i was using IPCop and switched to IPFire recently. i kept all IP’s the same on both Green & Blue networks. Everything connects and works on both networks.
i am using a standard NIC for blue with the AP EDImax EW-7206APg for the wireless connections. i had it setup with a static IP, but when i try and access this from the browser it’s unavailable. Is there a way to find out its IP from somewhere?
I do not understand this sentence. You mean, you did set up a static IP in the firmware of the appliance? And you cannot connect to its internal web server when you try to connect from a browser in the green network? If yes to both, can you ping it from a computer in the green network? Also, can you ping it from IPFire (by opening a console access to IPFire)?
You may use a IP Scanner to find all devices on blue. You can run it from any device connected to blue.
Yes. The Blue IP is 10.1.0.1 for IPFire. i had the AP set to 10.1.0.10. So now when i try access it from the green network using a browswer that IP shows as destination unreachable. I cannot ping it from a computer on the green network.
i don’t know how to open a console access to IPFire to try and ping it
i’ll give that a try.
Ok. i ran Angry IP scanner on a laptop that was connected on the blue network and 10.1.0.10 showed active. So i tried access the AP from that laptop and i could access it!
So how can i access the AP from the green network? My other half uses the laptop and it’s not convienient to use it if i need to configure the AP.
Another thing I do not understand. Is the AP connected to IPFire on an ethernet port (assigned to Blue) different from the port assigned to green? Or it is the same port?
I guess your AP doesn’t allow acces from unknown networks (it does not know and trust green, it only knows blue). It’s the same with my APs. You should create a firewall rule with nat enabled from source green and destination your AP IP address.
@xperimental I have another hypothesis. Double NAT. IPFire has no idea how to route the machines connected to the access point because the DHCP server assigning those IP is not the one running on IPFire but on the AP.
No it’s the same with Network Switches. You still have a ARP table for blue with the information of the AP in it so IPfire knows the target.
i’ll give that a try. Although i could access the AP from the green network when i was using IPCop. It was a long time ago i had this all configured, so more than likely i forgot something.
Not if the AP acts like a router.
AP =/ router. They do not NAT. Otherwise DHCP wouldn’t work, except it runs its own DHCP. Of course some APs may be able to act like a router (just as mine) but this isn’t the standard configuration.
With direct acces or via SSH to IPFire you may run in the console
arp -a
You will get a list of all knows networks members for all networks and you should find your AP with its IP and MAC address.
maybe we are saying the same thing and I just did not realize it. Say that the IP address of the AP from the point of view of IPFire is 10.1.0.1. Say that @freddyhard connects his laptop to the AP and the DHCP of the AP gives to it 10.1.0.20. Does IPFire have in the ARP table 10.1.0.20? My hypothesis is that it does not. Only the AP knows how to route it. Now, if @freddyhard try to ping 10.1.0.20 from a green machine (say 10.1.1.25), those ping will go to IPFire, which in turn should send them to 10.1.0.1. However, does it? Again, I do not think so unless @freddyhard creates a static route where he puts as a gateway 10.1.0.1 for anything 10.1.0.0/24
Of course, I might very well be wrong. I barely understand those things.
i’ve tried a couple of different firewall rules with NAT options and i’m not getting access to the AP. What rules did you apply?
Actually while looking at the settings on the AP from a device on the blue network, i saw that the default gateway for the AP was set to 0.0.0.0
When i gave it the correct gateway, i can now access it from the green network.
But thanks Terry, running the IP scanner on a device on the blue network lead me to the solution.
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Looking through the thread shows the main problem.
Post #1 tells us that the AP has a static IP. That’s only half the job. A static IP is part of a static config, which consists of (IP, network mask, gateway ) basically. These parameters are sent by a DHCP server for a dynamic config.
Most of other posts discuss networking problems, without looking at the completeness of the config.
@cfusco and @xperimental : don’t want to blame you. This thread only shows me, that my sometimes ‘dumb’ questions may help.
@freddyhard , nice to hear you found your loss of information transfer and welcome to the world of IPFire. 
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I don’t aggree. I don’t need a gateway to run a network.
Ok. But the gateway makes life easier and doesn’t cost much.