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@home, 3 IP's - looking for best way to setup with linksys router or hub

F

FredericoSuave

Junior Member
Hello,

I have @ home with 3 IPs, a linksys 4 port router switch, and an old netgear 4 port hub. One Linksys NIC per comp + A few spare old netgear NICS which I don't use much because they seem to cause me trouble.

I want to set things up so that I can share files between my comps, play LAN games, and also log on all 3 comps to play games like Age of Kings on the Zone (this requires 3 the seperate IP's)

I hooked up all comps to the router, and set the router up for one of my @ home IP's (computer name) with all auto detect settings. With this setup I can browse the web with all comps, play on the Zone with one comp (static Ip - one comp with DMZ), and share files and play LAN IP games just fine. However I cannot get all 3 IPs (one per comp) out to the internet to play Zone games at the same time. Many of the programs need seperate IPs for each player. I don't believe using all 3 @ home IP's at the same time is possible with this router, but I may be wrong.

I connected the cable modem to the uplink on the old netgear hub, and connected the 3 comps to the other ports. Each comp has its own @ home computer name so it auto detects its own WAN IP. All can browse the web and play zone games together, but there does not appear to be any LAN capabilities of any sort. When a game autodetects a LAN game with this setup it appears to be going out to the internet and back. LAN is not working here.

I fiddled around other various configs with mixed results. The @ home Ip's are not really static - they may remain static for weeks or months but they may change without notice. And they all have different gateways, and subnets. I am not new to comps, (I build all my own and such), but am new to home networking. Security is not paramount, as I don't keep any sensitive data, but I don't want to be totally exposed. I have no problems on using netbeui/ipx or administer to file share if I have to. I do not keep the computers on when I am not using them.

Any ideas on how to make this work. Use all @ home IP's, but have LAN and Internet with one setup? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Fred..
 


<< However I cannot get all 3 IPs (one per comp) out to the internet to play Zone games at the same time. Many of the programs need seperate IPs for each player >>



if you use the router, then your networking would consist of only one WAN ip.

however, there is a way to do this. my idea probably isn't the best, but it should work.
To get all 3 comps on the net AND have them local you could do the following:
put 2 nics in each comp

for each comp do the following:
set one nic to obtain ip from your isp
manually assign 1 nic a local ip.

connect all 6 network cards to a hub, and connect the cable modem to the hub.
however, with this setup, you'll probably need to buy 2 more nics (u said u had some extras) and an 8 port hub. or you could uplink another 5 port hub with your existing hub.

anyways, if u don't want to do this, then using the router is the best solution. you may need to sacrifice games that only allow 1 connection per ip :\
at least you'd save the money on the extra ips
 
install netbuei for file/printer sharing and ipx if you still use games that use ipx.

I use 2 ip's and the computers don't have problems finding lan games usually. If they do I just type in the ip address and connect like that.. basically a little extra typing..

I'm not sure but the reason you can't detect lan games is probably because each ip is on a different subnet, which is out of your hands with @home DHCP.
 
Thanks for the replys.

And yes the @home IP's are not on the same subnet or things would be easy (using the hub, and all 3 Ip's) I can actually play a TCP/IP game between my comps only, but its not Lan, my comps connect over the internet only (hub setup). I bet file sharing this way is a bit &quot;exposed&quot; to say the least. Slow also I bet with upload speeds.

I was thinking about some tricky setup like you suggest Quad. I hear that getting 2 nics to work on one comp can be hell at times, but I may give this a try.

What If I put Win2k on a junk comp (old pent 350), and used this as a dedicated server/router. Or linux? I do not know much about either, but there are enough guys at my IT dept. at work who would help me with this. (once I get a plan) What do you think?

Fred..
 
As an alternative, couldn't he put the web and ftp server behind the firewall and just forward the specific ports to them? Which would work better?
 
Sure, he could put all of them behind the router and then forward the ports. However, sometimes you want the server outside of the router/firewall for certain applications (streaming audio, media, yadda yadda).

I have several IP numbers but I only use 1 of them because I just put everything behind the router like you said.
 
Ya, For Browsing the web (all comps), playing LAN games, sharing files on the LAN, and playing internet games with ONE comp - the router will do the job no sweat.

The problem is that I also want to be able to use all 3 IPS (which are dchp'd by @ home) so that everyone on my LAN can play with others on the internet at the same time. Certain games require seperate WAN IPs for this. The @ home adresses are not static, and have different subnet,gateways. Do you know of any routers that would support multiple dynamic @home IPs that can be seperately assigned to each comp (3) in my network?

The linksys I have only supports one. Even if I just use hubs, nics and a software firewall (turn dmz on for all when I play) that would serve my purposes also.

Still stumped 🙂 Fred.....
 
Well, I'm not suggesting you do this, but it IS possible (I did it). With AT&amp;T @Home you can have 5 total IP's. I signed up for 5, picked the three on the same subnet (with matching gateways and such) and had the other two deleted. I did it over a period of about 4 hours and had to call @home to delete the extra machines, but it worked overall. Now I have my two main systems standing alone off a switch, then my router handles the other systems in the house as the third IP. For gaming I DMZ a third machine, and all my servers have their ports assigned. It works really well for me.

The main problem you'll have is picking your three matching subnets. You can do two things: after signing up for all five you can call @Home and ask them which three match. What I did was set up five machines off my switch and assign each on one of the computer names. Then after they were all on I ran winipcfg on each and picked the three that match myself. If you don't have 5 machines you can just use whatever you have and keep switching computer names till three match. You may even have to pick 2 that match, delete 3, then get 3 more to try to find one that matches the other two. It's a pain in the butt, but eventually you'll get it all working.
 
Interesing idea. Does @home change adresses you often? the website says they are not permanetly static.

With the systems not on the router, do they know the difference between LAN and WAN?

Neat idea though I may try that and hope they don't change subnets often.

Fred...
 
no not very often. I've had 2 changes in a little over a year, but I was in a fairly new area so it grew tremendously. As for routing - I programmed static routes into the router for going from the routed systems to my standalones, but the other way all traffic goes to the headend, then bounces back to me...I might be able to avoid that if I knew more about static routing on windows machines.
 
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