Internet connectivity over a switch

[cygan]

Hi,
I have a network of about 60 computers connected ina workgroup and assigned Ip addresses 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.xx.The network is connected via 3 nos. 24 port switches. My internet connection is presently through a router which is assigned an IP of 192.168.1.1. The router is connected to one of the ports of the switch. What I am presently doing for internet connectivity on multiple machines is that I have two lan cards on each machine that require internet connectivity. One of the lan cards(A) configured on IP 192.168.0.xx for connectivity to the local workgroup. The other lan card (B)assigned an Ip of 192.168.1.xx for internet connectivity. In the IP settings of card B, the gateway 192.168.1.1 is assigned and the DNS nos. provided by the ISP is also entered.
But I think I am overdoing the same, cause I know the same thing can be achieved with only one LAN card per machine, and without changing the IP addresses.

Can any one please let me know the settings for the same, so that I can get internet connectivity and local workgroup connectivity with only one LAN CARD and without changing the ips?

I also have a second internet connection by the same ISP, again for which a router( Ip address 192.168.1.1) is used. I presently alternate the router connections to the switch whenever either of the two connections isn't working. Is there any way, by which I can keep both the routers connected to the switch, so that I don't have to alternate between the router connections to the switch?

Also, if the routers are connected this way, is there any way by which I can prefer usage of one rouer over ( since the tarriffs for usage vary , and I want to us the costlier connection only when the cheaper one isn't working)?

Please anyone?

 

[jlazzaro]

thats a crazy configuration...absolutely no need to seperate the two networks. you dont need to set anything up for them to communicate over 1 lan, just take away everything you've done ;x

if you're going to invest in a second internet connection, it should be from different providers, ie Comcast cable and Verizon DSL. what's your budget for a new router? you could look into a SOHO dual-wan router (Linksys RV-082, etc) or maybe a lower-end Cisco

 

[JackMDS]

60 computers? That is probably Not Home network!

May be there are other considerations that need to be taken into account before any changes were made.

While 60 computers are on one peer-to-peer Network only 10 can communicate at the same time.

If you want a decent advise you need to provide more detailed organized info.

 

[tomt4535]

Yeah, keep everything on one subnet with one Ethernet card and one ip address. No need for 2 cards in the pc's. Let the router do DNS and DHCP. A SOHO Dual WAN or low end cisco router will do exactly what you want and make everything so much easier to manage.

 

[cygan]

I don't want to put the network on DHCP for certain reasons. However I tried working on the internet connectivity by using a single lan card wherein the lan card was assigned the ip as 192.168.0.xx, a subnet mask of255.255.255.0 and a gateway of 192.168.1.1, along with the DNS numbers offered by the ISP. But the internet connectivity did not work. Am I assigning the variables right, or is there something wrong with the same? Pls. let me know.

 

[cygan]

The network seems to be working ok. It also has a windows 2003 server, which I did not mention. The network does not use file sharing to a large extent, but uses software off the server, for which the P2P network seems to be doing fine.
I tried using a single lan card for internet connectivity by assigning an ip address of 192.168.0.xx, subnet 255.255.255.0, a gateway 192.168.1.1 and DNS numbers offered by the ISP but it did not work, so I had to fall back on the initial system of 2 lancards. I have manually assigned ips to the machines, because the network is relatively divided over 3 floors, and there being only one server, switching off one switch connecting the server and router will necessarily stop the lan from working if I assign DHCP through the server or router.
Please let me know.

 

[jlazzaro]

Originally posted by: cygan
I tried using a single lan card for internet connectivity by assigning an ip address of 192.168.0.xx, subnet 255.255.255.0, a gateway 192.168.1.1 and DNS numbers offered by the ISP but it did not work

your default gateway needs to be in the same subnet as your hosts. so either change the router to 192.168.0.1 or put all your hosts on the 192.168.1.1 network.

