thescullster wrote:
Hi all

OK so this is maybe a bit OT for the group, but here goes.

I've never been a fan of wireless, so cabled the house up with Cat 5 to a
number of rooms. There are clearly now numerous devices that will only
connect wirelessly and I am under pressure to add a WAP.

I've inherited a Netgear DG834G
[snip].

Anyone setup a separate wired and wireless network?

OK, we'll I have to confess that I loathe Netgear WiFi. It always seems
flakey and unreliable. The last Netgear WIFi router that I owned went back
for a refund because it dropped the link to any device after a few minutes
of use.

What you want to do can be done, but not AFAIK using that Netgear router
which is an all in one design with DNS and DHCP shared between LAN and
WiFi.

With a separate wireless access point you have two main options, to use The
WAP as a router or as a bridge. I think the Netgear that you have only
supports bridge mode and all WIFI clients must be in the same address range
as the LAN.

With a separate WAP you can configure it as a router with its own DHCP and
DNS. All your WiFi clients can then be on a separate subnet and you route
to your existing LAN using NTP. This protects your WiFi clients from your
LAN to an extent but does not protect your LAN from the WiFI clients.

Having tried lots of these things I strongly recommend Apple's Airport
Express They cost about the same as the competition, are really well made
and provide two setup modes. A basic chimp mode that jets any idiot get it
working and an advanced user admin interface that is vastly superior to the
Netgear tat.

It will also support network printing and you can use it as a media
streaming box for your hifi. It has an optical and analogue output.

I would stay with or revert to your non-wifi router and run to Apple or PC
World or browse eBay to buy an airport express. Then set up the airport
express in router mode.

--
€¢DarWin|
_/ _/