[AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)

John Colby jcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Mon Nov 3 10:29:36 CST 2003


DID YOU SAY BITMASK?  Sounds denormalized to me!

<very big grin>

John W. Colby
www.colbyconsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Drew Wutka
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 11:08 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: RE: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)


Think of a subnet as a neighborhood.  A network neighborhood.  The subnet
'mask' is a property in TCP/IP, which tells your machine what IP addresses
are around it.  It's a bitmask thing.

192.168.0.1, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 tells the machine that
192.168.0.1 through 192.168.0.255 are around it.  If the bit is turned on in
the subnet mask, IP Addresses in that subnet must have a matching bit
(either on or off....), if it's turned off in the subnet, that bit in the IP
address can be different.  So 255.255.255.254 for a subnet, is a subnet of 2
machines.

The reason this is important, is because subnets control how much
broadcasting and browsing your machine must do, to locate other computers on
the network.  A subnet of 255.255.0.0 tells your computer there are 65k
machines on the subnet, and more then likely you will never find anything,
because it will eventually give up.  255.255.255.0 tells it there are 256
(255) computers on the subnet, which it should be able to find just fine.
However, if you have a smaller network, a smaller subnet speeds up the
'searching'.

That leads to what I was talking about earlier...the Gateway (router).  When
you tell a machine to go to 123.456.789.321, if that IP Address is not on
the subnet, it doesn't even bother looking, it just sends the request to the
gateway IP (router), so the router does the searching.

Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: Rocky Smolin - Beach Access Software [mailto:bchacc at san.rr.com]
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 6:53 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)


O. What's a subnet?  And where do I get one?  And do I want one?

Rocky

----- Original Message -----
From: "Drew Wutka" <DWUTKA at marlow.com>
To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'"
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 9:20 AM
Subject: RE: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)


