Idiot-proof network-integration help please!

[CrabMeat]

Hi all.

I am trying to run two D-Link DWL-2000 Access Points off my school's LAN to allow users with wifi laptops to use the network and am having difficulty getting them to be 'seen'.

Background: Netware 6 network (with DNS and DHCP) feeding Windows 2000 w'stations and these 2 APs on a class-A (10...) subnet. Initially, I just hope that the users will see the Internet through the APs but later hope to give them full log-in to the file and print services, etc. There's a proxy between us and our ISP.

After getting the AP and a laptop to communicate, initially with a patch lead as well as the wifi link using the default address range (AP is 192.168.0.50), my plan is to:
1. set the first AP (I'll do the other later!) to talk wifi to the laptop using the class-a add. range (fixed IPs in both).
2. then connect the AP to the network and browse the 'Net.
3. set the laptop to DHCP and still be able to do this
4. do the same with AP #2 (it's down a long corridor so there is overlap but weak signals without 2 APs)
5. set up the laptops to log into the full network (Yay!)

The major problem is to setting the addresses of the laptop and AP and still having them seeing each other. To check that any changes have taken place, I have IPCONFIG open on the desktop and the excellent Angry IP Sniffer to see that the change has taken place. At various times I get such errors as 'Media disconnected' errors in IPCONFIG and nothing appearing alive in the sniffer. The dance between changes of IP addresses, failure and resetting the AP and the IP addresses is wearing me down...

This must be a common networking procedure... is there an idiot-proof sequence that I can follow to set up such APs, please? Maybe two set-up machines, one with the default address and another with the network address to swap between for each part of the process? Or something? I would love to know it!


Any ideas?