"yawnmoth" <terra1024@yahoo.com> hath wroth:

>i'm considering buying a wireless to wired network bridge (WET54G) and
>am not really sure how it'd work. say you're wireless network is
>using WEP or WPA. how do you tell the bridge that?

The absolute basics:
1. ALL wireless is bridging. Wireless knows nothing about IP
addresses and routeing.
2. Basic wireless configuration consists SSID, encryption, and
authentication. Everything else is set by the wireless access point.
The bridge just follows.
3. A wireless client adapter is nothing but a marketing term for
wireless bridge.
4. Bridges can be point to point or point to multipoint depending on
configuration and topology.

>the user guide (page 22) suggests that the WET54G has a web interface
>(presumably for this very reason).

Argh. You read the manual. I'll try to undo the damage.

The IP address for the WET54G is only used to configure the device. It
has no real purpose in the operation of the bridge, which is all done
on Layer 2 (MAC address layer) and not on Layer 3 (IP address layer).

>the default ip address to this web
>interface is 192.168.1.226. what happens, however, if your network
>configuration uses ip addresses of the form 10.*.*.*? i assume
>192.168.1.226 wouldn't work, at that point.

Nothing happens. The IP addresses are handled by the corresponding
wired or wireless router along with the IP stack in the connecting
computah. The bridge does NOTHING with the IP addresses.

>...or what if the ip addresses that are assigned by the router aren't
>internal - what if they're directly route-able to the internet?

Again, the bridge does nothing. Other than the IP address required
for configuration, the wireless bridge acts something like an ordinary
CAT5 cable. It passes IP addresses unchanged. (Actually, that's not
exactly true because a bridge only passes packets that have a
destination MAC address on the other side of the bridge). However, at
the IP address layer, a bridge looks like a cable.

>what if, when i plug two computers into a hub that's plugged into the
>WET54G's lone ethernet port, i'm supposed to get two IP addresses that
>the outside world can see? 192.168.1.226 obviously wouldn't work,
>then...

No. The hub is just a repeater. It doesn't do NAT in any way. If
you need a 2nd IP address on the LAN for a 2nd computah, it will need
to be supplied by a router.

With NAT, the outside world sees exactly one IP address. That's
you're routeable IP addresses and is the one that's reported by
various internet sites the return your IP address:
<http://whatsmyip.org>

One of many features inside your router is NAT (network address
translation). If you happen to be reading Cisco literature, it's
really PAT (port address translation). What NAT/PAT does it rewrite
the IP header on the LAN (local area network) side by port number
giving you multiple IP addresses on the LAN side. These addresses are
assigned by another feature called DHCP (dynamic host confusion
protocol).

Bottom line is that your questions about IP addresses are really
handled by your router and that if you want multiple IP addresses, it
cannot be done with just a wireless bridge or hub.

Reminder: Wireless is all bridging and does NOT involve IP addresses.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558