> Yes, a switch is used to connect computers on the same subnet.  A router
is
> used to connect subnets together.  A router is usually also a switch, so
it
> can connect computers on the same subnet, AND connect one subnet to
another.
>
> Drew
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rocky Smolin - Beach Access Software [mailto:bchacc at san.rr.com]
> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 9:20 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)
>
>
> Is there a difference between a switch and a router?
>
> Rocky
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Frank Tanner III" <pctech at mybellybutton.com>
> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving"
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 6:54 AM
> Subject: RE: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)
>
>
> > I recommend "hardwiring" the IP address of any device
> > or server connected to your LAN that's not a
> > workstation and is virtually always on.
> >
> > For the price, I would also highly recommend removing
> > all hubs from your network and using them as
> > doorstops.  Switches have come way down in price and
> > have many benifits over hubs.
> >
> > Hubs divide the bandwidth across all ports.  Thus if
> > you have an 8-port 10-BaseT hub, all ports that are
> > processing data split that 10Mbit.  A switch, each
> > port gets the fill bandwidth.
> >
> > That's not including the security issues inherent with
> > hubs as they broadcast all available data to all
> > available ports rather than to the proper destination
> > port.
> >
> > --- John Colby <jcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote:
> > > Yes, you can indeed daisy chain routers and
> > > SUPPOSEDLY hubs, though I had no
> > > joy doing that with my old hub.  I am however daisy
> > > chaining my old 4 port
> > > router off of my new 4 port wireless router.  The
> > > newer models even figure
> > > out what kind of cable you are using, crossover or
> > > regular.  The biggest
> > > issue there was that the router was the dhcp server
> > > so I had to turn off the
> > > old as a dhcp server and turn on the new.  I also
> > > hardwired the address of
> > > the old router to 192.168.1.2.  Daisy Chaining two 4
> > > port routers isn't a
> > > panacea however since you now end up using two ports
> > > just for the daisy
> > > chain and have 6 left.  In my case though I also
> > > have a wireless so I can
> > > get my laptop in through that and could also get
> > > other computers in if
> > > needed.
> > >
> > > I have an old model I TIVO which I modded to use the
> > > internet to "call in"
> > > for programming.  I had to snake a cable down the
> > > wall from the living room
> > > (luckily exactly over my office in the basement).  I
> > > understand that the
> > > model II has USB ports that can automatically use
> > > the USB wireless cards to
> > > connect to the internet.
> > >
> > > John W. Colby
> > > www.colbyconsulting.com
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On
> > > Behalf Of Rocky Smolin -
> > > Beach Access Software
> > > Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 8:33 AM
> > > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> > > Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort
> > > of)
> > >
> > >
> > > John:
> > >
> > > I heard that you can daisy chain hubs off one of the
> > > ports on your router to
> > > get more ports and that you can go up to 255 devices
> > > from one router this
> > > way.  Seems to easy and cheap, though.
> > >
> > > I've also found that when creating a new network it
> > > sometimes takes a few
> > > minutes for the different shared devices to 'see'
> > > each other - especially on
> > > the wireless.  So I'll whang around frustrated
> > > trying to get the network to
> > > work and then have the same experience you had -
> > > after a few minutes,
> > > suddenly the other machines are in my network
> > > neighborhood.  Go figure.
> > >
> > > Rocky
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "John Colby" <jcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
> > > To: "Database Advisors Inc. (Tech)"
> > > <Dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com>;
> > > "AccessD" <AccessD at databaseadvisors.com>
> > > Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 5:39 PM
> > > Subject: [AccessD] OT: Wireless network (sort of)
> > >
> > >
> > > > I ordered a Netgear MR814v2 Wireless router a
> > > couple of weeks ago.  I
> > > needed
> > > > to expand my 4 port router (I had 5 things I kept
> > > needing to plug in) and
> > > > the Netgear was on sale at www.Newegg.com at the
> > > time.  I then tried and
> > > > failed to install a linksys WPC11v2.5 I had laying
> > > around, so I ordered a
> > > > dlink dwl-650 that was on sale (rebate) at
> > > www.newegg.com.  Long story
> > > > short, it didn't work.  Long story a little
> > > longer, a very long call to
> > > > dlink tech support, did not solve the problem.
> > > >
> > > > Or maaaaaybe it did.  After failing to figure
> > > anything out, they
> > > recommended
> > > > that I upgrade my laptop bios.  It's an ancient
> > > (now) 233mhz PII Toshiba
> > > > Satellite 4000 that I bought with my first
> > > paycheck from my trip to work
> > > for
> > > > Mr. Breen in Dublin Ireland back in hmmm.....
> > > November 1997?  Getting a
> > > bit
> > > > long in the tooth, truth be told.
> > > >
> > > > The bios upgrade and also the old "turn off NAV
> > > before installing etc.
> > > And
> > > > "oh by the way, our card requires at least a 300
> > > mhz processor.  So I
> > > > uninstalled, upgraded to the latest bios (May
> > > 2000?), turned off NAV,
> > > > reinstalled the drivers and re-installed the card.
> > >  Still no joy.  The
> > > site
> > > > survey showed no transmitters, and dlink tech
> > > support assured me that if
> > > > there was a transmitter I would see it regardless.
> > > >
> > > > Ignorant liars!
> > > >
> > > > Went back in and reconfigured the card in the
> > > laptop for channel 11 (it
> > > > defaulted to 3 and the router was on 11), played
> > > around with a couple of
> > > > other things and boom, I see a transmitter.  Went
> > > in to the router config
> > > > page and changed the SSID and sure enough the
> > > thing I'm seeing on the
> > > laptop
> > > > changes to match!  Still no connection though.
> > > >
> > > > Rebooted, played around some more and suddenly (no
> > > clear idea why) I have
> > > a
> > > > wireless connection, can browse my network and see
> > > the web.  Yeaaaaa.
> > > >
> > > > Moral of the story, tech support generally sucks,
> > > play around, don't quit,
> > > > and eventually the gods will reward you.  Or not.
> > > >
> > > > Now, I need to know what to do to tighten this
> > > thing up so that others
> > > can't
> > > > see my network.  I'm a bit afraid to touch
> > > anything since I don't really
> > > > know what I did to finally get it running.
> > > >
> > > > Can anyone walk me through tightening this up?
> > > >
> > > > John W. Colby
> > > > www.colbyconsulting.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > AccessD mailing list
> > > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > > >
> > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> > > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> > > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > AccessD mailing list
> > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > AccessD mailing list
> > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > AccessD mailing list
> > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> AccessD mailing list
> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> _______________________________________________
> AccessD mailing list
> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>

_______________________________________________
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
_______________________________________________
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com





More information about the AccessD mailing list