[thevideojunkie]

I'm trying to get my home network up and running on all cylinders, and I'm running into some problems.

Here's the setup: For now I am attempting to network my iBook and my B&W G3. The iBook has an Airport card, and my graphite Airport Base Station is plugged into a Linksys router, which is connected to the G3 and to my cable modem. Both computers access the Internet just fine. And the iBook can log onto the G3 just fine and access its volumes. Both computers are running the latest Jaguar.

My trouble is that the G3 does not see the iBook when the iBook is connected to the network via Airport. It sees it just fine when the iBook is connected to the router via direct Ethernet connection, however. Also, when connected wirelessly, the iBook cannot see the shared USB printer on the G3, even though it can see the G3 volumes. Now, again, when I connect the iBook to the network via Ethernet cable to the router, the shared printer that's on the G3 shows up just fine on the iBook.

What gives? Everything works as it should when I take the wireless stuff out of the equation, but that's not what I want. I'm stumped, so thanks for any advice.

[aaanorton]

You've probably got both the Linksys and ABS set to distribute IPs. This is a no-no. Go into your Airport configs and disable this feature. Then you'll notice that both computers are on the same subnet. In other words, the IP addresses will be x.x.x.y and x.x.x.z, where the x'es are identical on both machines. If you check this now, you'll notice that the subnets are different, which is your problem.

[thevideojunkie]

Yes, that was exactly the problem. Thank you very much! Everything is working perfectly now.

[thevideojunkie]

Well, I've got the exact same problem again. My Apple Airport Base Station died, and I replaced it with a Motorola wireless router. It's upstairs where the Base Station was for best wireless coverage. It's wired to my Linksys router downstairs.

Obviously, both routers are assigning IPs, and I need to keep the Motorola unit from doing so. But I can't find a setting for that on any of the configuration screens. Am I overlooking it, or might it be called something else?

Thanks!

[aaanorton]

It should be called DHCP serving. Disable that.

[John Strung]

Also, do NOT connect the cable from the Airport Base Station to the WAN port of the Motorola router. It must be connected to the uplink port if there is one, otherwise to one of the numbered ports if they are autoMIDX.

[thevideojunkie]

Thanks, guys. Tried turning off DHCP on the Motorola router and after doing so I could no longer connect to the rotuer from reason. Reset would not restore to factory defaults as it should, and so I ended up returning it to Wal-Mart (I should be ashamed) and getting another one. Of course, I still have the problem as stated.

And to be clear, I no longer have an Apple Airport Base station. I'm now using the Motorola wireless router in place of the my deceased Base Station, but the original Linksys router is still in the network, too. Sounds like I have both units assigning IP addresses on the network and only one should. Maybe I'll get brave enough to try fooling with the Motorola settings again. Bless Wal-Mart's return policy if I get into trouble.

[John Strung]

Just make sure that you don't connect the LinkSys to the Motorola's WAN port.

[chris v]

Originally posted by aaanorton:
You've probably got both the Linksys and ABS set to distribute IPs. This is a no-no. Go into your Airport configs and disable this feature. Then you'll notice that both computers are on the same subnet. In other words, the IP addresses will be x.x.x.y and x.x.x.z, where the x'es are identical on both machines. If you check this now, you'll notice that the subnets are different, which is your problem.

A belated thanks again for that. Apple provides instructions for every type of set-up EXCEPT using an ABS with a wired router. It might have taken a while for this to occur to me if you hadn't posted this last year.

CV