MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Hello, lovely geeks. I have a pretty basic question about a wireless system for laptops. One of my schools had a new set of wireless access points put in and I was left without even a scribbled note as a handover, and wireless isn't my strong suit. It's a netgear smartswitch and four access points. Using netstumbler, I can see the access points. The display shows them as being at subnet 10.92.142.154.0/24 That was from memory, so it may not be exactly right. I'm not sure what that means, or how I get at them. The laptops see the network as NETGEAR and I'd like to change it to something else. I've logged on to wireless access points on other networks, but I can't figure out what IP address they're at. Many thanks. Michele
kmount Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 To be honest, it would appear you'll need to do some serious detective work by manually pinging through the subnet until you find them... - Thats the easy bit! The next step will be working out what their password is! Once you've done that, its fairly straight forward to set the SSID to something other than Netgear. If they are just a set of 4 points individually configured points, it might be easier to factory reset them and start over...
MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 That's what I was afraid of . I've manually pinged all the places I thought they might be hiding, as there is an older wireless network in place and they've stuck to the adressing scheme. Nada. I'm not even sure I'm doing that correctly - how do you ping a subnet? I'm used to doing all the usual criminals like the laser printer, and I can ping the old access points. They haven't changed the password on admin - that much they told me. I did get a note saying "Tell your tech to finish configuring the network." Thanks. Michele
strawberry Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 are you on the same subnet as they are?. you will need to be for them to respond to a ping. Once you are yuo can use a program like "the dude" to automatically detect whats on your subnet.
kmount Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 "Tell your tech to finish......" - If they've left you to do the SSID and networking side of it, what did they do? Plug them in?
MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 I assume so - all the laptops have been using the new access points without any problem since they went in. How do I check, and how do I get myself there if I'm not? Up to this point, I've done a bit of troubleshooting on existing networks, or had backup that knew what to do. So it's time to learn wireless before the white wine gets to the rest of my brain cells! Michele
flashsnaps Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Theres a small pin prick reset button on some of the some of Netgear wireless access devices, which if you use - should reset it back to a factory default. Then you can configure if from scratch.
kmount Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Connect your own laptop to one of the wireless access points which will ensure you're in the right subnet.
MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 They came in and put four stations somewhere in the school. (I still haven't physically found two, but I would guess they are also eight feet up the wall near the new classrooms.) My handover was four empty boxes and the old switch lying on the computer suite floor, and verbal message left with the school receptionist for me to finish it. And a copy of the invoice. This is where white wine is one of my most important tools. Can someone just do a couple lines of Idiots Guides to What a Subnet is and How I get there? Everything IS working (more or less) and I'm loathe to reset anything just because I want to change the SSID name. I'm only at that school part time and my week is pretty fully booked. Michele
strawberry Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 connect to your network via a cable.Then set your computer ip to be 10.92.142.99 and the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 , then run the dude and see what it finds. because your computer is likely to be on a different subnet it wont know how to route to the new subnet unless you tell it where to look ( which is setting static routes and a bit overkill for this) so you just place your computer on the same subnet.
kmount Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Take the invoice, phone them and demand a proper handover of being informed of the locations, IP addressing and user credentials. To be honest, I'd be livid if a company pulled that with me.
MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 Hello Strawberry! That was exactly the sort of info I need. But one more thickie question - once I see what subnet I SHOULD be in, how do I set the laptop there? It's an ordinary RM school laptop on win 2000, and I have access to all the usual system management kit through the manager account. (A nice change - the network stuff is stripped off older systems.) The installation was abysmal, even by the standards of some of the goings-on I've seen in a small, broke primary school. Like splattering an access point with paint and putting built-in shelving in front of it, which was then filled with boxes of books. Having a sense of humour helps. Michele
petectid Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 As the previous post suggests phone them up and ask for the IP addresses, you can then log in and set your service set identifier. Why do you not phone them?
MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 I think the time has come for me to do that. I honestly thought that finding stations on a network was easier than it is, and I just didn't know how. This isn't the first time a sub-sub contractor has bunged stuff in and then scarpered. I thought maybe I was being a bit namby-pamby by demanding a handover! Thanks everyone. (But I'd still love to know how to set my own subnet....) Michele
strawberry Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 (edited) it will be in your network connections properties. If you can you can try right clicking on the network icon in the taskbar, open network conenctions, right hand mouse click, properties.roll down to tcp/ip then properties on that. Setting Up a Static IP Address in Windows XP The next problem will be finding the password out!. I'd speak to the company and ask them to provide the right documentation or do the install again. Edited June 30, 2008 by strawberry
MrsGrinch Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 Many thanks, Strawberry. That is exactly what I needed. I may even be able to sort this out now. Funny that you pointed me at Virginia Tech - I think I've used their stuff before. There were some useful bits in there. An ancient and battered laptop started complaining that it didn't have TCP/IP. I thought maybe it was beyond repair, but I'll have a go at re-installing. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off into the ether I go..... Many thanks, everyone. Michele
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