Network Setup of Antamedia Hotspot Software

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pvh

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#75463 18-Jan-2011 20:06

I have been attempting to setup Antamedia Software at home on my network for two reasons:

(1) A way of limited my teenages from using all my broadband;
(2) We have a cafe and want to offer free internet while we are open (7.00am to 4.00pm)

I have attached the network diagram for my home (so far) and would like some help getting it going. I have a half an idea about network settings and how "ip" addresses work (or should work).

I have downloaded the latest version of Antamedia.

The host PC is a HP d530S with a P4 2.66MHz chip, 1G RAM, 80G harddisk and two ethernet cards installed. It has Windows XP installed with SP3 applied.

I have looked on the Antamedia site and downloaded the Network Topology 3 diagram but it says that the access point needs DCHP enabled which I have been informed is not right.

I have NOT installed the Antamedia DCHP software and DCHP is working on the primary modem/router attached to the internet.

Suggestions please:

What ip address should I allocate to the ethernet card connected to my Linksys Router?
What ip address should I allocate to the ethernet card connected to the Belkin access point?
What ip address should I allocate to the access point?
Should I have dchp enabled on teh access point?
On what ethernet card should I have Internet Connection Sharing on?

That to me is the starting point and we will see what happens....

[Net: Moved to correct area]

Zeon

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#428638 18-Jan-2011 22:40

Here is his Network Diagram:

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Zeon

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#428640 18-Jan-2011 22:44

You don't need to change your Linksys at all. One thing you may want to consider is to give your Antamedia PC a static IP on the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet of say 192.168.1.5 and then set that as the DMZ address in the WAG200g otherwise you will double NAT.

With the Belkin, make sure you connect the LAN port on it to the ethernet card in the Compaq PC. Also make sure you disable DHCP on the Belkin. I must stress you need to use the LAN port. Now on the Compaq PC enable ICS (internet connection sharing) with the internet interface being the one which goes to the WAG200g and the local network the connection to the Belkin. ICS has a built in DHCP server so if you set the above up then Antamedia should be good to go.

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Nety

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#428671 19-Jan-2011 06:30

Zeon: [snip] Now on the Compaq PC enable ICS (internet connection sharing) with the internet interface being the one which goes to the WAG200g and the local network the connection to the Belkin. ICS has a built in DHCP server so if you set the above up then Antamedia should be good to go.

The Antamedia software looks after the connection routing/nating not Windows connection sharing so do NOT enable ICS. Can you tell us what happens when you try to connect to the wifi? Do you get an ip address? If so what is it? The connection to the linksys can just be on DHCP at this stage. Once it is going look at assigning it a static address.

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pvh

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#428686 19-Jan-2011 08:38

At work at the moment so I will try the non ICS suggestion first when i get home and report back. This will be somewhere between 7.00pm and 8.00pm

pvh

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#428832 19-Jan-2011 14:22

About the Belkin access point. The manual tells me that it sets the default ip address to 192.168.2.254 (which I will change) and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. It then tells me to connect the ethernet cable into the WAN port on the access point. Can I assume that I should do this and not use the LAN port as suggested?

Zeon

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#428836 19-Jan-2011 14:35

Oh didn't realize Antamedia had its own routing system.

With the belkin, if you use the WAN port then the Antamedia will only see a single NATed address for all the users who connect to it. So once one user logs in then Antamedia will see all other users as that single user. If you can disable NAT on the WAN port you can do use it however its easiest and best just to go with the LAN port.

Remember the Belkin should only be used as a wireless access point. Using the WAN port and in built DHCP server will turn it into a wireless router.

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pvh

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#428843 19-Jan-2011 14:48

The manual says that using the access point mode will defeat the NAT IP sharing feature and DHCP server so it should be all good to go using the WAN port.

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Zeon

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#428850 19-Jan-2011 15:01

pvh: The manual says that using the access point mode will defeat the NAT IP sharing feature and DHCP server so it should be all good to go using the WAN port.

But that's the whole point! If you use NAT on the Belkin then Antamedia will see all users who connect through the Belkin as a single user since they are all NATed to the WAN port address. If you do that then you will have 3 sets of NAT, one with the Linksys, one with the Antamedia PC and one with the Belkin and three sets of DHCP servers.

The manual for the Belkin is for when your trying to share an internet connection with clients directly attached to it and from that standpoint it is correct. What it is instructing you to do will stop Antamedia working end of story.

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raytaylor

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#428957 19-Jan-2011 20:55

Im going to speak in points

1- Antamedia is the worst hotspot software I have ever come across. I hate it with a passion and try to send motel / cafe owners to firstspot hotspot for a more reliable solution.
Now i have that said, i can continue

2- Program your DSL modem. If you happen to use a wireless dsl router modem, disable its wireless features. You want this modem to have an address 10.1.1.1, 255.0.0.0 and be issuing ip addresses to computers that plug into it. Test that you can get online by plugging in a computer then continue.

