WLAN Setup – Can I Set Up a WLAN with a WAP but Without Internet?

lanNetworkwireless

I was able to set up a LAN with the following configuration :

  • A main computer (Windows PC) with a DHCP and DNS server, who is configured to have a static IP address
  • Three devices (embedded Linux) who communicate with the PC using its IP address
  • Each device is connected to the main computer using Ethernet (3 Ethernet links)
  • There is no Internet

I want to switch this setup to a WLAN. This is what I thought I would do :

  • The PC will be connected to a wireless access point (Wi-Fi link).
  • Each device will be connected to a wireless repeater (Ethernet link), and each wireless repeater will communicate with the PC through the WAP.
  • There is still no Internet connection.

My questions are then :

  • Can the above configuration work ? I mean is it possible to integrate a WAP without having an internet connection ? Can all WAP handle this ?
  • Is it simplier to use a Wi-Fi router instead of a WAP ?

Thanks. 🙂

Best Answer

Yes. A wireless access point is just a layer-2 device, comparable to an Ethernet switch (assuming you enable peer-to-peer communication). There is no requirement that you have internet connectivity. In fact, you may already have been in situations where your home internet went down but you were still able to access the printer via the WiFi.

The only complications are:

  1. Providing DHCP (or some other way of assigning IP addresses) to the clients on your WiFi network
  2. Some home WiFi devices -expect- the internet to be functional and may “helpfully” alter their behavior when the internet is not available.

With enterprise gear you could provide DHCP addresses and designate a subnet without a default route on the WiFi. That way if some of your hosts had a different default route to the internet they would still function. Some consumer WiFi routers might give you enough knobs to do this.

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