So, I’ve go the new ISP happily shoveling bits at my network. During the crossover to the New Boss, I changed the address space for my network–the old one was odd, and made some sense when I established it six years ago, but times change and I was ready to get into lockstep with the rest of the non-routable private-network world. For most of my network end-points it was simple, since they politely ask the DHCP service for an address when they need one. For certain items, though, I had given them addresses they’d held since the network started. Among the hard-coded; wireless access points. Getting two working units has proven to be far more of an adventure than I’d imagined.

One of the access points was easy, if time-consuming. An earlier version of this Cisco AP had to be kick-started a couple of times, but it came around and is now happily singing tunes from both the 802.11a and 802.11b songbooks. My other access point was and engineering sample from another vendor and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to reconfigure the thing. It’s at least five years old and has served well, so it’s time to let it put it’s little rubber feet up and rest. After all, how hard can it be to buy a new access point?

Pretty damned hard, as it turns out. If I wanted an wireless router, I could have my pick from shelves full at either Office Depot or Best Buy. The thing is, I don’t want a wireless router–I want an access point. I don’t want a pre-N or draft-N access point (though I may change my mind after I review a few), and I’d really like one that has both 802.11b/g and 802.11a. They simply can’t be found on any mass-merchant shelves. I suspect I’ll end up buying one of these Linksys units–even though it’s not the latest and greatest, it fits the bill and I’ve seen a similar AP at work in another network.

I know I’ve said this before: I understand that the network in my home/office is unusual. With that said, I can’t believe I’m the only person who wants a nice, simple access point. I’m thrilled with the way my current router/firewall setup is working, and I don’t want another device that thinks it should be doing the DHCP and NAT chores sitting in the mix. Sigh. I’ll look forward to reporting success later on.

Categories: Networking, Wireless