802.11b is a replacement for wiring. By that, I mean that it has no impact on IP addressing. Wireless devices do not care whether they have static addresses or DHCP-delivered addresses.

I'm guessing that what's really happening in your home is:

1. Your G4 in the kitchen has an ethernet connection to your DSL modem (which is, in turn, connected to your phone line) and does either NAT or routing for other machines which run on the 802.11b side. I know jack about macs, though, so please forgive me if I am making an incorrect ASSumption here. I am guessing that you have residential DSL and are being assigned a single IP address for your home (either static or via DHCP--makes no difference to your inside net).

2. If your 802.11b machines are getting IPs assigned with DHCP, then a DHCP server is running somewhere on your ethernet segment. My guess is that it's on your G4 via some kind of nifty connection-sharing daemon.

3. You have corners of your house where the 802.11b coverage is not so hot, and you want to know whether plunking-down a BEFW11S4 somewhere will work for you.

4. You want to have a static address for your database server.


My recommendation would be:

1. Given that the BEFW11S4 has NAT built into it, I would use it in place of the G4.

2. If you can do this, I would move the DSL modem some place central in your home where you can access the phone line. If you have a single phone line for both voice and DSL, I would consider putting it near where the phone service comes into your house so that you can put a DSL filter in place immediately downstream of where your DSL modem is (thereby saving you from having to put DSL filters on each phone).

3. I would connect the BEFW11S4 to the DSL modem, and use it to NAT your DSL connection for the rest of the house. The BEFW11S4 should (hopefully) provide better 802.11b coverage in your house because it was designed to serve as an access point (rather than as an end node, like the card in your G4).

4. I would disable the DHCP server in the BEFW11S4 and run a DHCP server elsewhere on your network because the DHCPD in the BEFW11S4 does not support leases. This way, you could reserve a lease for your database server. Or, if you don't want to do that, there is nothing stopping you from assigning a static address to your database server on your in-home subnet.


Now, if you're happy with the physical layout that you have, and you don't want to move your G4 out of the kitchen:

1. If your existing 802.11b network is operating in adhoc mode, then your BEFW11S4 will not participate very nicely since it is likely only able to work well in infrastructure mode.

2. Set-up your BEFW11S4 someplace where you can take advantage of its built-in 4-port switch. Disable the routing/NAT functionality (or, just don't configure it), and definitely disable its internal DHCP server. The DHCP server in the BEFW11S4 is hardcoded to provide its own router address as the default gateway with any addresses it hands out.

3. Put your G4 into infrastructure mode and see if it can see the BEFW11S4.

4. Put your other machines into infrastructure mode and see if they can see the BEFW11S4.

At this point, you will have your G4 serving as a NAT/router for your DSL connection (and I'm guessing it's also your DHCP server). It will have it's own IP address.

The router in the BEFW11S4 will have its own IP address, but it will only be useful for when you need to connect to it for configuration (via a web browser). That address will play no other role in your network. This address, by the way, should conform to whatever subnet addressing your 802.11b currently uses. That is, your wireless machines are all on some subnet--make-up an address for your router that is on that subnet. But try to keep it out of the range of whatever IP addresses your DHCPD is handing-out.

Your access point will be an access point.

Your other (wireless) machines will participate in the 802.11b using the BEFW11S4 as their access point.

You should assign your database server a static IP address regardless of whether it attaches via 802.11b or 100Base-T.

The 802.11b in your house will look like one big, happy, ethernet segment. Wireless machines will come online, connect to your BEFW11S4, request an IP address via DHCP, get it, and happily chug along.

Your last question begs that I remind you that 802.11b devices, of themselves, do not care whether they are dynamically or statically configured. Wireless only replaces the wiring on the network. If something is routing, doing NAT, or handing-out addresses via DHCP, that has nothing to do with the 802.11b spec and should work just as well over a wired network.

I hope this helps.

Sorry about my bad assumptions.

You are right about the BEFW11S4 except for a minor technicality: The 4-port switch and the wireless are bridged. The WAN port is on the "other side" of its internal router.

