Hello,

Recently, I obtained a new Windows XP laptop, and decided to add a wireless access point (D-Link DWL-G700ap) to my wired network.

I'm using an Ubuntu Edgy box as a NAT router. Two NICs in the machine: 1 to the cable modem, the other to a switch. I've two other machines wired to the network, both running Windows 2000 Professional.

The one weird thing I guess I've done is that I am not using DHCP. Each computer has a static IP set. Perhaps that's what's making this so difficult.

It was my understanding that all I would need to do is connect the access point to the switch--apparently I was wrong, as I cannot get the laptop to work. There's no problem with the connection between the laptop and the access point, but I am unable to connect to the network. I've attempted turning on and off the DHCP in the access point, configuring the laptop for DHCP or Static IP, but nothing seems to work. I've also turned off encryption and security in the access point in case that was the issue.

If I plug the laptop into a spare port in the switch, connectivity is not an issue. I can browse the internet and my network with ease.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to look, or any suggestions of anything to try (other than converting my network to DHCP)? I'm running out of ideas, and I'm really not sure where to start from.

So pinging one of the machines connected to the switch does not work?

This usually confuses me but you may need a crossover cable between the wan of the router to the switch. If the switch supports uplink which is used to switch the internal wiring of a certain port desiganted as the uplink/downlink port. Switching to the other mode will be the same as a crossover cable.

Brian

That's correct. I can ping the access point from the laptop, but not from any of the other machines in the network. Nor can I ping the other machines from the laptop.

I can't ping the access point from the other machines either.


I'll look into that.

As it turns out, there was a bad port in my switch.

Thanks so much for the help.

Glad to see you have it figured out. I had that thought but didn't make it to the post. Can of had the idea that something else plugged into the port had worked.

Brian