The benefit of using an IP / Layer 3 solution when your Artica server is a gateway is that it will work when the outward-facing interface is like a wireless ethernet client, without using WDS and without resorting to NAT.
Simple Layer 2 bridging does not work in this case due to the vagaries of wireless AP client behaviour.
Using Proxy ARP with Artica 4.30.0000 Service Pack 219 permits the bridged clients to be part of the existing network and supports bidirectional traffic, e.g. for a server or printer.
One scenario is connecting a wired network to a dedicated LAN using a host that has multiple interfaces.
A specific example is using an Artica with a USB wifi adapter to connect a wired-ethernet printer to the WLAN.
No static configuration is required other than the wifi SSID and authentication for Artica - The node and printer acquire DHCP addresses from the existing DHCP server, and the printer continues to be reachable via mDNS and otherwise operates as if it were patched to a wired port on the main network.
The term 'bridge' in this article refers to the host doing the Proxy ARP and routing between the two networks, though keep in mind there is no layer 2 bridging involved.
The 'outside' network is the existing network that hosts the DHCP server, gateway router, etc.
The 'inside' network is the one with the hosts that need to be bridged and made to appear to be on the outside network.
Proxy ARP is a technique by which a device on a given network answers the ARP queries for a network address that is not on that network, that is to make the hosts on one network appear to be logically part of a different physical network.
The bridge host will proxy ARP requests from the inside network to the outside, and respond to ARPs from the outside network on behalf of inside hosts.
Artica will only do this for hosts that are known via the routing table, so a /32 host route must be created pointing to the inside host (one for each inside host).
The route is also required for IP forwarding to work, i.e. when IP traffic arrives after the ARP process has completed.
The Proxy ARP feature inside Artica is designed to monitor the ARP table and both proxy ARP requests and install matching /32 host routes.
Running The Proxy ARP with the inside and outside interfaces handles the ARP and routing completely automatically.
- As you can see, in “Your Network” / “Interfaces" and “Status” tab, you can see under Network interfaces status table a “ARP” column.
- By default, the status of the ARP column is “Inactive” that means no Proxy ARP service as been enabled for this interface.
- Click on the “inactive” button.
- A new Proxy ARP server configuration page is displayed for the chosen network interface.
- Turn ON the “Enable” checkbox and select Interfaces you want to link
- Click on Apply button
You will see in the column status, the ARP icon turned to “Active” status.
