User's Manual

10 Wireless Access Point User Guide
IP Address Planning
You should plan out your IP addressing scheme prior to deployment. You
will need several ranges of IP addresses. All of these IP addresses are in
addition to the management IP address (aka mesh IP address) assigned to
your Firetide mesh network.
In general, you may assign AP IP addresses independently of the IP ad-
dressing scheme you use for the Firetide mesh. The only constraint on AP IP
address assignment is that the IP addresses must be routable within your
overall IP addressing scheme.
AP Management IP Address - this is the IP address assigned to the physi-
cal access point, and is used for management purposes. An AP is capable
of acquiring this address from a DHCP server, or it may be manually as-
signed. This address must be reachable from the HotView management
workstation.
VAP Management / DHCP Server IP Address - Each VAP requires an IP
address. It is used for NAT, if enabled, and for DHCP, if the AP is configured
to assign IP addresses to clients. It must be different from the AP Manage-
ment IP address. Note that each AP can be a member of as many as 16 VAP
Groups.
DHCP Address Range - this is the pool of addresses available to be as-
signed to wireless clients.
It is permissible for an AP to acquire its AP Management address via DHCP,
yet also serve DHCP addresses to clients. The addresses do not need to be
on the same subnet, but all must be routable over the enterprise LAN.
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Software Installation
If you are installing a new Firetide-based wireless network, begin by in-
stalling the HotPort Mesh nodes, and the HotView or HotView Pro mesh
management software, before installing any HotPoint APs. Refer to the
documentation supplied with those products for details.
If you are adding HotPoint APs to an existing network, begin by upgrading
the existing mesh nodes to version 3.4.X.X or later. Use your existing ver-
sion of HotView to upgrade all mesh nodes, then use HotView 3.4.X.X to
configure HotPoint APs.
Basic Setup Sequence
Several steps are involved in configuring a HotPoint AP. These steps are
summarized here, then shown in detail in the following pages.
Assign a management IP address to each AP. This address should be reach-
able from the computer running HotView. It does not need to be on the
same subnet as the management address of the Firetide mesh.
Log in to the AP.
Set the Country Code.
Rename the AP. A name based on the AP’s location is a good choice.
Set the radio settings (channel, etc) for each physical AP.
Repeat these steps for all access points. Then:
Create one or more VAP Groups, using the VAP Group Configuration com-
mand. You must have at least one group, even if you only have one AP.
Use the VAP Configuration command to configure those VAP features
which are controlled per physical AP. (DHCP, DNS, NAT)
Use the VAP Group configuration command to assign the SSID, security,
and other features for the entire VAP group.
Use the AP Group command to group all of APs into a managment group.
(This is not necessary if you only have one AP. Also, you can create more
than one group if you require multiple management domains, but it most
cases this is not required.)
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