I have one, and it never occurred to me to try to use it as a real router. So far as I can tell from the config screens, it does not work as one. That is, it only does NAT. I cannot seem to locate the CD with the documentation on it at the moment.

Of course, if you plugged your DSL connection into the LAN side of the BEFW11S4, it would essentially provide you with direct internet access on your wireless (that is, you would need to use the assigned IP addresses for any machines connecting on either the internal switch or the 802.11b).

The BEFW11S4 allows you to do inbound forwarding for a single host or to designate a host as a "DMZ" host (all incoming connections are forwarded to this host).

So far as the bandwidth goes, I wouldn't sweat it. I would bet that even the slowest wireless data rate on your wireless will be much higher than what your DSL gives you.

For security's sake, I would look into using the NAT on the router, running all your boxes on a private subnet, and exposing your services using either inbound forwarding port by port or by establishing a DMZ host (both options are under "Advanced" configuration). If your services are web and are running on different boxes, then you could use Apache mod_proxy in a reverse proxy configuration to provide a single view of all your web areas. Of course, if you're running other stuff, then pardon my assumption :-)

I just now tested the DMZ host configuration on my BEFW11S4, and it does forward connections to my laptop on the wireless. I tested with port 22 (ssh). It does not work with port 80, but I think that's because my provider blocks inbound connections on port 80.

Maybe you should forget about the DMZ host and the built-in router/NAT in the BEFW11S4 for now. Can you get the Airport card in your G4 to talk to the Linksys?

One other thing: I cannot test it right now, but it looks like you can set the BEFW11S4 to operate as a router rather than a gateway on the "Dynamic Routing" tab in the configuration utility.

[link|ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/manuals/befw11s4_ug.pdf|ftp://ftp.linksys.co...s/befw11s4_ug.pdf]

Deactivate the DHCP server in the ActionTec.

Connect the WAN port on the Linksys to the ActionTec (with crossover cable if need be). Assign one of your real static IP addresses to the WAN interface (on the Setup page).

Configure the Linksys with a non-routable address on its "internal" interface in the "LAN IP Address" field on the Setup page.

Put the Linksys back into gateway mode. Activate its DHCP server and assign it a block of addresses to dispense on your non-routable subnet.

Connect the uplink port on the LAN side of your Linksys to the ActionTec (like it is now).

Keep your G4 configuration the same as it is now.

What this does is give you two different subnets on what is effectively a single ethernet segment. The static IP information on your G4 makes it participate in the subnet that your DSL provides. The DHCP addresses dispensed by the Linksys will put your laptops and other wireless machines on the non-routable subnet. If you want to put another machine on the internet, just configure it to be on the public subnet like you did with the G4.

I am guessing that your Oracle server does not have wireless. This configuration does not give your Oracle machine internet access.

Your "theory" matches my reality. I have a BEFW11S4, and the LAN and wireless are bridged. My BEFW11S4 has an address of 192.168.0.2. I have a FreeBSD box at 192.168.0.1 on the LAN side which serves DHCP in the 192.168.0.40-192.168.0.70 range. One machine, with a lease, is connected on the LAN side. The other machines are a mix of laptops and my wife's work-issued WinCE handheld. All of these machines are on the same subnet (whether on LAN or wireless) and see 192.168.0.2 (the BEFW11S4) without a problem.

Would it be possible to power-down your G4 and see if you can get another machine to associate with your BEFW11S4? I haven't a clue what you were using on your G4 to provide access to the other wireless machines, but I suspect that whatever it is is causing the weirdness. Perhaps it's serving DHCP?

Also, if you're using Windows and you get the 169.254.x.x address again, please try a release/renew cycle. In my [limited] experience, Windows will try to continue to use the last address it was issued if it cannot get a new one via DHCP at startup.

I think your first step would be to make sure that your wireless clients are associating with the 802.11b net that your BEFW11S4 is providing. The wireless card status monitors on your clients should tell you what ESSID they are associated with.

BTW, the answers to your questions about the G4 config should be:

IP: 192.168.1.2
Router: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

If it's connecting to the BEFW11S4's wireless net, then you should be able to ping 192.168.1.1.

Also, have you looked at the LEDs on the far left of the BEFW11S4? They indicate wireless activity.