"Bridging/Sharing" 2 AP's over 2 PC's

InSanCen

InSanCen

InSanCen

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In my own little world
Okay... an Unusual one for you.

I'm currently in Dispute with My ISP, so have no Internet connection or Landline. (Signed with Pipex for Landline/ADSL/Calls, and they didn't pick up the line after BT dropped it, so BT ceased it, and now want £100 to reconnect to it, which Pipex dispute is their fault). Am hopefully taking them to Court to sort this, Solicitors letters don't work.

Anywawaaay...

A couple of my colleagues are being kind enough to let me "piggyback" their connections via Wireless, (Before some chimes in, Yes, this *IS* legitimate, both networks are WEP enabled, and I have been given pass keys/phrases/words to both. I'm not in any way, shape or form, trying to "hack" these networks). The AP's are a BT Home Hub (@ 192.168.1.254) and a Netgear of some sort ( @ 192.168.0.1, I only know it is the right one via SSID, not seen it "in the flesh" yet)

Now, as I live in a block of flats, the connections are somewhat flakey (Reinforced Concrete walls (Netgear) and a 200+ yard distance (BT Home Hub)). I have 2 PC's, and would like to run 2 connections. In the desktop, I have a PCI card with a High-Gain ariel on the SMA connector, and on the laptop, I have a G+MIMO USB adaptor. Individually, I can connect to the access points just great (this is being posted from one now), but I want to "share" the 2 connections so that both devices can connect to either/both Access Point's. IE:- AP1 (BT Home Hub) loses it's connection, so both PC's use the Netgear.

I've tried doing this myself, but things keep getting knocked out/Disabled/errored up. Signal's are fairly weak at about 25% each. I am building a 2.4Ghz adaptor out of a Sky Dish (I have LOS to the HomeHub), but until I get the Feed right for it, I am trying to make the best of what I have available.

The 2 PC's are connected via a Cat5 Hub (3Com Office connect 16)

I think it's an IP/DHCP thing stopping me doing this, as the AP's have different IP addy's (192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.254 respectively)

Can anyone shed any light on this, or give me directions that don't involve arsing round with Routers? (I'm trying to minimise the hassle to the owners... if it's hassle for them, permission might be revoked)

Any help appreciated.

InsanCen
 
Easiest way would be to use ICS on the wireless connection from your desktop PC. Then connect an AP or wireless adapter to your desktop to repeat the signal.

I don't fully see your need for connecting to both APs concurrently, how likely is one to go offline?

You could probably fix Windows to connect to the backup AP if one fails.

Alternatively if you have access to a Linux machine - http://tetro.net/misc/multilink.html
 
InSanCen said:
(Signed with Pipex for Landline/ADSL/Calls, and they didn't pick up the line after BT dropped it, so BT ceased it, and now want £100 to reconnect to it, which Pipex dispute is their fault). Am hopefully taking them to Court to sort this, Solicitors letters don't work.
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Sorry to say I'm with Pipex on that one - that's not how the system works.

The previous ISP (in this case BT) don't 'drop' lines. You request a MAC code, they give you one. You then have 30 days to hand this to a new ISP, and they will submit the MAC to BT Wholesale and take over your line at a date specified by BTw. Should the MAC not be used within the 30 days for whatever reason, it just expires and the connection with the previous ISP continues. You can then request another MAC if you wish.

In this case, the line was ceased. Requesting a migration doesn't cause a cease on the line at any point. The only explanation is that in your dealings with BT either you, the no doubt useless support which you could barely understand, or both got confused and mentioned the dreaded words 'cancel '. A cease overrides a migration order, and the line will be ceased (no matter which ISP you attempt to use the MAC with).

Whatever happened, it has nothing to do with Pipex, and I'm sure they'll quite easily prove this. They had no control over your line at the time it was ceased.

Activation should only cost around £47 nowadays, and there are far, far better ISPs than Pipex (but admittedly they don't all do phone service too...)

Can anyone shed any light on this, or give me directions that don't involve arsing round with Routers? (I'm trying to minimise the hassle to the owners... if it's hassle for them, permission might be revoked)
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To do as you are suggesting really does require a load balancing router with multiple WAN ports (either standalone unit or linux router pc)
 
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csmager said:
Sorry to say I'm with Pipex on that one - that's not how the system works.

The previous ISP (in this case BT) don't 'drop' lines. You request a MAC code, they give you one. You then have 30 days to hand this to a new ISP, and they will submit the MAC to BT Wholesale and take over your line at a date specified by BTw. Should the MAC not be used within the 30 days for whatever reason, it just expires and the connection with the previous ISP continues. You can then request another MAC if you wish.

In this case, the line was ceased. Requesting a migration doesn't cause a cease on the line at any point. The only explanation is that in your dealings with BT either you, the no doubt useless support which you could barely understand, or both got confused and mentioned the dreaded words 'cancel '. A cease overrides a migration order, and the line will be ceased (no matter which ISP you attempt to use the MAC with).

Whatever happened, it has nothing to do with Pipex, and I'm sure they'll quite easily prove this. They had no control over your line at the time it was ceased.

