Accessing Drobo on a wireless network

[terry_ricketts]

[Moderator Note: Moved to Wireless Networking.]

I have a Drobo 5N that I have been doing backups to for several years. We just moved into a home that has a 'wireless only' network. All my other devices are able to connect; but the Drobo only has a wired ethernet port. I purchased a Cisco WET610N bridge in an attempt to connect the Drobo to the network.

So far the WET610N has connected to the wireless network and has gotten an IP address via DHCP. I can access the web page on the bridge from any computer and it reports that everything is fine. I did install the latest firmware update to the bridge and it reports that it has been updated.

I am assuming that the IP address should be passing data through the bridge to the Drobo. But whenever I try to access the Drobo there seems to be no connection.

Does anyone have an idea what is wrong here?

 

[jsmithepa]

The Drobo box itself needs an IP. I hope it works with a dynamic IP.

 

[terry_ricketts]

The Drobo used to get its IP from the router that was the hub of my network. Now the router is in the wireless access point mounted in the ceiling of my house. It has given out 10 IP addresses for the other wireless devices on the local LAN. One of them was given to the WET610N bridge. The manual for the bridge does not provide any information about what happens at its wired port.

I would guess that the bridge either has to generate a new IP for that port, or pass on the one from the wireless port. I don't believe the bridge is acting as a router (especially since it only has one port); So I suspect it is simply passing on the address it got from the router. Problem is I cannot see what is happening at the Drobo.

I will try an experiment. I will plug in a cable from my PC to the wired port of the bridge to see if it gets an IP address, and if so is it in the proper range for the wireless router.

 

[jsmithepa]

Is all on that bridge. If manual unclear I guess call their tech support.

 

[terry_ricketts]

I connected the PC to the wired port of the WET610N. Then I rebooted both the bridge and the PC. I had to use an IP scanner to look for the bridge again because it had gotten a different IP address. The bridge says it is connected to the wireless network when I connect with a web browser. When I use ipconfig on the PC it has the 169.250.x.x it has when no DHCP server has responded.

So it appears that the bridge is not passing through any requests or responses for an IP address. This is frustrating!

 

[jsmithepa]

You should repeat the experiment, and only AFTER you have verified bridge happy do you tell PC to: IPCONFIG /RENEW, see what happens.

 

[terry_ricketts]

OK., I first checked via my macbook air that the wireless bridge was happy. It had an IP address in the 10.2.2.x range, with a mask of 255.255.255.0. Then I plugged in a cable from my PC and turned it on. After it came up I tried ipconfig. The wireless connection on the PC also had an IP address in the 10..2.2.x range; but the ethernet adapter had the address 169.254.100.164, with a mask of 255.255.0.0.

I entered ipconfig /renew and the ethernet adapter kept the same address.

Just to be sure the wireless connection on the PC was not interfering I turned it off and then did the ipconfig /renew again. This time the ethernet adapter reported "unable to contact your DHCP server".

 

[jsmithepa]

The 169 IP is Windows' way of saying, I can't contact DHCP.

I have a sick feeling somewhere an static IP is needed, but in your particular situation, that's daunting.

If bridge's tech support is unable to shed light on this, I dunno where to go from here.