Trying to configure a hardware firewall with a wireless router

Question

I have a network with 5 PCs, 2 network printers, and one wireless handheld scanner. I was just running software firewalls but wanted to add a hardware firewall to up the security. I have no problems getting the network to work behind the firewall but I had to add a wireless router to allow the scanner to connect to the point of sale software.

The router is giving 10.0.0.x addresses while the firewall is using 192.168.0.x addresses. I tried hooking all of the wired connections to the router with the router connected to the firewall, but had no stability in the network. If I hook everything to the firewall I can't get the scanner to communicate with the WAN. How can I troubleshoot or fix this?

Answer 1

Normally you would have the router and the wireless device on the same network to avoid a more complex routing scenario. If thewireless device is a router, can you configure it to act as a wireless AP only and place all devices on the same network?

Unless you can figure a way with your hardware to route between the devices. Can you put both on the aame network, use ine Gateway and turn off DHCP on the wirelsss device. More info on the hardware may get a better answer.

I have made this work with some older Linksys and D-Link hardware.

Answer 2

Disable the NAT Gateway and DHCP Server functionality on your wireless router, to make it a simple wireless-to-wired bridge (that is, just a simple 802.11 AP).

If your wireless router doesn't let you disable those services, then just don't use its WAN port. Plug one of its LAN ports into your firewall, and then configure the DHCP service on the wireless router to have a zero-length range of IP addresses, so that everything still has to get its DHCP lease from the box you're calling your firewall.