[RndTbl] wireless basics

[Dan Martin]

Thanks John.

On 2012-01-22, at 8:32 AM, John Lange wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 9:44 PM, Sean Cody <sean at tinfoilhat.ca> wrote:
>> On 2012-01-21, at 7:22 PM, Dan Martin wrote:
>>> ... but you don't need a MAC address to route a frame to someone else?
> 
> If you put your wireless into "bridge" mode you're basically just
> disabling the router functions so it acts only as a switch. As a
> switch it will transparently "echo" (bridge) traffic from the wireless
> to the LAN and vice versa.
> 
> Most home routers are actually (at least) 3 devices in one, router,
> switch and wireless access point all managed from a single web
> interface, but inside they are still 3 separate network devices.
> 
> Your confusion comes from the fact that even in bridge mode it still
> has a NIC with a mac and an IP. This is just so it can have an IP
> address and be managed remotely but as far as the network is concerned
> it's just another end-point, not a "router".

Yes, I wondered why a MAC address was supplied but didn't show up anywhere, wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Since 2 MAC addresses are given, I assume the "Airport ID" is to manage the device over wireless, and the "Ethernet ID" is to manage it over wired.  Is the IP address mapped to both of these?

> 
> If you put your router back into "router" mode, it will still bridge
> traffic from the wireless to the LAN and therefore it will still not
> show up on a traceroute fromLAN to wireless (or LAN-to-LAN). However,
> it will show up on a traceroute from the LAN to the WAN.
> 
> Don't let the wireless confuse you. Just think of wireless as a
> replacement for wires. Instead of two RJ45 connectors, you have two
> radios. They are a bit more complicated to connect (SSID etc), but
> once the link between the two radios is established, the wireless
> "goes away". Just like with a physical network cable, once you plug it
> in and the "link" light comes on, you just forget about it.
> 
> John
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Dan Martin
GP Hospital Practitioner
Computer Scientist
ummar143 at shaw.ca
(204) 831-1746
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