My experiences getting D-Link DWL-700AP to work in Wireless Client Mode

I have the answer. The solution is so easy I could never have figured it out (frikkin' D-Link) - I discovered it by accident. I noticed that I had activity coming over the ethernet card rather than the wireless card (see below). Here's the setup:

My main access point is a SMC Barricade wireless, four-port 10/100, auto-sensing router. This plugs into my DSL modem and out to the Internet using PPPoE through a fifth RJ45 WAN connector. I have an eight-port 10/100, auto-sensing switch plugged into the SMC providing wired access for several computers. I'm using an SMC EZ Connect 22Mbps wireless cardbus adapter in my laptop giving wireless Internet access through the Barricade. It's useful to note that the Barricade defaults to 192.168.2.1, a different subnet than the D-Link.

What I wanted was to use the D-Link 700AP instead of putting a wireless PCI card in a computer that I want to put down the hall. I don't want to have to punch wires through the concrete walls of my apartment. Here's how: Plug the D-Link's provided crossover cable into the PC, and access the D-Link as described in the manual. You may have to force the computer to the same subnet as the D-Link (192.168.0.0) by setting a fixed IP address on the ethernet interface in the range 192.168.0.1-254, but not 50 as that's taken by the D-Link. Change the mode of the D-Link to wireless client using either the Web browser interface, or the provided utility (see manual). Note that you have to provide the MAC address of the wireless access point you use to connect to the Internet, so get that handy first. The access point will show you that information on its interface, or from its utility.

Here's where it gets tricky: The first thing to note is that the D-Link takes a while (five minutes, perhaps) to reboot into wireless access mode. Watch the wireless indicator light. It will begin flashing constantly when it has a connection. Now you must switch your computer to whichever IP addressing mode your main access point (the Barricade with DHCP in my case) is set for. If you choose DHCP your computer will pull an IP address from the DHCP server (the Barricade in my case), and the D-Link becomes transparent on the network. Think of your ethernet card, and your D-Link as forming a wireless ethernet card when joined together. Tricky part is you can no longer access the D-Link because your PC is now on a different subnet. Solution is that you should have set the D-Link to a fixed IP address on your DHCP server's subnet before you reset into client mode. You don't have to set an IP on the LAN subnet, but you'd need to switch IP's on your ethernet connected PC every time you want to talk to the D-Link. You cannot set the D-Link to obtain an IP automatically using DHCP. It will not do this using its wireless connection to the access point. Ain't that tricky?

Summary: Set a fixed IP on the D-Link to put it on your LAN, and only then switch to wireless client mode. Now wait a while for the D-Link to get itself attached to the local wirelss network.

I use a wonderful little utility called the Network Activity Diagram in my system tray. I feel a certain comfort level when I notice outbound packets as Microsoft is swearing they're not accessing my data.

Here's some clips from an email conversation I had with Thomas Jones who used some of my information to get his DWL-700AP working. He adds more details regarding the functionality of this nifty little gadget.

Hey,

Just wanted to drop a little note in your inbox thanking you for publishing your article on the DWL-700AP. I too, was in IP subnet hell trying to configure one of these, and I finally got it figured out. Partly because of your article, so thanks!

Just in case you're interested, It is possible to be able to see the configuration tool without changing from DHCP back to static. It does require a newer OS like 2k or XP. All you need to do is add a second IP address under the advanced tab. Also, you need to add the gateway as well.

My setup has DHCP as the main setting, and then I added, 192.168.2.2 as a second IP. and then I added 192.168.2.1 as the second gateway. The DWL-700AP is configured with IP address 192.168.2.1, so with the NIC configured this way it will both receive an IP address from the wireless router, and it will still be able to talk to the DWL-700AP at the same time.

One last note... I have tested this with some level of success... I hooked up the DWL-700AP to the uplink port of my Ethernet switch. I was then able to configure several computers attached to that switch to talk through the DWL-700AP. They were all able to receive a unique DHCP address from my wireless router, and they were able to surf the internet. This particular configuration relies on the ability to establish multiple IPs and gateway addresses on a particular NIC. Anyway, you may not need to know this, but I figured I'd tell ya just for kicks.

Thanks again!
Thomas

<CLIP My reply with thanks, and asking for clarifications>

and now to the Q/A and S/R (Questions/Answers & statement/response)...

Q: Have you a DWL-700AP acting as a client on a LAN with second wireless device acting as the router, and access point - same as me?
A: Yes.

Q: In this configuration, are you able to access the DWL-700AP with an IP address?
A: Yes. I changed the default IP of the AP to 192.168.2.1.
(Note: I'm going to perform another test to see if this is completely necessary. I would prefer not to use but one private IP subnet. The only reason that I used the 2 subnet is because my router is issuing out 192.168.0, but when I install this system, that private ip address will change, so I may change the APs subnet back to 0 as well.)

Q: I appreciate the bit about the 'newer OS.' Did you mean to be funny? ;-)
A: No, wasn't trying to be funny, but I'm guilty of that at times. Nice side effect! :-)

Q: It is NT after all. I didn't include that stuff in an effort to simplify the explanation, but posting this conversation will be a good way to include it, and still keep the base simple. What you touched on, I believe, is that to talk to the DWL-700AP you must get it on the same subnet as the computer you want to use to talk to it. As the D-Link defaults to 192.168.1.50 you either have to get a computer with an interface on the 192.168.1 subnet, or log in and change the D-Link's IP address so it's on the same subnet as the rest of the LAN. In my case, and your's it seems, that's 192.168.2, the default for my SMC Barricade.
A: Right.

Q: The second part of this point, I think, is that this is simple to do with an OS that can have a single interface multihomed (answering to multiple IP addresses), like 2K, XP, or Linux, or a computer with two physical interfaces (NICs).
A: Exactly!

S: I find it very interesting that you've used it as a client/access node for multiple computers.
R: I try. Don't ask me why, but I try! :-)

Q: How was the response time? Have you tried anything on it requiring real-time responses with low lag time? I've been wondering about putting my son's computer on it, and he's a gamer. If I can get that end of the apartment wireless, I'd be thrilled.

A: I don't know. The test was merely limited to function. I didn't do any performance evaluation. The goal of this whole experiment is very specific, and will probably not involve a performance eval. Basically, the benchmark that I have to out perform is a mere 56k dial up service. The users who will ultimately benefit from this experiment will probably never need to know this detail, though I'm curious myself!The basic purpose of this experiment is to see if we can get a fairly weak wireless signal that is available outside my broker's house to be picked up and distributed to about 3 computers in the house via hard-line or later wireless. We intend to hook up an external antenna to accomplish this. Probably somewhere between a 15dB to 24dB parabolic or maybe a yagi. All I have to do is beat the snot out of his puny dial-up account and they'll be thrilled. If all goes well, the next step may be to install a router, wired or wireless, in the house to sit between the AP, and the computers. That way, only one IP address would come down through the AP anyway, and the computers would be safer with the firewall protection offered by the router.