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  Asked: Jul 21 2005   5:14 PM GMT
  Asked by: zzegri

wireless access points DHCP and drive mapping


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Hello all,
I recently installed wireless access points in my organization. They are configured to set automatically via DHCP on a 2000 server machine. It seems to work fine. But when I map a drive on client laptops running XP Pro and set it to reconnect at logon the drive either mysteriously disappears or appears as a different letter and can't reconnect. What might be causing this and what can I do to fix this? Thanks. -Z.E.

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Last Answered: Jul 21 2005  5:40 PM GMT  by HumbleNetAdmin




Your access points probably should have static IP addresses assigned to them instead of dynamicaly assigned. DHCP assigned IP's expire after a period of time and then are reassigned, if the IP address of your WAP's changes they may become momentarily unavailable on the network and cause problems with clients with mapped drives that depend on the WAP for network access.
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jzacharias  |   Jul 22 2005  12:22PM GMT

The other problem with having DHCP on your AP is that you could give out addresses to rogue devices - or at worst be broadcasting your subnets to individuals who are fishing for this info. I would agree with zzegri and try to statically define your AP clients or pass-through your main DHCP server requests to the clients with some security reservations for wireless devices.

 

larrythethird  |   Jul 22 2005  1:01PM GMT

I don’t know what brand of APs you have, but when I did mine, they come up with a DCHP address, for discovery purposes, then we hard code the IP address in the AP. It’s much easier from an administrator’s standpoint anyway. I KNOW where and who the APs are. Most enterprise style wireless solutions should be controlled from one central point. The older method of configuring each AP is very unsecure and time consuming.

 

ve3ofa  |   Jul 22 2005  3:28PM GMT

How are you mapping to the drive?
machinenamedrive ??
127.0.01drive ?? (ip address)
xyz.comshareddrive ??

The drive letter should NEVER change.. the cannot reconnect could be in how its mapped.