! It's much appreciated!

-John

 

[damaged]

IIRC, Comcast offers a wireless router/modem option, perhaps this would simplify things.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I've run into the same problem when playing with wireless bridges. Likely your bridge can only have one client behind it.

I've used two different solutions to get around this limitation. The first was to setup the far end router on it's own subnet. This worked but later I needed all of the clients in the same IP subnet. To do this I used two routers and WDS to allow multiple clients on the far end of the wireless bridge.

I have my workstation, my file/web server, XTV box and Tivo on the far end of my 'wireless bridge'.

 

[jgantert]

Ugh. Here's the problem... The WGE111 spoofs the MAC address of the first client it sees behind it.

I'm guessing both the Xbox and XTV boxes need to have the MAC address available. Oh well... waste of an evening trying to figure it out...

-John

 

[bpickell]

When I first heard you say that you had mac filtering turned on I had a gut that you had to add both your xbox and xtv to the filter list. I was reading through all these posts to see if anyone had mentioned it yet and it looks like you already figured it out. Guess I'm a day late and a dollar short.