The Internet in the HousesEach house in the co-op is (more-or-less) equipped with wired and wireless connections to the internet. The SCA is subscribed to COMCAST for cable-internet connections. Below is a general schematic of the current setup in each of the houses. In all three houses the internet signal comes in over a cable line and is then processed by a cable modem. The cable modem signal is then sent to a Buffalo Airstation Wireless-G router (HP-WHR-G54). The wireless router has 4 wired ports, and broadcasts a wireless signal to which your computer may connect. One of the wired ports is connected to a Farallon router/switch with 8 wired ports that run throughout the house. The Farallon switch is not set to act as a DHCP server because that would interfere with the Buffalo router. Anyone connecting to a separate DHCP server would not be able to get access to the cable-internet. The Campbell Club and Lorax Manner are equipped with wireless repeater bridges as well as a wireless router. The very same Buffalo Airstation router model can also be set to repeat a signal via hardware and software switches on the router itself. On the bottom of the router is a switch that can be set to 'BRI' mode. If in this mode, it can connect to any other wireless device and rebroadcast the signal to increase the range of the network. In the Campbell club this repeater is in the room full of cables and shit on the 3rd floor. The Lorax repeaters are in the phone rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and they are hard-wired to the basement router. In order to set up the bridge to repeat a signal, a few settings have to be altered via software setup. Primarily, the MAC address of the device that is to be repeated needs to be added to the 'Repeater List' of the router. A detailed set of instructions on how to do this are in the Router Manual PDF. There you find how to setup WDS to add wireless repeaters to the current network.
Wireless SettingsThe Buffalo wireless router broadcasts an SSID (a wireless name that identifies the network) that you need to know in order to connect to the network. Each house's network is designated by a different name as follows:
All the wireless devices (routers and repeaters) in a house should be set to broadcast the same SSID and to operate on the same channel. What this does is allows any computer connecting to the wireless network to roam throughout the house. Both windows and Apple computer will automatically select the device with the highest signal strength to use as a connection. If the devices broadcast different SSIDs or were set to different channels, a computer moving from one area to another would have to be reconfigured to connect to the closer router each time. This setup should save a lot of time and trouble with the wireless setup. To connect to the network you should set you computer to automatically assign an IP address and DNS server via DHCP. The Buffalo router acts as a DHCP server that will hand out information that your computer will use to connect to the network. Notes for Lorax
The basement router and the two access points are all hard-wired together. No wireless bridging is being done. Hard-wiring keeps the speeds up, whereas the wireless bridge would cut it in half with each wireless-hop. Two access points are located in the phone rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors. This should be the most stable setup. Notes for Campbell Club
Eric says: Something I noticed last visit - The cables that run up from the computer room (1st floor) to both the other floors (2nd/3rd) don't work. Maybe they got tweaked in a door hinge or the ends got pulled too hard, but I tried to check them out and something is wrong with them. They'll have to be replaced if we want any wired signal to run up from the 1st floor to the others. Notes for Janet SmithJanet Jaxon now has 2 routers for internet access.
The basement router's WAN port is wired to one of the 4 switch ports on the main living room router. The ground floor (Buffalo) router is running DD-WRT (linux) firmware, and is setup to perform DHCP forwarding, the firmware is up to date as of 13 December 2008. The beasement floor (Linksys) is running DD-WRT (linux) firmware, and is setup to perform DHCP forwarding, the firmware is up to date as of 13 December 2008. They use WPA2 Personnel encryption (w/ TKIP). The "Anna" router runs WEP on the pass phrase Anna using key 1. The SSID's are below. Everyone in the JS has access to or knows the password. The router name's for each when using the admin panel are included, if you need the pw for the main router talk to Jeff Scroggin, or Aaron Webster. Anna's router is WEP encrypted, she and Jeff know the passphrase (you still need to generate the actual key, it's option 1), feel free to ask either of them what the pw is if you need access. The kitchen computer has a master account w/ the same password as the Janet Jaxon network. 1. SSID: Janet Jaxon (router admin = root) (pw =N/A) 2. SSID: jaxb (router admin= jaxb) (pw = Timberlake) 3. SSID: Anna (router admin-Anna) (pw= Wardrobe) |