Wifi - Two wireless networks

[rjones872]

A friend of mine asked me to look at their small business network.
They have two wireless networks active. WiFi Network #1 gives them
access to the Internet that another business allows them to access.
WiFi Network #2 is their own local network with their shared printer.
The shared printer is wired up to the router/hub while the rest of the
computers are connected wirelessly.

Here is there issue. Every time they want to print, they need to
disconnect from Network #1 and connect to Network #2. Print what they
want, and then reconnect back to Network #1.

They can't physically hook the printer to network #1. Is there a way
to configure their XP laptops to use network #1 for everything except
to send printer requests across network #2? Thanks!

 

[Lem]

A friend of mine asked me to look at their small business network.
They have two wireless networks active. WiFi Network #1 gives them
access to the Internet that another business allows them to access.
WiFi Network #2 is their own local network with their shared printer.
The shared printer is wired up to the router/hub while the rest of the
computers are connected wirelessly.

Here is there issue. Every time they want to print, they need to
disconnect from Network #1 and connect to Network #2. Print what they
want, and then reconnect back to Network #1.

They can't physically hook the printer to network #1. Is there a way
to configure their XP laptops to use network #1 for everything except
to send printer requests across network #2? Thanks!

You can't do this with *one* wireless network adapter. You *might* be
able to do it with *two* wireless network adapters in each computer.
Usually, this question comes up in the context of having a wired NIC
connect to one network and a wireless NIC connect to another.

In any case, you'd have to set up some static routes in the routing
tables of each of the laptops. Start your research here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/159168
The following is for Vista, but should apply to XP as well (use the IPv4
information):
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Configuring-multiple-gateways-on-a-network

 

[James Egan]

A friend of mine asked me to look at their small business network.
They have two wireless networks active. WiFi Network #1 gives them
access to the Internet that another business allows them to access.
WiFi Network #2 is their own local network with their shared printer.
The shared printer is wired up to the router/hub while the rest of the
computers are connected wirelessly.

Here is there issue. Every time they want to print, they need to
disconnect from Network #1 and connect to Network #2. Print what they
want, and then reconnect back to Network #1.

They can't physically hook the printer to network #1. Is there a way
to configure their XP laptops to use network #1 for everything except
to send printer requests across network #2? Thanks!

You can't do it.

Apart from getting your own Internet connection, your best bet is to
get an additional nat device to act in client mode on network #1 and
then connect the network #2 router/hub to it with a lan cable. Then
with a static route on the #1 router you can have your own self
contained private network and Internet.


Jim.

 

[James Egan]

Apart from getting your own Internet connection, your best bet is to
get an additional nat device to act in client mode on network #1 and
then connect the network #2 router/hub to it with a lan cable. Then
with a static route on the #1 router you can have your own self
contained private network and Internet.

In fact you won't need a static route on the #1 router. Sorry!



Jim.