Home Forums Discussions Problems wireless configuration

I have always had a fully "wired" configuration in my office network ( no laptops, etc), and I use a "main computer" as my server (AC 8.2.4). I would like to begin a trial run using a laptop, but would need to know how to configure things so that my wireless laptop can somehow "join" the wired network, in order to access the main computer where the database is. I'm sure this may have been covered in previous threads , so if so, please feel free to direct me to that link.

I do have a wireless router in the office, which I use for Wifi for my ipad and iPhone, as well as a Guest Wifi Network.
Current config is:

Comcast Cable Modem/Router (I have three computers plugged directly into the LAN ports in the router) ----> Netgear 5 port switch (where other computers are plugged in, together with a cable coming from the cable modem/router) -----> Netgear Wireless Router (one cable from the switch plugged into its internet port). All the LAN ports on the wireless router are empty.

Any help is appreciated.

Well to start with Amazing charts does not support a wireless configuration, because of possible database corruption, also I don't believe it is HIPPA compliant.

In saying all of that if you are right on top of the wireless router it might work ok. Notice I said might. If you have your standard wireless connection with average wireless computer you will fine it to be slow compared to being connected by a 100 meg or a gigabit wired connection. I have people that do it but complain that they get disconnected from the server. I have a ton of info on this if you want it. Just let me know

Ac does not recommend a wireless connection, but it will work. Setting up your laptop is similar to the ipad or iPhone.

If your Comcast is similar to mine, it has one (or two 2.5 and 5GHz) wireless networks for the office and a guest line. Hopefully you have WPA2 encryption with a complex password. Once you log in you can connect to the server as you would any other computer. You will probably need to put the the appropriate passwords for this to occur.

You may have significant degradation in speed by going wireless. Perhaps not if you are close and running N or AC on both the router and laptop. But it can be done.

One other thought is to get at least a 14 inch matte screen chromebook, and with VNC veiwer made for chrome 256 bit encryption for business us is dual monitored support. can connect with your desktop and turn the chromebook into a virtual desktop and if you want to have a bit more complexity HDMI cord it to a large tV screen at least 24 inches and mirror what you are doing on to your patient in the exam room. Works great turning the EHR into an educational tool and secondarily the patient can help document/verify as you input data together such as med reconciliation or updating past history etc.

I have been doing this for over one and a half years now & have generated some interest, will be periscoping and interviewing a patient and their perspective later this week so if interested will be more info on my twitter site & call it #ProjectedEHR approach--thanks!

Thanks everyone for your prompt responses.

My main issue is that when I connect my laptop to my Wifi Network, I am unable to see any of the computers in my wired network. I even went as far as connecting the laptop to one of the Ethernet ports in the wall and I still was unable to see the computers listed in my Network Places. Not sure how to correct this. Maybe a change in the configuration I described above might work?

Either way, maybe Wifi is not the way to go based on the answers above.....

Jimmie your concept seems interesting... thank u

Thank you Luis and I do have a couple of you tube videos I converted from periscope recently and a you tube video AC helped me make about a year ago, so if interested let me know & can share the links. I hope you get it figured out.

READ MY POST BELOW FIRST RATHER THAN THIS ONE. THE ONE THAT SAYS "READ FIRST"


First, for me, that was confusing. So, let me see if I can simplify it some:

Modem/Router -- clients on LAN ports
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-- 5-port switch -- clients
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-- Wireless router -- wireless devices

While the topography should work, I would have simplified things and not attached any computers to the modem/router but attached them all to a larger switch. Just my preference.

My guess is it will be in your network settings. You left out some information, so I will assume/ask. First, can your iPad access the network? If not, why not. It is on the same wireless connection.

Are you using DHCP or Static. Best practices would say to use DHCP. So, your modem/router will be your DHCP server for your wired network and give out IPs on a certain subnet: 192.168.10.x. Your wireless router should give out your IPs and network settings to all of your wireless devices. So DHCP should be turned on and be giving out IPs in the same subnet but in a different portion of the scope. This should allow you to be on the network.

It would be really helpful to do go to a command prompt for any of the wired computers (may as well use your main computer) and do an ipconfig /all and copy and paste it here.

Then do an ipconfig /all on your laptop and see what the settings are and paste them here.

Can you ping the main computer. Do you have network discovery for files, etc. turned on? Can you access the Internet from your laptop?
______

Yes, wireless is slower. Wouldn't worry too much about HIPAA.

AGAIN, READ THE POST BELOW FIRST

Likely your problem is that you are using the wireless router as a wireless router and not as a Wireless Access Point or WAP. Take the router and connect it via Ethernet to any computer. Remote into it using a browser and its default gateway (likely 192.168.1.1) and username and password (likely admin admin or admin password or whatever). You should be able to Google it. Once in it, see if there is a setting to make it a WAP thereby bypassing DHCP and firewall.

