D-Link DWL-2100AP Multi-Ethernet Capability in AP Client Mode
Yeah, I know this has absolutely NOTHING to do with basses, let alone musical instruments, but this whole deal was irritating. I need to vent a little and share the fix I found so that others (hopefully) don't gnash their teeth as much as I did today. You can read my little tale of woe or you can cut to the chase.
I had a need to extend my network to my garage for the times that I do computer tech work out there. Dragging out a 100 ft. cable is a hassle for me and my family, and I really didn't want to pull a real cable through the attic. I probably should pull a real cable through the attic, but that's more of a pain than I care to go to right now. But I digress... I did my due diligence and found the D-Link DWL-2100AP. It's a small SoHo access point that can be configured as an AP client - just like a computer or some-such - except that you're supposed to be able to connect multiple devices to its Ethernet port via a switch. Sounds great, huh? Well, mostly great. The operative phrase is, "supposed to be able to" and that's about as far as it went.
Following the instructions, I configured the AP to run in client mode. Static IP address, set WPA encryption, and get it talking to our main access point, an Apple Airport. Life looked great. It's not particularly fast to restart, but I can deal with that. The machine I used to configure the AP worked just fine and I could get at all my local network resources and the Interwebs. DHCP IP addressing is from a server on the network. Then I hooked up another machine. Nothing. No connection. No DHCP address. I set a static address on the machine. It would not even PING the AP, let alone get anywhere beyond it. So I restarted the AP and this second machine came to life. Everything worked. But suspicious individual that I am, I tried the first PC and it was now network-dead. WTF?!
I hardware reset the AP and reconfigured, but it didn't help. Nothing in the manual was helpful except to clear say that I could connect Ethernet devices to the DWL-2100AP when in AP Client Mode. I couldn't find anything on the web that pointed to this specific problem, which turned out to be an issue with search criteria. So, thinking I had a defective unit, I bundled it up and returned it to the store for an exchange. Got the new one home and had the exact same problem.
More Internet searching ensued and I finally fell across a post in a wireless forum that descibed a fix. This fix involves using telnet to connect to the AP and some CLI commands. Note that the CLI command keywords are undocumented. Below is a screen capture of my telnet session from a machine running Ubuntu. The text in Courier Bold is what I typed in. Everything else is from the telnet session. Obviously, the IP address is specific to my system and the password is hidden. Replace as necessary with your specifics.
kbaker@KBC-Ubuntu81:~$ telnet 192.168.2.52
Trying 192.168.2.52...
Connected to 192.168.2.52.
Escape character is '^]'.
dlink_ap login: admin
Password: ********
Wireless Driver Rev 4.0.0.167
dlink_ap wlan1 -> set matstate 1
dlink_ap wlan1 -> get matstate
MAT: HomeAddress(AP's MAC), MultiEthClient(Yes)!
Current MAT: HomeAddress(Eth's MAC), MultiEthClient(No)!
dlink_ap wlan1 -> reboot
Rebooting AP...
Connection closed by foreign host.
kbaker@KBC-Ubuntu81:~$
Once the AP was restarted, I power cycled it and restarted the computers connected to it. All were able to successfully connect.
And on the off chance that I ever want to set at AP to a single Ethernet client, I'd enter set matstate 0. Somehow I doubt that I'll be doing that.