Originally posted by: cygan
I have manually assigned ips to the machines, because the network is relatively divided over 3 floors, and there being only one server, switching off one switch connecting the server and router will necessarily stop the lan from working if I assign DHCP through the server or router.
Please let me know.

why would you be turning off switches for no reason? thats not an excuse to use static addressing...if you're that paranoid about DHCP services going down, break your /24 scope up into multiple DHCP servers.

 

[MerlinRML]

Originally posted by: cygan
I tried using a single lan card for internet connectivity by assigning an ip address of 192.168.0.xx, subnet 255.255.255.0, a gateway 192.168.1.1 and DNS numbers offered by the ISP but it did not work, so I had to fall back on the initial system of 2 lancards.

Your netmask is set to allow only traffic to 192.168.0 and your gateway is 192.168.1 which is outside the scope of your mask. If you changed the netmask to 255.255.0.0 (or even 255.255.248.0) I would guess that your internet connection would start to work on one NIC.

Originally posted by: cygan
I have manually assigned ips to the machines, because the network is relatively divided over 3 floors, and there being only one server, switching off one switch connecting the server and router will necessarily stop the lan from working if I assign DHCP through the server or router.

I have no idea what this is about. Not sure what multiple floors or multiple switches has to do with running DHCP. It almost sounds like you're worried that if your switches go down, you can't run DHCP. That's true, but I'd wager you can't do anything with your statically assigned IP address while those switches are down either.


To be honest, I think this is a classic case of the work-around game. Any time there is a problem, things were reconfigured to find a way to make it work without fixing the root problem. If you start changing one piece, you may find that 10 other problems pop up due to other misconfigurations. Good luck.

 

[cygan]

Pls. let me clarify.there are three offices over 3 floors. Each office is networked by a single switch on that floor. Only offices on the uppermost floor use the services of a win 2k3 server that is situated on that floor and connected to the switch on that floor.The router too is connected to a switch on that particular floor.

The three switches are connected via fiber backbones. These three offices operate at different times, and when the shift is over the power supply to the whole office is shut down, in order to conserve power and also because ther has been an incident of fire in the past. The whole network has only one win23k server. I cannot use the services of a DHCP server for reasons that I have mentioned, primarily because the office may power off the switch to which the server is connected at any time when their working hours are over.

However, I feel we are leaving my main problem aside and pondering over issues that pose no problem to me.

Can anyone please let me know, whether the internet connectivity problem mentioned when I had started this thread can be solved using manually assigned ips, and if yes can the network be assigned a subnet of 192.168.0.xx while the router is assigned 192.168.1.1.
If I were to assign values to a particular lan card over the network, what values do I assign so that it works.


i am however happy to have received the suggestion about Dual wan port routers and am looking into the possibility of using one for the network.

Pls. let me know.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: cygan
Pls. let me clarify.there are three offices over 3 floors. Each office is networked by a single switch on that floor. Only offices on the uppermost floor use the services of a win 2k3 server that is situated on that floor and connected to the switch on that floor.The router too is connected to a switch on that particular floor.

The three switches are connected via fiber backbones. These three offices operate at different times, and when the shift is over the power supply to the whole office is shut down, in order to conserve power and also because ther has been an incident of fire in the past. The whole network has only one win23k server. I cannot use the services of a DHCP server for reasons that I have mentioned, primarily because the office may power off the switch to which the server is connected at any time when their working hours are over.

However, I feel we are leaving my main problem aside and pondering over issues that pose no problem to me.

Can anyone please let me know, whether the internet connectivity problem mentioned when I had started this thread can be solved using manually assigned ips, and if yes can the network be assigned a subnet of 192.168.0.xx while the router is assigned 192.168.1.1.
If I were to assign values to a particular lan card over the network, what values do I assign so that it works.


i am however happy to have received the suggestion about Dual wan port routers and am looking into the possibility of using one for the network.

Pls. let me know.

Talk to building management and tell them that they cannot unplug/power down your network and server hardware.

 

[jlazzaro]

Originally posted by: cygan
However, I feel we are leaving my main problem aside and pondering over issues that pose no problem to me.

on the contrary, it's the root of all your problems. a good network design would solve everything and in turn would bring down your administrative overhead.