3- Setup a winxp pro pc with two network cards. Label 1 WAN and the other one LAN
Set the IP settings on both interfaces as all automatic

Plug the WAN network card into the modem and test that you can get online. Once online, open the network connections control panel and right click on the WAN interface > Properties and set it to be shared with the LAN connection. Apply, ok, test you are still online.

4- Check that the lan connection is set to 192.168.0.1 or something has been programmed into its tcp/ip settings other than 10.1.1.1. When you shared the WAN connection, windows should have programmed the 192.168.0.1 into the LAN connections properties.

Plug a computer into the LAN port on the gateway computer and test that it can get online with its ip settings as automatic. The XP machine should issue the slave machine an ip address and allow it to connect to the internet. Once online on both computers, contine

5- Use the slave machine to program a wireless access point. It could be an access point / switch and router all in one. If it is an all in one unit, then make sure you program it so that its DHCP settings are set to off so it does not try to issue the wrong settings to computers that plug into it.
Set the wireless security as you wish (open or unsecured usually for cafes / motels)
This unit should have the ip address 192.168.0.254 and subnet 255.255.255.0

6- If you have a wireless access point, connect it to the gateway pc via a network switching hub. You can plug other computers in at the same time and test they can get online. Check that the wireless is working also.

If you have a wireless router all-in-one, plug one of its LAN (not wan if it has one) ports into the LAN port of the gateway pc. Plug any extra computers into the LAN ports 2,3,4 of the all-in-one unit and test they can go online. Also test the wireless.

7- Proceed to install the antamedia software onto the gateway pc.
If using the awesome v1, it will use the windows ICS internet sharing that we enabled before automatically.
If using the new crappy v2, the setup wizard will ask you if you want to set up the connection sharing yourself - which we have done already so choose the manual option.

Make sure antamedia is working properly before activating it as they usually make you pay for a new license if you wish to reactivate, pc fails or you change a network card. I think the software activation is based on the windows install id and the mac addresses of your network cards.

8- print off tickets for your cafe patrons

Correction to above image - if the gateway pc assigns its lan network interface 192.168.0.1 then the all-in-one or wireless access point below it should be 192.168.0.254 - not 1.254 as in the picture.

Ok hopefully that helps. Its copied from a sheet i typed up for my boss a while ago when he was trying to sort out a bad antamedia installation at a motel.

As said above, you have to be careful about what the manual for the routers / AP's say because you have A SPECIAL AND VERY ODD UNCOMMON SETUP
This means that talking to telecom or your isp support is going to be different - they cannot tell you to reprogram things according to their script as they WILL BREAK YOUR SETUP

Also you must not have wireless enabled or any computers plugged into the head router at the very top as their traffic will not go thru the gateway pc and therefore not be counted against the users ticket.

The all-in-one below the gateway pc must also not have anything plugged into its WAN port if it has one. This will cause an extra layer or NAT and antamedia wont be able to tell the computers apart for individual ticket accounting. Use its LAN port number 1 to connect to the LAN port on the gateway pc.

Ray Taylor

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raytaylor

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#428964 19-Jan-2011 21:04

Oh also saw a mention of double natting

To get around this, you can assign the gateway pc's WAN interface the ip address of 10.1.1.2, 255.255.255.0, gateway 10.1.1.1 and dns 10.1.1.1
Then in the head router, you can set the DMZ (de militarized zone) to 10.1.1.2

That way the only layer of natting is the gateway pc itself.

Ray Taylor

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Shoes2468

785 posts

Ultimate Geek

#428977 19-Jan-2011 21:28

Hi there

Just a quick side note, have you set the iMac with a static IP address?, because if so your iMac's address is in your DHCP address pool range so unless you have set a reservation for that machine you may get an IP conflict if you get more than 5 devices wanting DHCP addresses. To resolve this problem you should set you iMac's address outside the DHCP Pool so anything from 192.168.1.61-192.168.1.254

pvh

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#429289 20-Jan-2011 18:34

The iMac gets its ip address from the router and its not a static ip address.

pvh

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#429305 20-Jan-2011 19:30

You guys are starting to get too complex for me!!!! (I'm an accountant so I'll work on one step at a time, get it working and then move on). I rebuilt the PC last night. I now have assigned the ethernet card conencted to the LinkSys an IP address of 192.168.1.2, submask of 255.255.255.0, a default gateway of 192.168.1.1 and the DNS's are the default DNS's from Snap. This part works and I can cruise the internet so all sweet on that side.

I am now going to install the software for the second ethernet card and get that up and going. This is the Access Point connection. I will set the Belkin as an access point but what IP address should I give the access point and ethernet card?

At this point I have not loaded Antamedia...as I thought it better to get the cards, access point and internet working then introduce the software....

By the way I also have PublicIP also but I can not get it to work either. No internet through Eth0 and it can not find Eth01....

raytaylor

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#429372 20-Jan-2011 22:11

Just go thru each of the steps above that i went through. If you run across any problems or have a question on how to do something, just ask and we can show you.

Ray Taylor

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