Ok, this has two parts - a design which would allow for productive learning, how to structure the class program with respects to keeping individual groups settings and files to themselves. Sharing the systems between many different lab groups - and how to keep everyones settings. The second part is that of the network setup.
I have a teacher who has an allotment of 100 IP's, they are not a subnet however, simply a range from .100 to .200. This is a lab room environment, the teacher wishes students to play with several operating systems (windows98/ME, windowsNT/2k, Linux, and whatever we want). The problem is that there is a new class of students every hour or so. Which means that the systems are going to be rotated out frequently and we need a good way to save each groups settings. In the past he had removable drives, and each group was assigned a drive for each OS they used. The teacher is now seeking a different solution as much of the time alloted for the labs was used trying to install the bloody operating systems. Well, instead of having the students install the software themselves he wants to use Ghost, and get that all taken care of at the beginning of lab.
As I understand it he wishes to maximize the amount of time in class to learning about networking and playing with the toys. My teacher has a vision, each group (3-4 students) will be assigned a "station". Now one way to describe this station is that it houses a managable switch, a router, and three computers (I beleive he only wanted three computers).
Ok, the second part, how to set it all up. As he was toying with the idea of using ghost it looks like DHCP will save us alot of trouble, he does not have his own subnet however, and he is not behind a router of his own. I suggested picking up a Netgear DSL/Cable Router and using it's built in NAT and DHCP functions. This way when we ghost the systems, DHCP is enabled by default and can receive their respective leases. As mentioned above he has a range of addresses which he can assign, and we are in no danger of needing more that one hundred IP's for the lab room (it just ain't that big). If anyone has any creative ideas, or even conventional ones which escape my paltry knowledge of networking. Yes, we want a router and managable switch at every station, BUT we don't want to tie up a nice expensive router which is just going to sit and look pretty all year. Yes, we do have a whole bunch of systems lying around which can run NAT and DHCP for us, but again, it's not the cheapest solution, as we can make use of the systems elsewhere, and it is a little bit more of a hassle to upkeep and maintain than a nice little box.
Now as far as network education requirements go, we're gonna want to generate traffic, and learn to use the routers and managable switches to direct this traffic to the right location. Now right off the bat this calls for different network segments so NAT is pretty much a given, BUT the problem then becomes how to DHCP that all? DSL/Cable routers (AFAIK) will only assign a range of IP's in a single network segment (my linky does at least). And I as of yet have not delved into WinRoute, WinProxy, ICS, SyGate to assess their DHCP capabilites. Any solutions for us there?
Am I just making this more complicated than it needs be? Is the only problem here how to save individual groups settings and configs (Cisco routers I know how to save individual configs, so thats a doosy) and how to quickly get their specific settings and configs back onto the systems, once there they set their IP and subnet info once and network away!? And I won't even have to worry about DHCP then?
I greatly appreciate any insight or ideas, thankyou very much.
-serge
I have a teacher who has an allotment of 100 IP's, they are not a subnet however, simply a range from .100 to .200. This is a lab room environment, the teacher wishes students to play with several operating systems (windows98/ME, windowsNT/2k, Linux, and whatever we want). The problem is that there is a new class of students every hour or so. Which means that the systems are going to be rotated out frequently and we need a good way to save each groups settings. In the past he had removable drives, and each group was assigned a drive for each OS they used. The teacher is now seeking a different solution as much of the time alloted for the labs was used trying to install the bloody operating systems. Well, instead of having the students install the software themselves he wants to use Ghost, and get that all taken care of at the beginning of lab.
As I understand it he wishes to maximize the amount of time in class to learning about networking and playing with the toys. My teacher has a vision, each group (3-4 students) will be assigned a "station". Now one way to describe this station is that it houses a managable switch, a router, and three computers (I beleive he only wanted three computers).
Ok, the second part, how to set it all up. As he was toying with the idea of using ghost it looks like DHCP will save us alot of trouble, he does not have his own subnet however, and he is not behind a router of his own. I suggested picking up a Netgear DSL/Cable Router and using it's built in NAT and DHCP functions. This way when we ghost the systems, DHCP is enabled by default and can receive their respective leases. As mentioned above he has a range of addresses which he can assign, and we are in no danger of needing more that one hundred IP's for the lab room (it just ain't that big). If anyone has any creative ideas, or even conventional ones which escape my paltry knowledge of networking. Yes, we want a router and managable switch at every station, BUT we don't want to tie up a nice expensive router which is just going to sit and look pretty all year. Yes, we do have a whole bunch of systems lying around which can run NAT and DHCP for us, but again, it's not the cheapest solution, as we can make use of the systems elsewhere, and it is a little bit more of a hassle to upkeep and maintain than a nice little box.
Now as far as network education requirements go, we're gonna want to generate traffic, and learn to use the routers and managable switches to direct this traffic to the right location. Now right off the bat this calls for different network segments so NAT is pretty much a given, BUT the problem then becomes how to DHCP that all? DSL/Cable routers (AFAIK) will only assign a range of IP's in a single network segment (my linky does at least). And I as of yet have not delved into WinRoute, WinProxy, ICS, SyGate to assess their DHCP capabilites. Any solutions for us there?
Am I just making this more complicated than it needs be? Is the only problem here how to save individual groups settings and configs (Cisco routers I know how to save individual configs, so thats a doosy) and how to quickly get their specific settings and configs back onto the systems, once there they set their IP and subnet info once and network away!? And I won't even have to worry about DHCP then?
I greatly appreciate any insight or ideas, thankyou very much.
-serge
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