- Joined
- Jan 17, 2002
- Location
- Atlanta, GA
Lately I've seen a lot of questions about making a wireless router work in conjunction with an already in place wired network. I drew a simple drawing of a typical scenario. Basically what this does is keep the already in place router functioning as the gateway for the network. Then it just uses the switch on the wireless router to connect the wireless functionality to the already in place network. There are other ways to make it work, but this is the easiest for people not familiar with networking.
The usual problem is people wanting to place the cable coming from the router into the WAN port of the wireless router, which in turn creates two networks. What happens here is, you're machines on the inside network can't talk to those on the outside network(this is a good thing, otherwise people outside your router could communicate with your machines inside at will.) The reason they cannot communicate is because they aren't on the same subnet. Like I've stated before, it is possible to make them communicate. It's just not practical and not something I'm going into in this.
Ideally it would be easier to incorporate a wireless access point into your network instead of a second router. But as we see in real life situations, it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes people want to buy a wireless router for after they move out of the house, but want to use the wireless functionality while they still live there. Also an access point usually tends to cost more than a wireless router, even though you get less functionality from it.
Anyways, hope this helps someone at least. If any corrections need to be made please let me know.
Tim
edit: bleh, showed up blurry , just click it to make it show up more clearly
The usual problem is people wanting to place the cable coming from the router into the WAN port of the wireless router, which in turn creates two networks. What happens here is, you're machines on the inside network can't talk to those on the outside network(this is a good thing, otherwise people outside your router could communicate with your machines inside at will.) The reason they cannot communicate is because they aren't on the same subnet. Like I've stated before, it is possible to make them communicate. It's just not practical and not something I'm going into in this.
Ideally it would be easier to incorporate a wireless access point into your network instead of a second router. But as we see in real life situations, it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes people want to buy a wireless router for after they move out of the house, but want to use the wireless functionality while they still live there. Also an access point usually tends to cost more than a wireless router, even though you get less functionality from it.
Anyways, hope this helps someone at least. If any corrections need to be made please let me know.
Tim
edit: bleh, showed up blurry , just click it to make it show up more clearly
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