Wireless Access Point and Proxy Server Setup

dhcpwireless

I was tasked to put up a network for a new department with about 7 users using wired and wireless connection. Our Main network has DHCP and PROXY Server using Windows Server 2003.

Here's my simple diagram setup for the new department:

Main network     --> switch          --> wireless access point
(dhcp/proxy svr)     (wired systems)     (wireless systems)

Access Point Configuration:

  • DHCP is Disabled
  • local IP: acquired from DHCP
  • WPA security disabled
  • No other configuration applied to avoid complication.

Results:

  • wired users can connect to the internet
  • wireless users cannot connect to the internet

I compared the ipconfig of both wired and wireless clients and they have the same configuration.

Why are the wireless users unable to connect to internet?

Best Answer

Since you've clarified (comments above) that IP net/mask/gw are the same for wired/wireless clients, then your AP is bridging (as opposed to routing or NAT'ing the wireless clients.)

  1. Verify the wireless systems are getting DNS servers via DHCP. If "cannot access Internet" means "web sites do not load", this may be all that is wrong.

  2. Verify your Internet edge router, (and/or firewall,) isn't blocking the traffic. You might have everything configured correctly from the network and IP point of view, and then not realize that the edge router has special rules to only permit certain of your internal LAN IP addresses out. (For example, your DHCP server could be configured to give specific IPs to certain DHCP clients (the boss's desktop), while servicing the rest of the clients (eg, printers) from a pool of numbers which aren't generally permitted out to the Internet.

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