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Forum Discussion

Sunday_Afternoo's avatar
Nov 24, 2011

Wireless network hosting webserver with private & public access

Hi everyone,

I am looking for advice on how to set up the following network scenario. This is for a standalone network, generally without internet access. There are 2 parts to my desired network:

Part 1:

A webserver connected to a secure wireless access point enabling approved clients to connect to the secure network & access the webserver. This part is easily done with a standard WAP. The secure clients can connect to the webserver either by server IP address or server host name.

Part 2:

A second wireless network allowing public clients to connect. I would like the public part of the network to be separated by a firewall from Part 1. I am thinking that this could be accomplished by a second WAP with a wired connection to the WAN input to the WAP in Part 1. The public clients can connect to the webserver if I forward port 80 on the Part 1 WAP. The public clients will need to know the public IP address of the WAN port of the Part 1 WAP.

Is there a way to associate a host name with the WAN port of the Part 1 WAP so that the public clients don't have to connect to the IP address?

The above scenario requires 2 wireless access points. Is there a way to accomplish the same with a single more sophisticated access point?

Thanks,
Sunday Afternoon

2 Replies

  • Use two networks cards in the server, two separate LANs one for the private network, one for the public - configure the server to act as a DHCP & proxy server and to issue it's own address as the default gateway - it will then respond to all web requests.