My Goal: Computer outside firewall, still on workgroup

[mattford11]

Heres my goal: To have one PC that is hot to the internet, that i can reach with terminal services remotely, yet Via a 2nd NIC, i can reach other PCs shared drives and still Terminal service into those pc's that would be connected to a router

So...

Cable internet connection > Nic 1 on PC 1
Workgroup connection via router >Nic 2 on PC 1

Workgroup connection via router > Nic 1 on PC 2

WIRELESS workgroup connection via router > Nic 1 PC 3

Let me know if you guys can give me some insight.

Thanks

Matt

 

[kevnich2]

Do you plan on having the internet go thru PC1 or thru the router. With your above setup, it looks like PC1 is acting as the gateway and the router is acting as just a switch with wireless capabilities, that will work as long as the router has DHCP turned off and PC1 has internet connection sharing enabled.

 

[mattford11]

Thanks for a quick reply.

PC 1 does not need to share internet connection, although it would be nice.

 

[BZeto]

You could put it in the DMZ, but I'm not sure if placing PC1 in the routers DMZ would allow access to the other PC's or not...

 

[kevnich2]

Yes, if you put PC1 in the router's DMZ, it's still on the local network, but that's a very large security risk if/when PC1 becomes compromised.

 

[mattford11]

I tried that, however, I couldn't terminal service in from multiple locations outside of the network.
It only worked when i had the pc directly connected to the modem.

 

[kevnich2]

If you have PC1 on the DMZ, if you try to remote desktop from XP (terminal services client), it should have no problem connecting. I use terminal services myself all of the time even without DMZ (I forward the terminal services port to the internal server)

 

[mattford11]

OK, well then that brings me to issue 2.

The internet seems very laggy through the router, even on the DMZ. When it took it off, i stopped having time outs in Firefox and IE.
Thus, the 2 nic setup being something that i was lookin @.

 

[kevnich2]

What router do you have? Try updating firmware on router. It shouldn't be laggy through the router unless there's some type of problem with the router.

 

[mattford11]

Its an airlink+ that i got from frys. I'm sure its not the best router but it is seems to timeout firefox, hence another reason i wanted to put my primary PC in front of the router/switch

 

[skyking]

If you get a good router, you should never be able to tell it is between you and the WAN, except for being somewhat protected by NAT. I have conducted many speed tests, and the answer is always the same, no difference at all.
I would suggest getting a good router, and hooking it up the typical fashion. WAN>router>all pc's

Right now, the machine you have sitting against the WAN is getting bombarded on all ports all the time. A router will drop that traffic on the floor.
All you need to do is forward the service on through to the computer you want.

 

[kevnich2]

I agree with skyking on this, unless you want that computer to get hammered from the internet, put a router/firewall in between it and just forward the ports. It's only a matter of time before the computer in question is compromised and then your entire network is left wide open

 

[addragyn]

Port forwarding is a *much* better idea.

 

[mboy]

and rmemeber kids, thisis not a reall DMZ we are talking about here anyway. If is just forward all requests to 1 box when u put it in the SOHO routers' (why do they even cal it this) DMZ. More like a de-NAT zone as oopsed to a "true" dmz which is on a sperate interface.