Network setup...

[MultimediaMan]

LOL! and yes, you will learn how to type one-handed and sleep without REM.

[Paddy]

hmm... that solved the issue of orange connecting to red. However, the webserver still wont send (SMTP) or recieve (POP3) mail...

I am sure this was working after the smoothwall box, but I may be mistaken.
I have updated the DNS settings in Merak Mail Server.

I wonder if this is a firewall issue...

[Paddy]

I guess the true test would be to connect the server to green and see if it works...

[Chucky Cheese]

...very nice layout paddy! did you pull all that cable into an existing house or is this a "pre wired" new house...just curious?

i have some questions and observations on your setup...

the smooth wall router/pc has 3 nics?

is the 24 port switch a "managed switch"?

by the diagram you have 3 gateways (.0.1-isp, .1.1-orange and .2.1-green)

i don't know anything about smoothwall but it sure looks like a smoothwall setting problem

good luck

cc

[Paddy]

Did the wiring myself. Fairly easy job to do. Getting the cable to the garage was a PITA as I did it in phases... When it's working (and tidy) I'll post pics.

[Paddy]

The mail server wasn't saving the new DNS settings. I reinstalled it and it works perfectly

[Paddy]

I am getting intermittant dropouts:

15:33:34 smoothwall PPP has gone down on ppp0
15:34:00 smoothwall Connection not up after 1 minutes.
15:35:00 smoothwall Connection not up after 2 minutes.
15:35:10 smoothwall PPP has gone up on ppp0

It's happening once or twice a day. How could I investigate this further, or is this normal for ADSL?

[Wombat]

It may be normal. When I had DSL, my DHCP lease was very short, and they didn't always extend it. I could end up with 2 or 3 IPs in a day, even though the computer was always on.

[Paddy]

I don't use DHCP with my isp...

[Paddy]

it's been constantly up for 48hours now. I seem to be dropping the ADSL line for a few seconds every other day... Cant argue with that I guess. I imagine that if there were a problem at my end, i'd have problems a lot more frequently.

[Whirl-Secret]

They do it deliberately to mess up any servers you may be running. Even with a static IP they will cut you off for a few seconds here and there just to throw any client connections off. Fairly standard stuff although it's a bit cheeky to do it in working hours like that imho (you could be connected to an office vpn, for instance).

[Paddy]

right...

I bought a WMP54GS to go with my WRT54G (modded to support S) from ebay. Unfortunatley when it arrived it turned out to be a WMP54G (note no S).
I contacted the seller and he gave me a hefty refund so I'd still like to use it.

However my network transfer speeds are pants despite increasing the power to the router to 100%. I am connected at 54Mbps but am utilising around 35% of the connection.

I only have one WiFi router and one NIC. The signal strength is reported as very good.

Any thoughts?

I dont want to have to wire another RJ45 point in this room so I'd like a solution to hold me untill the 'N' standard is available.

[Dr Mordrid]

I don't use the Linksys utility in XP. Windows Wireless Zero Config + a manual install of just the laptops PC card driver works better on the old laptop (DELL 1g P-III + WPC54GS v2), though some older Linksys adapters won't work with it.

When copying a large video file (3+ gigs) I see wireless network utilizations that peak at 80% and are always over 55-60%. Connection reports at 54 mbps.

The WZC service isn't started by default, you have to start it. To start WZC open the Control Panel/Administrative Tools then doubleclick on Services. Next scroll down to Wireless Zero Configuration, right click on it and select Start from the menu. Now open its Properties and set its Startup Type to "Automatic" so it'll run at startup.

[MultimediaMan]

FYI: Wireless Zero is enabled by default as an automatically-started service in Windows XP SP2.

One thing I have found is that the WZ Service and the Linksys Utilities are miles apart when it comes to reporting signal strength. Most Linksys PCCARD wireless adapters use Broadcom chipsets; Broadcom does not release reference drivers to the public for any of their wireless products. If you are not averse to a little editing of a couple of INI files here and there, Dell has a couple of wireless card drivers which seem to be more current than the Linksys releases.

Your throughput is about right assuming you are using any sort of wireless encryption.

[Paddy]

Cheers Doc/MMM.

I am using encryption. I'll google the Dell drivers