Problmes Creating a Workgroup

[Guest]

Hi everyone.

I'm a volunteer at a small nonprofit organization and they've asked me to
help them setup a Workgroup so the computers throughout the building can
share files and printers.

I dont have a lot of networking experience, but Ive been doing a lot of
onsite learning; however, I have run into a problem.

As I said, Ive been tryign to create a workgroup contianing all the
computers in the building. Now, they are networked in the following manner.
The computers in the CompLab are all connected via wireless devices. The
rest, are all linked together via a series of ethernet cables and hubs. For
example, 3 computers in the directors office are connected to one hub which
is itself connected to another hub with several other computer on it as
well.. and so on. From my investigation, Ive found that at the end of the
chain the last hub is plugging into the little wireoless network box in the
attic.

So.. as far as *I* can understand, all the computers are essentially
connected to each, since the connections the hardwired computers share
connect to the wireless antenna device.

Now when I create a workgroup using the "Set Up a Home or Small Office
Network" tool, I've been able to link all the wireless computers in the Lab.
They share files and everythign fine. Then I moved to one of the nonwireless
computers (in this case the directors) and attempted the same thing. I used
the "Set Up a Home or Office Network" toll on that computer and typed in the
correct workgroup name... but when I go to look at that workgroup on the
hardwired computer I dont see any of the computers in the Lab. Also, the
computers in the lab dont show the directors computer in the workgroup.

So, my question is... what am I doing worng and hwy isnt this working nad
how do I fix it?

 

[GTS]

Is the "little wireless network box" a WAP or a Router? What does ipconfig
show on a wired and a wireless workstation?

 

[Guest]

Is the "little wireless network box" a WAP or a Router? What does ipconfig
show on a wired and a wireless workstation?

Honestly.. I’m not really sure. I can tell you that the IP addresses of the
hardlined computer and the wireless computers are different. Like I said...
Im not really trained for this. I’m simply the closest thing available. I got
here about a week ago and they asked me to figure this out. Before now I’d
never done any networking before, so I’m riding a steep learning curve.

In the attic there is a small black box on the wall labeled a “Wireless
Ethernet Converter†there is one round thin cable leaving it and disappearing
up into the wall. This connects, via a basic network cable, to the WAN
(wireless access network, I presume) port of a LINKSYS Ethernet router (so it
says on the device).

From that router a network cable leaves via the port labeled “uplink†and
travels through the floor into a router (Called Prime for the purposes of
this description) via the port labeled “internetâ€. A number of cables leave
Prime to various computers and one leaves, from a generic numbered out port
(number 5 I believe) to yet another router’s “internet†port which connects
to several more computers including the hardlined one I was working on.

Going back to the Prime router, from port 7, another cable leaves it and
travels down through the floor to the WAN port of a wireless router in the
computer lab. No other cables leave this router. However, when I unplug this
router, all the computer lab computers lose their connection.

That’s pretty much the set up here as I’ve been able to determine. I kinda
did a little sketch below. Sorry for my incompetence, but... Im trying to
learn as fast as I can here.

--------Computers
|
|
Converter ----- Router ------ Prime Router------Router----Computers
|
|
---------- Wireless
Router in Lab

 

[Richard G. Harper]

The fact that the two groups of computers have two different types of IP
addresses explains why they can't see each other. You need to de-activate
one of the routers on your network and let only one handle address
assignment and such.

 

[GTS]

As Rich notes, you should not have multiple routers in the network. It is
possible to reconfigure the wireless router to act as a wireless access
point instead, and replace the other extra routers with switches. I'm
sympathetic with the "steep learning curve" you're dealing with, but
frankly, I think the organization needs to bring in a qualified consultant
to straighten them out. It will be a relatively fast job. You need more
basic knowledge as a starting point to understand the issues. Here are a
few links where you can learn more about networking.

http://www.ezlan.net/
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
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