Setting up - I just don't understand

[DavidNewark]

Hi from sunny South Africa.
Even though I have been in I.T. support for 19 years I just don't *exactly* understand your instructions for thr trial of Firstspot v4.0.13

I am desperate because I need soon to open a hot-spot and your product seems perfect from the description.

Please can I give you my simple example and perhaps you could point me in the right direction?

My firstspot "server" has 2 NICs in it.

1. Is Public and connects to the internet via a broadband router-modem
and a switch
DHCP coming from router 10.1.0.1 and DNS 168.95.1.1/202.96.134.133

2. Is private - going to D-link WAP which I will configure as you instruct

Please can you advise on correct IP setup

Thank you so much

Regards
David Newark
Johannesburg
South Africa

[alan]

1) Yes. Our Public Network Interface (i.e. Internet side) should connect to a router which lead to the Internet. Note that you need to set up the IP address correctly in Windows first before starting FirstSpot

2) For the Private Network Interface side (i.e. Hotspot side), just leave the setting as default. During FirstSpot startup, it will change the IP settings. And yes, you need to connect to the AP (make sure you use the LAN port but NOT the WAN port, also the DHCP within AP should be turned off).

Have you checked out chapter 2 & 4 of firstspot_guide.pdf? It should contain more explanation to the setup.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[DavidNewark]

you say (public side) "set up the IP address correctly in windows"... the PC is getting its IP address from DHCP off the router (your docs say it can be fixed or dhcp) there isn't any IP to be set up in windows. I have enabled the firstspot driver on the public side... what else do I do?

Thanks
David

[DavidNewark]

yes... I have read your manual many times... I don't understand it. Please help me

[snobee]

Hi David,
I am based in Somerset West (Cape Town). Drop me an email on snobeee@gmail.com if you want to chat. I am using two firstspot servers.

My general method of install was as follows:
1. Setup Windows Xp (one also ran ok on server 2003 during testing).
2. Setup both nics, no ip on the private/internal one, only on the gateway to internet or public interface.
3. Made sure the OFFLOADING setting was OFF on the private nic. This was important as I am using intel nics. There is a section, point 6 in the README of the FS version 4 about this. My nic has about 4 offloading settings... so I turned them all off.
4. Made sure the windows firewall and ICS was disabled in SERVICES. Restarted the server.
5. Made sure I could surf the web on the server.
6. Installed FS. Opened it and logged in. Closed it, and then added my license token.
7. Opened FS, made sure dhcp was set, and STARTED it just using the default settings.
8. Using a workstation on the private network, that was set for dhcp, it picked up the FS server first time and was able to get the FS login page.

Besides that, when it comes to getting things initially going, I didn't do really much. Though I must admit, initially looking at it, it was rather daunting and intimidating :)
The issue in 3 and 4 is very important as I spent ages messing around why my server was not working, and even reinstalled my first server as I thought my nic drivers were stuffed up at one stage. When I got the same problem with the reinstalled machine... I finally started reading the Readme! Hehe, would have saved a lot of time if I had done that in the first place :)

Thanks,
Kevin

[DavidNewark]

Thanks so much I will give it a bash!

[alan]

David, couple of points:
1) For the public side, the IP can be either fixed or dhcp. Again, you need to set the IP in Windows network properties (not FirstSpot)

2) Do NOT enabled the FirstHop driver for the Public side

Try to leave the setting as default initially will make the setup much easier.
_________________
~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[DavidNewark]

Great it works I can start testing now!