If it does not have this then try setting up DHCP to give it a separate subnet with it connect via LAN or same subnet.

Sorry for the different info. It's difficult without remoting in or being there. But, it is likely that the wireless router is giving out IPs and they are conflicting with the network IPs, plus you have a firewall, which is doing its job. Turn that off. You already have one.

When you plug the laptop directly to the Ethernet jack, make sure you either reboot to allow it to get a new IP or go to command prompt and type ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew. When you are connecting it to the wall, the laptop may be retaining the wrong IP settings it received from the router.

We really need to know what is giving out DHCP, default gateways, settings, etc.

I would second Bert about the settings. If your laptop sees the network as public, it will not see the other computers. Make sure it is set to private or work.

Secondly, make sure you are connected to the right wifi. Comcast has both a public and a private wifi. If you are connecting public you will not see the system.

READ FIRST

I find two problems upon re-reading your post. First, you are using your wireless router as a wireless router rather than a WAP. It can be converted to a WAP by disabling all of the things that make is a rotuer, i.e. DHCP, etc.

The other thing, which I have quoted below is that your have your "wireless router" connected to your switch or router by the Internet port. This should be LAN to LAN or the router will act as a firewall. You would likely be better off (although not completely necessary) to plug the WAP directly to your router using one of its LAN ports. You could free one up by removing on of the client computers from one of the LAN ports and connecting to the switch. The URL below will walk you step-by-step through converting the wireless router into a WAP. Alternatively:

1. You could purchase a WAP. This, however, is unnecessary.
2. You could purchase a wireless router which has LAN ports, which you already have and use it by connecting it directly to your modem and turn off the router portion.

Personally, I don't like using a combination modem/router and would rather have a modem from Comcast and then use a separate router. But, this would simplify things tremendously as the settings allowing IP, subnet and default gateway and DNS settings to your wired network would also send these out to your wireless devices.

It wasn't clear to me when you said you had a wireless router connecting to an iPad, etc. if this was separate. This MAY be a huge problem since it is giving out IP addresses to your devices and could also be giving out IPs to your laptop. Again, you can do an ipconfig on your laptop and make sure it is on the same subnet as your wired network and that your IP does not conflict with any IP on the wired clients.


http://www.speedguide.net/articles/how-to-set-a-wireless-router-as-an-access-point-2556

My phone and iPad can connect to Wifi without difficulty, and it is indeed a private , secured network (WPA-2, password protected, etc).
- not sure about the DHCP thing. However, I do know that the devices assigned to the Wifi network have IP's of 192.xxxxx, and the wired PC's are all 10.xxxxxx. Might that be at the root of the problem?
Haven't tried converting router to WAP function... Can try that and see also...

As always, thanks for your input

That is the problem. subnets can only see same subnets. PM if you want me to remote in to your network tomorrow night.

The only way that gets fixed easily is changing your wireless private IP range. The other choice requires a router that can route between networks, and that is a cost and complexity that most practices don't want or need.

That all seems needlessly complex.
I plug a wireless access point -- just a cheap TrendNet -- into my router on a cable long enough to get near the exam rooms.
Then I remote to my wired desktop in my office for portability, going from exam room to exam room.

There is minimal degradation of speed that way, all the main connection and processing is done by the desktop -- and with WPA-2 it is about as secure as the Federal Government seems to be. I guess Social Security got hacked.

Yes, if all he needed to do was extend an existing wireless, that would be easy. But, his configuration is/was set up so the wireless devices may have Internet but couldn't see the network.

He essentially can make a WAP from the wireless router (which is what the article was referring to) by changing it from a router to a simple WAP. Still needs the right configuration.

Hopefully, we will hear back and see what his progress is.

Still, Bert, it seems like needless complexity -- I'm sure it can be done, but it is likely to fail when you need it most.
Depends on who needs to use the internet -- but the simplest thing would be just to get a second internet channel if they really have to be separated.
Anybody's cell phone can be wireless hot spot for the clinic staff.

Why not just plug an access point into the empty LAN sockets on his router for the laptop to get onto his network?

I see your point, but I think we are reading the question differently. If he had posted his ipconfigs here like I requested, I think we could see where the problem is. It isn't about simplicity, hell I looked up some WAPs on NewEgg for him. He just has no wireless, is configuring it and is doing it incorrectly.

You can.

But, if his network is

192.168.1.100
255.255.255.0
192.168.1.1

but his router is

192.168.16.12
255.255.255.0
192.168.16.1

then he will have connectivity issues. The router is giving him IPs, but it is set to give him the wrong ones or they are conflicting.

Well yes, but he has his office LAN on 192.168.1.xxx
and the wireless part of the router is on a different LAN on 192.168.16.xxx so that the public can use his wireless in the office to play games with no access to his server and office LAN.

