Two routers on a network

Hi folks

Re-visiting an old topic as the thread was closed and just looking for some advice before changing some of the network stuff.

I am running a subnet in my work, used for PXE and acronis image loading and disk scrubbing as well as Tech diagnosis. (this is the reason for the subnet as we do a lot of image loading and do not wish to disrupt the rest of the company network with the added bandwidth load)

Below is how the subnet is set up



I checked the following thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39680 and particulary post 4, this bit of advice which I think is valid for my problem.

The subnet works ok from that end, I can access the internet and get on network shares by Ip addy in the 192.168.0. range from within the 192.168.12. range.

Only problem I have is trying to access my PXE server from the 192.168.0 range which I occasionally wish to do.

Will connecting the 192.168.0. network to a LAN port on the router work (linksys BTW) rather than the WAN port. As it stands the connection to the WAN port is via a static IP. The Router has a static IP of 192.168.12.9 for use as a gateway for the .12 network.

Problem I see is if I connect the 192.168.0 cable to the LAN side is how is its IP addy set? Note - DHCP comes from Tftp32 from the pxe server.

Cheers in advance

J

 

If you want to turn the second router into a switch/AP, disable DHCP on the second router and connect lan to lan. This removes all routing function from the second router, so it's a swithc/AP. Assign a static IP to the second router outside of the normal DHCP range so you can admin it.

If the NAT is active you will have flow problems coming into the second router, the nat works as a firewall. The NAT/firewall is still active as long dhcp is active.

You really need a smart switch so you can setup up a virtual lan.

 

I have simplified the above image to show a basic representation of the network.

The internet router supplies DHCP to the main company network, including fileserver/mailserver/database server and most company traffic. The second router has DHCP disabled (dhcp from pxe server) and functions well as a gateway to main network (.0).

To reiterate, only problem being accessing a server on the .12 network from the main company network. Not really a big deal, but would like to have that ability.

Further info, disabled firewall etc on the router attached to .12 network and put a routing addition to the internet router on .0 network pointing to 192.168.0.19 for access to 192.169.12.0 - but that doesnt seem to have worked like it should.

 

Looking at the new diagram I do not see that working. The problem being with DHCP disabled and controlled by a different dhcp server not exchange info. Some routers allow you to combine DHCP data using the RIP function. I have not used the RIP function, I know it's an advanced option on my netgear ProSafe router.

 

Since you've got the 192.168.0.xxx subnetwork feeding into the WAN side of the center router, have you verified that the center router doesn't have a firewall active that's blocking packets coming in from 192.168.0.xxx for destination nodes on the 192.168.12.yyy subnetwork? In particular, if you're sending "uninvited" packets to the 192.168.12.yyy subnetwork, the center router might see them as "hostile" - because not being transmitted in response to an outbound request from a node on the 192.168.12.yyy subnetwork - and be blocking them. You wouldn't see this behaviour vis-a-vis internet-related http packets, because those are generally let through unless they contain a bad signature.

 

Your network should work fine so long as router (192.168.0.250) has a static route to the 192.168.12.0 subnet.

192.168.12.0 looks like a stub network, so it just needs a default route or default gateway pointing to 192.168.0.250.

Booting from PXE on the 192.168.0.0 network, however, is a whole different issue.