Adding a wireless router/ap to network

[starbunyip]

Greetings:
I have - desktop running Mint Isadora
TP-Link wireless router - cabled to my desktop
Xbox and Squeezebox wired to wireless router

Trying to get:
D-Link WIRELESS N POCKET ROUTER/AP - DAP-1350

We have a desktop in another room - and don't really want to run cables. We did have a laptop in there for about a week and it ran fine on the network. The laptop ran Windows xp.
We want to put a linux desktop in there.
1. Lights are on and going on the D-Link 1350
2. Works fine - with all the cables when plugged into Windows Laptop
3. The linux desktop can't seem to find it

I am wondering if there is a setting I am missing? I usually connect with AutoEtho.

There was no real setup with the windows laptop - some minor settings on a webpage browser - but the linux won't come up with that page.

Cheers
Lisa

[Aging Technogeek]

Is there a wireless card in the desktop you are trying to connect? Unlike newer laptops, not all desktop systems come with a wireless card installed from the manufacturer. If there is no wireless card, when you click on the Network Manager icon there will not be a listing of available networks and when you right click on the icon, there will be no option to enable wireless.

You can also open a terminal and run

Code: Select all

lspci

( lower case L, not number 1)

If there is an internal wireless card, it will be in the list.

If you have questions, post the lspci output here and we will check it out.

[starbunyip]

I very much doubt there is a wireless card - is that not the job of the wireless n router? it is cabled to the router.

lisa

[wayne128]

I do not have DAP1350 so I used my experience on router , AP, repeater etc to provide some answers.

From reading DAP1350 manual, this 3 in 1 can handle three functions
1. Wireless router
2. Wireless access point
3. Wireless client.

Since you already have a TP Link as the main wireless router, the easier way to set this up is second one, wireless access point. This involved a need of running an ethernet cable from TP Link's LAN port to the WAN port of the DAP1350. But this is not what you want.

You want to have your laptop and desktop in another room to access internet, without running an ethernet cable.
For this you would need to run DAP1350 as third function , that is wireless client. This means DAP1350 is a client to the main wireless router TP Link. When it is set up and run, the LAN port would access to TP Link by wireless .
There should be no difference between the windows or linux os , what they see is a LAN port.

You could follow the set up instruction on its manual here
http://207.150.194.182/resources/user_m ... Manual.pdf

Start from page 44, then follow their instruction to set mode selector to CL, do a wireless survey to pick up TP Link's wireless signal SSID, provide the password, and it should be done.

Section 3 - Configuration
Wireless Client Mode
Change the mode selector to CL on the device. Connect an Ethernet cable from the Ethernet port on the DAP-1350
to a computer for configuration.
If you wish to change the default settings or optimize
the performance of the DAP-1350, you may use the
web-based configuration utility.
To access the configuration utility, open a web browser
such as Internet Explorer and enter dlinkap or
192.168.0.50 in the address field.

hope this helps.

[starbunyip]

You want to have your laptop and desktop in another room to access internet, without running an ethernet cable.
For this you would need to run DAP1350 as third function , that is wireless client. This means DAP1350 is a client to the main wireless router TP Link. When it is set up and run, the LAN port would access to TP Link by wireless .
There should be no difference between the windows or linux os , what they see is a LAN port.


I could probably have been clearer.
Yes - what you said above is exactly what i am trying to do.
My desktop has an ethernet cable running to the DAP-1350 - which is on wireless client mode.

My laptop finds it easily - using either http://dlinkap or http://192.168.5.0 - so it is now set up fine. (The laptop uses windows xp - everything else I use is Linux)
Strangely - sometimes auto etho will say 'connection established' but no web pages load and the above - dklinkap or 192.168.5.0 will not load either.

This has me very puzzled - is there a terminal command that will tell me if the computer is seeing it at all? You can tell i am a complete novice. Thanks everyone so far.

Lisa

[wayne128]

this network manager tool should display your network details

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nm-tool