The extra ports on the router (there are two left) are 192.168.1.xxx -- and if DHCP is on, then all he has to do is plug in a wireless access point -- maybe $40 -- set the laptop to automatically get addresses, and the router takes care of all the rest.
We have two access points in our office -- the router configures them both. It is probably complicated to write all the code for that -- but easy for the end user.

Sorry guys, but have temporarily put the project on hold since (a) the laptop I was experimenting with is a very old Lenovo with Windows XP, and (b) it would have taken me a bit of research as to how to change the IP range of the router to match the range of the wired network, and I certainly don?t want to do anything that would mess up the wired network.

I will check back in (perhaps new thread) when I get a new laptop and start to play with it again.

Seems like the simplest solution would be AC in the Cloud....

Tom,

You are right except he is configuring it incorrectly. DNS or IP range or something. I know how to set it up and you do, but somehow he doesn't.

You should do cloud if your best solution is cloud not because your laptop is old. This is simple networking. Post your ipconfig or get some local help. I don't mean simple as you should know it, just don't give up.

O man, you guys are making this too complicated. Trying to use the router is making this unnecessarily complicated. Your comcast modem/router is your current router and more than likely already has WiFi on it. Comcast usually uses a ridiculous name like CBCI-XXXX-2.4. That's your network.

But, like I mentioned earlier, all unnecessary since the Comcast has its own WiFi. If you haven't changed the admin password, you can go to http://10.1.10.1. Username is usually cusadmin and pw is highspeed.

Direct link to WiFi config if Comcast Biz: (set the wifi PW here)

For future reference, Bert is right about disabling DHCP to use the router as an access point. The first step is to set the router IP within range of your current range. E.g. 10.XXXXX, then disable DHCP. This turns the router into an access point. The trick that gets most people is that you can't use the WAN/Modem port, you have to use one of the 4 switch ports to connect it to the other router.

There is of course another option which is to just buy a dedicated access point. As low as $20 and save the headache especially if you're just testing it. I would go with Ubiquiti if it's for production usage.
http://amzn.to/1MIuKOC

If the Comcast is wireless, totally agreed.

I suppose we are all right.

I like to make things complicated.

But...he did mention that when he connects the laptop directly to an Ethernet jack, it doesn't see the network. Which leads me to beleive it received erroneous settings earlier and has never been rebooted or received a ipconfig /release command.

Old thread, I know. We recently switched to having all our computers running Windows 10, and immediately noticed that networked computers with shared directories would sometimes show up in the Windows Networked devices area, sometimes not. I tried setting static IPs for all computers, first by individual machine (and that was a pain when trying to connect to other wifi routers), and then via the router settings, which supposedly still permits DHCP assignment on other routers (presumably with different gateway addresses, but who knows?). In any case, I found that unless we used DHCP with dynamic LAN addresses on our office router, Amazing Charts was not reliable, and would often fail to find the main computer. Is this a known issue? We're using AC version 8.3 (but that's another story). Thanks, Kurt

I know I sound like a broken record, but can you give more detail as to the network and server, active directory/domain or a different setup. Most server's DHCP servers can give out IPs and reserve them so you get the best of both worlds. Can you routers do reservations? Of course, the SQL machine should be static, although that can be with a reservation also. Are you connecting to the sever with name or IP?

Thanks, Bert. I think I figured it out. It seems that something underlying ACv8.3 (perhaps one of its installed dependencies) is of a vintage that doesn't play nicely with recent versions of Win10. It would have to be in the networking components, as the AC app itself runs fine on Win10. But bring it online with other computers in the network, and all hell breaks loose. I went back to using another "main" computer running AC 8.3 on Win7, and everything is fine once more; the networked computers are even more likely to show up in the "networked devices" panel of the other computers,i.e. those which are currently running Win10.
So, rather than stir the hornets nest, I'll simply make sure I always have at least 2 good PCs with 8 or 16GB RAM that can run Win7.

Glad you got it fixed, but I would rather you have said, "You were right. It was a DNS issue with two conflicting IPs and I had the wrong subnet in my router." You know, make me look good, lol.

Ha! No, for once, I actually now understand what you are saying, as I was forced to do enough research and study to try and figure out a way around our problem. Yes, I did try both setting static IPs on the individual computers, and when that didn't work (with AC), I tried the router reservation attached to MAC addresses (always being careful to restrict the DHCP slots to those outside of the reserved range). AC still wasn't satisfied, and kept "forgetting" and losing the connection to the main PC, despite my typing the exact numerical IP address path to the AC db into each computer.

Finally (we had to get our medical work done!), I replaced the Win10 main PC with the Win7 PC and all was suddenly well and calm, as if a Rossini-like thunderstorm had passed!

Yes, for a small business, the fastest, least problematic solution is often to Back-Upgrade to Win7.