Wireless in the Glasgow Commuter Flat (Champs-Frechets)

Connecting to the wireless network

First register your wireless cards MAC Address as described below. This only needs to be once.

Windows

There should be an option to scan the local area for networks. The wireless network you should connect to is entitled 'KelvinNet', it should appear as an unsecured network.

Linux

• Access Point Name: KelvinNet
• Spanning Tree Protocol: Disable
• Wireless Network Name (SSID): KelvinNet

It is set to broadcast the SSID such that a linux client will automatically pick it up following/sbin/ifup eth1

LINUX wireless settings are availale via: sbin/iwconfig

Register MAC Address

The network switch is protected. The MAC address of your wireless card must be registered before you can access the network through it. The first step of the process is determining what the MAC address of your wireless card is. A MAC address is typically 12 characters long and separated into pairs by hyphens e.g: 00-12-CB-7C-C7-81. You will have a MAC address for both your wireless card and the ethernet card in your laptop.

To find both addresses from LINUX simply connect your wireless card and from a terminal issue:

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | grep HW
/sbin/ifconfig eth1 | grep HW

From WINDOWS you will need to open a command prompt via:

Start->Run->cmd
ipconfig /all

This gives rather a lot of information but the two MAC addresses you require should be found (often after the title 'Physical Address').

Having found out the MAC address for your wireless and wired card you now need to enter them into the switch. The same procedure described below can be applied in the case that the router needs to be modified, for change of passwords etc.

The router has 4 ethernet ports (hard connections) for LINUX/Windows users. There is no need to register your MAC address if you wish to use these.

Having found out the MAC address for your wireless card you now need to enter them into the router. The same procedure described below can be applied in the case that the router needs to be modified, for change of passwords etc.

The router has a nice web browser interface which may be found at http://192.168.1.1/. This can be accessed through the wireless connection however for new users it may be necessary to use a hard (ethernet) link between your computer and the switch (there are 4 ports at the back of the router). There should be a couple of patch cables in the flat by the router.

You will be prompted for a username and password to access the router's settings, you will find these written on a piece of paper attached to the router.

Once in the configuration page of the router you will need to access the menu that allows you to add your wireless MAC address to the list of authorised addresses. This can be navigated to via:

Expert Mode -> Configure -> Wireless -> Advanced Configuration Options -> Limit Wireless Access by MAC Address

You will be asked by the router to confirm that you want to 'Expert Mode' by clicking a button. Once you are at the list of MAC address choose 'Add', enter your MAC address and then 'Save Changes'. After doing this the router will reset itself, it can take a minute or so to come back on line. After this your laptop should be able to access the wireless network.

The internet connection itself is ADSL and is provided by Swisscom. The contract with Swisscom was obtained through the UK liason office at CERN.

Disclaimer/Any Advice Welcome

As physical access is required to the wireless router in order to configure it, and it is based in Meyrin, normal levels of network support for the system are not possible. Any advice on improvements to the system are welcome, however this may take considerable time to implement as it must wait for someone of sufficient expertise (and with free time) to be in Champs-Frechets.

-- AndrewPickford - 09 Mar 2009