Hello all,
I have a few general questions about Canopy AP/SM setups.
Are all of you:
Assigning public or private IP directly in SM or using DHCP to get/assign private/public IP address from pool?
I want to make my setup easy. I want to be able to have the same setup for the SM if it is connecting to a single PC or to a router. I also would like a setup that conserves my IPs.
Right now, I am using DHCP to assign private IP to SM and NAT on the SM. It works fine with either a lone PC or a router, but I have read that double-NAT (connecting a router to the SM) can cause problems. Is this setup advisable?
If the customer comes along with a router, I want them to be able to plug it in, run the wizard or whatever, and it works. (there are a LOT of people around here that shouldn’t even have computers - yet they buy a router and call to ask how to connect it).
Any suggestions?
One more question. Right now I have my APs in the same block of private IPs as my SM IP pool. APs are using 192.168.2.5-7, SMs get 192.168.2.10 and up. Do I need to change the SM IP pool to something different than the APs?
Thank you - learning as I go…
Hi there,
First off… welcome on board.
1) We assign private fixed IPs to the management interfaces for all radios (SMs, APs and BHs). The pubic IP given to subscribers is either fixed or dynamic depending on the level of service they buy from us. DHCP will be the most effective with a smaller pool of IPs.
2) Having an easy SM setup won’t be as easy as it looks (no pun intended)… basically the SM can act as a bridge (where the end router or PC gets the public IP) or a NAT device (where the SM gets the public IP and in turn assigns intrenal IPS to your clients’s network). If a client is connecting a router, I set my SM as a bridge. If he is connecting the SM directly to a switch or a PC, then I use NAT.
3) Double NAT can cause problems with certain applications.
4) The most stable firmware for the radios (in my opinion) is 7.3.6 for APs and SMs and 7.1.4 for BHs. The NAT on the SM will not work (software version 7.3.6) with certain applications such as VPN.
I use 172.31.x.x for my management IPS for ALL radios…
It is now recommended that you use the latest 8.2.2 firmware for all AP’s and SM’s across the board.
I personally recommend it. NAT is fixed lots of other features in a stable release.
NAT may be fixed, but the packet loss it generates definately makes 7.3.6 the one to stick with in my book.
I haven’t seen any packet loss on NAT and we’ve got lots of gamers and XBOX people running through NAT on 8.2.2 so YMMV…
Sterling,
Would you care to share your setup that works with XBOX? I’m still running 8.1.5.1 on all my gear.