On Saturday, March 15, 2003, at 04:17 PM, Eric D. wrote: > I have read that it is not possible to link Airport Base Stations to an > internet connection in anything but a star topology. > > This restriction makes me wonder whether it would be possible to > daisy-chain > base stations, whether they be Apple or 3rd party (11/54 Mbit), and to > have > *local* (i.e. non-internet) TCP/IP traffic "hop" between daisy chained > base > stations)?
TCP/IP networks tend to work best in star-topologies. in fact, unless you -really- know what you're doing, going with any other topology is probably a bad idea. in the end, all TCP/IP networks are stars, depending on your point-of-view. an airport base station doesn't have to be at the center of the star - you can use the base station as a "bridge". WiFi networks (including Airport) have a construct known as "active roaming". basically, if all the base stations are on the same subnet, and all have the same network name, the wifi/airport clients will just see the network as one big cloud, rather than as a few dozen base stations. each station is set up in the aforementioned bridge mode, and traffic into and out of each individual base station is unregulated. > My second question is -- would it be possible to have a server (http, > ftp, > etc) which is accessible either to the web, or to the WiFi WAN/LAN > with the > same IP/DN (accessible within the WiFinet whether or not the internet > connection was live... would this require the WiFinet to run its own > DNS?)? if you're running a cloud of base stations as described above, you'd probably need a more complex router above the base stations to provide these services. it's worth noting that a wireless network is nothing magical. anything you can do on a wired network, you can do on a wireless network. many things would not be advisable (like running servers) simply because bandwidth over a wireless network is much less than must wired networks. > And, I guess the 3rd question is, can you prevent TCP/IP requests to a > server (let's say http) from bridging my conception of a WiFinet and > the > internet, and vice-versa? i.e. traffic can reach the same http server > but > not use the server as a conduit to get onto either the WiFinet or > internet. your talking about a firewall. you'd just need to be explicit in your forwarding and blocking rules. IP traffic doesn't really bridge from one node to another... unless that node is specifically configured to bridge. in english: if a client can access the http server on machine #1, that has nothing to do with whether they can access the ftp server on machine #2 (or, for that matter, on machine #1, if you're smart about your firewall rules). > I am trying to develop a conceptual framework for my own personal > network > and am trying to assess how scalable it could be (e.g. a WiFi > "internet" > only accessible to, and relevant to our neighbourhood community and > businesses, but one in which individual players can access the wider > internet as they need without providing free internet access to all). > > PS I claim ownership over this idea... you can use it, just give me > credit > (unless someone else already dreamt it up) (it popped into my head last > night since I'm trying to figure out whether I should get our Lombard > and > Pismo and a few other WinDOSe computers in the same house (other > people) > wirelessly networked, and hooked up to the internet... I have a few > other > ideas that are only peripherally related to my WiFi problems, but I'll > try > to flesh them out into a more articulate story eventually). your idea isn't anywhere near unique, unfortunately. :) what you describe is actually a building block of how the internet at large works, whether wired or wireless. find a networking book and read up on subnets and firewalls. -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
