how do i lan with two router/two wan ip setup

[TP]

i have one lan setup upstairs now with a router and cable isp connection. we are bringing in a second cable isp connection with a router downstairs for business and want to network the two lans. what is the best config for this? (i realize we could just use one but we are doing this for the additional upload bandwidth and this is a sufficient intermediary solution until we move the business to its own location)

will they communicate if one is say a 192.168.1.1, and the other 192.168.1.2 and we set different gateways but keep all computers as 192.198.1.x ip's? we are thinking that we just run one ethernet cable from one router to the other.. or do we use a hub between the two routers?

thanks

 

[cleverhandle]

I think you should be fine just by running crossover between the two routers. As I think you know, you'll want to do all your configuration manually - DHCP isn't going to work here, at least not without a bit of work. I might set things up this way...

192.168.1.1 - Router #1, gateway for LAN #1.
192.168.1.2 - Router #2, gateway for LAN #2.
192.168.0.x - client machines
255.255.0.0 - subnet mask for all machines, including routers

 

[TP]

thanks.. that sounds good.. i will be able to test this out later today..

 

[martind1]

crossover between the routers?

ummmm I dont think that will work.

even if it did, it would create two subnets i believe as the networks would still be seperated byt the two routers.

i am not sure the exact solution for this but i am pretty sure the above will not work.


why do you need the two lans connected? there might be a better/easier solution for you.

 

[buleyb]

clever has it right. Each could function independantly, but we're just connecting them, and making sure they have no overlapping IPs...sounds good.

 

[cleverhandle]

It's an unusual situation - I certainly haven't tried it myself. But I think it should be OK. The crossover should bind the two switch portions of the routers into one broadcast domain. So all the clients can communicate via broadcast because they're all on the same subnet.

It's not an ideal solution, as the OP is aware of. You're not getting any kind of smart load balancing - just the ability to use different gateways and still be on the same LAN. But as interim measure until they move to a new location, it's probably good enough.

 

[martind1]

obviously somethign got lost in my translation. I said this would easily work.


what i meant to say was set one router's IP ranges to like 100-150 and the seconds ips from 151-200 and you can still use the routers DHCP.

or disable one of the routers DHCP and just use one.

or disable both and set up your own DHCP server.

either way you still can use DHCP.



fyi - the point i forgot when sayign this wouldnt work is that on the multiport routers the 4 ports for pcs are actualy internal hubs at that point. silly me. oh well give it a try. watch out for duplicate ip issue!

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: martind1
what i meant to say was set one router's IP ranges to like 100-150 and the seconds ips from 151-200 and you can still use the routers DHCP.

No. Then you'll have two DHCP servers on a single broadcast domain. Bad idea.

or disable one of the routers DHCP and just use one.

No. Then every client will use the same gateway. Defeats the purpose of the second connection.

or disable both and set up your own DHCP server.

I don't think the OP had this mind. It could work, but you'd need to set up entries by MAC address to assign the appropriate gateway.

fyi - the point i forgot when sayign this wouldnt work is that on the multiport routers the 4 ports for pcs are actualy internal hubs at that point. silly me. oh well give it a try. watch out for duplicate ip issue!

Possibly. I guess it depends on whether the built-in switch/hub has the capability to uplink to another switch/hub. If it does, then I don't see why it should matter whether that other unit is a standalone switch, or something built-in to a router. I don't claim to understand every detail about switches, though - I may be overlooking something. As you said, though, it's worth a try. Simpler than alternatives involving routing subnets.

 

[martind1]

or disable both and set up your own DHCP server.

I don't think the OP had this mind. It could work, but you'd need to set up entries by MAC address to assign the appropriate gateway.

fyi - the point i forgot when sayign this wouldnt work is that on the multiport routers the 4 ports for pcs are actualy internal hubs at that point. silly me. oh well give it a try. watch out for duplicate ip issue!

Possibly. I guess it depends on whether the built-in switch/hub has the capability to uplink to another switch/hub. If it does, then I don't see why it should matter whether that other unit is a standalone switch, or something built-in to a router. I don't claim to understand every detail about switches, though - I may be overlooking something. As you said, though, it's worth a try. Simpler than alternatives involving routing subnets.

actually setting up dynamic static ips by mac address is easy wiht a w2k dhcp server, nto much time involved.

as far as the second point, what i was sayign is i forgot that by linking the two routers with a crossover in that way keeps them behind the router instead of what i was first thinking, that they went THROUGH the router and thus would be blocked. I just forgot that each of those ports is LIKE a swtich/hub and doesnt go up through the router, then to other ports.

 

[TP]

cool.. well my guy didnt show up today to run the drop for me.. so i dont get to test it out.. thanks for the input tho

 

[TP]

ok now i finally had the line ran. and i am trying to figure this out. heres what i have so far

router#1 = 192.168.1.1
router#2 = 192.168.1.2

the line is ran from router#1. from one of the four ports, to the uplink of router#2.

but thats as far as i can get as far as cleverhandles setup goes.. i cant set the ip's to 192.168.0.x's because then i wont be able to forward ports to the appropriate places in the router config.. since the router only seems to allow 192.168.1.x's... at least i havent figured out a way to change that yet.. (linksys routers)..

 

[TP]

ok it worked just using 192.168.1.x accounts and 255.255.255.0 subnets both sides and just going port to port crossover between routers... coolness