Daily archive: October 23, 2008

[Update] Step 4: Connect wireless devices

October 23, 2008, by No comments yet

It’s coming. Hold on.

[Update] Finally got a chance to update this step.

The biggest problem I ran into here was the desktop machines that I installed wireless adapters into.  I typically would prefer/insist upon a wired connection on desktops, but I could not overrule the building committee.  So, I had to make this work with wireless connections instead.  The answer?  Well, it’s twofold.

  1. Get a better antenna on the wireless access point (AP).
  2. Move AP up the wall and not so close to the ground.

I couldn’t move the desktops too much, so that was not an option.  After all, people are going to put their computers where they want them, and not where you think they should.  So, this fix worked best and had the added benefit of making staff happy they did not have to put their computers on the desk rather than the ground where they preferred to leave them.

The biggest challenge after this is security.  As in, don’t give out the WEP2 password I just entered into your computer.  Why would I give it to them in the first place?  Well, they have laptops coming in and out of the office during the week when I am not there, but also MS Windows complains on occassion and they might be asked for the password.  We all know what that’s like, right?

Step 3: Create wireless network

October 23, 2008, by No comments yet

As I previously mentioned, one of the main reasons for all this work was that the new sanctuary building does not have a wired network and I needed to move the existing computers and printer to a wireless network.  So, since I have an Airport Extreme at home, I was planning to create a Pre-N network.  But, since few PC users have N-capable devices (gotta love Apple), I made sure the main network was 801.11g instead.

So, I chose a wireless router that was capable of creating both an N and G network.  That is the D-Link DIR-855.  It can broadcast the G network on 2.4GHz and the N network on 5GHz.  Since our new phone system will also be wireless, I wanted to have some spectrum separation while still looking forward to N devices.

I followed the router setup wizard as instructed by D-Link.  When it came time to choose the security, I chose WPA2-PSK.  Why?  Well, WPA is supposed to me more secure than WEP, and WPA2 moreso than WPA.  The reason I went with the PSK (personal key) instead of the more secure commercial key, is that I do not have the resources to setup the necessary RADIUS server, although I would like to do just that.  Again, while I may be able to manage the server, I have to think about the folks coming in after me.  They may not be familiar with servers and any problems will just lead to another frustration when it does not work.  The main problem with a personal key (PSK) is that in order to authenticate someone, you have to save the password on their device.  All they have to do is click the box to “view password as text” and presto, they can give it to anyone else.

You just have to trust folks not to do that or change the password on all network devices at regular intervals.

Lesser of two evils? You decide.

Now that I had the first building’s wireless network up, I had to setup the second (and completely wireless) building.

The main reason I was able to set them up with little concern is that we had a contractor pull a cable from my communications closet in the first building to the second.  Otherwise, I was going to have to look some form of wireless bridge or WDS, both of which would have further degraded the signal and bandwidth.

In the second building, I connected the pulled cable to  an identical 8-port switch (always think about expandibility) and then to the wireless access point.  Note, this is an access point and not another router.  This is key as it will simply take the DHCP address from the wireless router and provide it to all other clients in the second building.  If I had used another router, I might have ended up with a second layer of NAT (network address translation) and devices in one building might not be able to see those in the other building and vice versa.

The easiest thing to do is get an access point.

Since I also wanted to make sure that any device authenticated to the wireless network in one building could move the second without having to enter another password, I also used WPA2-PSK encryption and the identical password.  Now, you can connect once and move across the entire campus with no problem.

Step 2: Recreate the existing wired network

October 23, 2008, by No comments yet

Now that the wires have been moved over into the hall closet, I had to recreate the existing wired network. While we had been using a cheapo cable router I picked some years ago at a computerfest, this time I had a budget and went with the name brands.

I looked over both Linksys and D-Link (as well as many others), but chose D-Link for the main reason that it works well (actually there was a problem you will read about later) and was highly recommended by the salesman at our local techie computer shop, i.e. not the large box retailer.  I also had to make sure that someone else beside me could manage the network should I be unavailable or no longer worshipping at the church (it happens).

So, with a D-Link wireless Pre-N router and switch, I set off.  I won’t discuss the router in this step, becuase I want to give it more time in Step 3.  But, I first connected all the existing computers and network printer to the switch, and then connected the switch to the router.  It looks like this:

Cable modem –> Wireless router –> Switch –> Network device/Node (computer or printer)

After having to redo the ethernet cable connectors because I did them wrong (another thanks to my wife), we were back on the Internet with the wired clients.

Step 1: Move the wires

October 23, 2008, by No comments yet

Our first chore was to move the ethernet and cable modem wires from the secretary’s office to a hall closet.  While I knew that we could move the ethernet cables faily easily, my main concern was the cable modem.  I have created both pass through and crossover cables for computers and even made new coaxial cables for my home satellite tv connection, but making one for a cable modem was new.  I had previous experience with a cable installer telling me that the connection for a cable modem is not quite the same as for a cable tv hookup.

But, since we were only talking about moving existing cable and not the connection, I was hopeful.

My first step was to create a short coaxial cable (about three feet) and place it inline between the existing cable and the modem.  It looked like this:

Existing cable (from wall) –> inline coupler –> new coaxial cable –> cable modem

It worked like a charm.  The signal made it through with no problem and I was able to connect to the Internet with a simple restart.

Now that I was confident we could move the coaxial and ethernet cables, we had to figure out how to get it done.  After some snooping up in the attic and along the walls of each office, I decided the best way to get it done was to simply run the cables from the hall closet, into the attic (made a hole), back into the office (another hole), along the drop ceiling, through the hole in the drop ceiling and connect to the existing cable (ethernet or coaxial) via an inline coupler.

This was the hard part and took most of the evening (thank you to my wife), about three hours.