Strange question about getting one machine on two networks

[BKLounger]

This is going to sound insane but there is a reason I need to set up the network like this. Is it possible to have a desktop with 2 two cards. One nic to be pulling in via dhcp and access the internet. While the other nic card is going to have a static ip address. the static nic will be attached to a switch along with 2 other modded xbox. The reason i need it set this way is i need to keep the xbox's on a private network and they need to access files on the desktop. The same desktop also is hooked to a laser printer which other computers on the main network need to access. Is this possible or would the two nic's just conflict.

 

[radioouman]

Should be fine if I'm understanding correctly. The one configured for DHCP is the only one with an internet connection, right?

 

[BKLounger]

correct one nic is onboard and will be configured for dhcp so the machine will be open to the public internet. Then there will be a second pci based nic card configured with a static address so i can hook the computer to a switch so a couple devices can access it. There will be conflict with the two addresses?

 

[JackMDS]

You can configure what ever device you want with a static IP even if ther is a functioning DHCP server, there is No need for a second card.

However if you want few of the devices to be on thier own Network with a different subnet, you can do it by using second card.

 

[BKLounger]

The latter is exactly what I am trying to do. My university limits me to 4 ip addresses which i use for my desktop, a wii and two laptops. But I have two modded xbox's that need to access files on one of the desktops. So i was going to hook the 2 xbox's and the desktop together with a switch. I will make sure to set up the static with a different subnet. Would admins or anyone be able to tell I am running the backend network with the xbox's. Nothing illegal they are just my media center frontends.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

get a router plug everything into it, bam. ! IP address. problem solved and much easier, plus you can filter out admins if you know what they are using.

 

[BKLounger]

sorry cannot use a router coming in from the public address (i said this was a weird situation). I only have one ethernet jack and am allowed to only hook one desktop to it. I can have 3 other wireless devices though. Which is why I am trying to create a private backend network off the 2nd nic in the main desktop.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: BKLounger
sorry cannot use a router coming in from the public address (i said this was a weird situation). I only have one ethernet jack and am allowed to only hook one desktop to it. I can have 3 other wireless devices though. Which is why I am trying to create a private backend network off the 2nd nic in the main desktop.

I still fail to see how they can block you from using a router. Clone the MAC address and hostname from your PC, and enjoy. 😛

- M4H

 

[russell2002]

Agreed.

Remember AOL who said for years you cant share an AOL connection in the days of dial up. Which you can/could.

 

[BKLounger]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
I still fail to see how they can block you from using a router.
- M4H

That is what I found as weird because it is a setup at a university. I am assuming that they have a switch in the basement and wired cat5 to each room and they also have 2 access points on each of the 15 floors. The rules state that if you use a router, switch or hub that you will damage the network for the floor and possibly the building. They even include that if you run your own backend independant network that you will mess us their network (which i think is total bull). Is it really possible to damage their infrastructure with just a networking device off of their connection.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: BKLounger
That is what I found as weird because it is a setup at a university. I am assuming that they have a switch in the basement and wired cat5 to each room and they also have 2 access points on each of the 15 floors. The rules state that if you use a router, switch or hub that you will damage the network for the floor and possibly the building. They even include that if you run your own backend independant network that you will mess us their network (which i think is total bull). Is it really possible to damage their infrastructure with just a networking device off of their connection.

Absolutely possible and happens all the time

 

[NuroMancer]

Sure is,
and as spidey says, it does happen all the time.
You solution should work fyi.

 

[nweaver]

your solution COULD work, but also could EASILY screw up the network. It could also be fairly easily detected.


This may be hard to believe, but net admins don't make arbitrary rules just because they hate everyone....

 

[VisionxOrb]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: BKLounger
That is what I found as weird because it is a setup at a university. I am assuming that they have a switch in the basement and wired cat5 to each room and they also have 2 access points on each of the 15 floors. The rules state that if you use a router, switch or hub that you will damage the network for the floor and possibly the building. They even include that if you run your own backend independant network that you will mess us their network (which i think is total bull). Is it really possible to damage their infrastructure with just a networking device off of their connection.

Absolutely possible and happens all the time

Not to totally Hijack this thread But spidey I was wondering If you could explain a little more why it would happen, Im curious.

 

[BZeto]

Originally posted by: VisionxOrb

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: BKLounger
That is what I found as weird because it is a setup at a university. I am assuming that they have a switch in the basement and wired cat5 to each room and they also have 2 access points on each of the 15 floors. The rules state that if you use a router, switch or hub that you will damage the network for the floor and possibly the building. They even include that if you run your own backend independant network that you will mess us their network (which i think is total bull). Is it really possible to damage their infrastructure with just a networking device off of their connection.

Absolutely possible and happens all the time

Not to totally Hijack this thread But spidey I was wondering If you could explain a little more why it would happen, Im curious.

I could understand a soho router pushing DHCP would mess things up. Things like switches and hubs, other than the possibility of just having too many devices on the segment, I dont see how they would cause any problems.

 

[ryan256]

Originally posted by: BKLounger
That is what I found as weird because it is a setup at a university. I am assuming that they have a switch in the basement and wired cat5 to each room and they also have 2 access points on each of the 15 floors. The rules state that if you use a router, switch or hub that you will damage the network for the floor and possibly the building. They even include that if you run your own backend independant network that you will mess us their network (which i think is total bull). Is it really possible to damage their infrastructure with just a networking device off of their connection.

I used to do tech support for a college university. Biggest problem we had was students who brought in routers and were clueless as to how to configure or even plug them in properly. I can remember numerous times going over to a dorm hall where nearly the whole building couldn't get on the internet and were coming up with 192.168.1.* addresses instead of the 10.20.*.* they should have gotten. Eventually housing passed a rule that said no routers. Though we never enforced it until we found one screwing up the network. Properly configured routers posed no problem at all.

Originally posted by: nweaver
your solution COULD work, but also could EASILY screw up the network. It could also be fairly easily detected.
This may be hard to believe, but net admins don't make arbitrary rules just because they hate everyone....

You're right. They usually make arbitrary rules because they are lazy or stupid. And sometimes both!

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: VisionxOrb
Not to totally Hijack this thread But spidey I was wondering If you could explain a little more why it would happen, Im curious.

Well if I explained it then all kinds of kiddos would be running around shutting down their campus network now wouldn't they? 😉

There a whole slew of things that can go wrong...

1) Some kind of bridging loop that causes a packet storm
2) Bad IP addressing
3) SOHO router doing proxy-arp, essentially answering all arp requests when the REAL router/gateway is the one that should be responding. I ran into one that of these things took out a whole data center
4) Another bridging problem between wireless and wired networks
5) rogue dhcp server, easy to prevent however

That's just a few of the common ones. Some can be mitigated with very tight security features on the switches. One of them is virtually impossible to stop and a pain to diagnose.

 

[BKLounger]

this did get a little off topic. I know a router would really start to mess things up but is a switch off a secondary nic card with two xboxs attached to the switch and all devices with static ip's really going to cause armageddon in the campus noc. The xbox's would only be accessing data off the desktop.