Activation should only cost around £47 nowadays, and there are far, far better ISPs than Pipex (but admittedly they don't all do phone service too...)


To do as you are suggesting really does require a load balancing router with multiple WAN ports (either standalone unit or linux router pc)
Click to expand...

Interesting. They did just that. I signed on the line for Pipex, recieved nothing from BT, and then when I enquired 3 weeks later as to why I suddenly had no landline (Bills always paid promptly etc) or net access, Pipex said they couldn't provide a service, as BT had ceased the line. BT agrees my bills were paid in full, and that I had requested a transfer to Pipex, but that Pipex should have taken over the line... I can post a webchat if you want... not disputing you over this, just stating what happened to me.

As for reactivation, it isn't just the ADSL, but the whole line, hence BT saying it's a £100 (£99 and change inc VAT) reconnection fee.

Anyway...

I don't honestly want to shell out for a router (have a Voyager 2000 for when I get an ADSL service), so I might just have to Dual-Boot linux (though the Fiancee *has* to have windows, would get shot if the laptop booted to anything else)... would this work with the link that norm provided? I am curerntly (slowly) downloading Mandriva 7 Free, but have installs of Ubuntu kicking around somewhere. I have dual onboard NIC's on the main PC Nvidia & Realtek i think, it's an MIS Neo2 Platinum)

norm said:
I don't fully see your need for connecting to both APs concurrently, how likely is one to go offline?
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Very... I hit "repair" numerous times a day... easily in excess of 35. does nothing for downloads (hence the slow download of Mandriva)
 
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InSanCen said:
Interesting. They did just that. I signed on the line for Pipex, recieved nothing from BT, and then when I enquired 3 weeks later as to why I suddenly had no landline (Bills always paid promptly etc) or net access, Pipex said they couldn't provide a service, as BT had ceased the line. BT agrees my bills were paid in full, and that I had requested a transfer to Pipex, but that Pipex should have taken over the line... I can post a webchat if you want... not disputing you over this, just stating what happened to me.
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What I said is specific to the ADSL portion. If your landline stopped working, that may be a different issue. Although as far as I was aware, landline reconnections are free of charge most of the time. £100 isn't a fee I'd recognise.

I'm not entirely sure of the procedure for swapping all services over... I guess it depends how Pipex do it - whether it's CPS (Pipex just bill for calls, BT handle £11/m line rental) or whether it's all paid to Pipex and they actually remove you from BT's network. That would involve having their own kit in your exchange.

There're probably too many variables to comment - had it been just the ADSL (as I mistakenly thought it was), then what I said stands. But, as it is, I'm not quite sure!
 
csmager said:
What I said is specific to the ADSL portion.
Click to expand...

Understand you now mate... I have no idea how Pipex would have handled it (Was supposed to be £29.99 inc line rental, calls & ADSL). They wern't to keen to go into details with me over the phone.

Onto other matters...

That link Norm provided, while interesting, is curerntly above my meagre Linux "skills".

I understand a bit better though, so thanks anyway.

Is there a way to use the BT Voyager 2000 as an AP, and pull both wireless signals in off that via Ethernet? Or is that firmly in Commercial/Corporate territory? I can quite happily open it up, and see if it has Internal SMA connections on it.
 
In my view your best option is to find out why the wireless link is failing so frequently, most likely due to an insufficient signal or interference on the medium.

The repair function in Windows simply calls for DHCP to renew the IP address of the adapter, so it could possibly even be a driver issue on your machine causing it to drop offline.

Do you experience the same behaviour on the 2nd AP?
 
Yeah... 2 machines, 2 seperate cards, happens on both AP's. Have done a F&R on both, just in case.

To eliminate the Signal problem, I'm currently modifying a skydish (Adding a cantenna to it basically), but until I can be happy I have my measurements spot on (I can't seem to find decent 2.4Ghz coax anywhere, so I'm having to hack up an existing SMA antenna, not cheap), i need to sort this.

I've tried switching channels (1-11 on both AP's), but still it happens.
The voyager has a different connection to SMA, a PCMCIA card with 2 very small connections on it, going to small PCB's acting as Horizontal & vertical antenna's.
 
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Yup... very familiar. It too has intermittant outages where it can't see the AP's, so I don't think that Windows itself is to blame.

Wireshark/Ethereal, using WinPCap also gives the same.

At the moment, the links are good, so I'd be inclined to say the routers just can't handle the traffic during "normal" hours (which is light, I'm the only wireless client on the Netgear, and 1 other (light surfing) on the Hub), if I didn't know better.

If it's any use, both AP's are sync at about 7.5Mb (near the exchange), and are both "unlimited" type accounts with the ISP's (AOL on the netgear and BT (Logically) on the Home Hub).

Unless I'm missing something pretty basic, then I'll just have to get a hustle on with the Sky Dish... hopefully that will sort a decent Tightbeam link to one of the AP's. Then I can just ICS that from the laptop to the desktop.

Too much to do, not enough time to do it in.

Ah well, cheers anyway mate.
 
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