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How to setup a subnet

By Blackcurrant ·
Hi

We are looking to purchase more PC's for our business network. When the extra PC's have been installed we will have more than 30 PC's on our network. One of my colleagues was saying he had read that if your network comprises more than 25-30 PC's, it is a good idea to create a subnet to help alleviate network congestion.

I have seen several articles which explain how subnets work but I have not seen anything which describes how to setup a subnet.

Can anyone offer any friendly advice or point me to a practical resource?

My network currently comprises a single domain (run by a server with W2k Server/SBS2k)and a host of PC's running WinXP, Win2kPro, Win98SE and one box running Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

Any constructive help will be appreciated.

Many thanks

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by Blackcurrant In reply to How to setup a subnet

My network currently uses static IP addresses in the form of 192.168.0.x with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0

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by joematus In reply to How to setup a subnet

I don't know the speed of your LAN so maybe subnetting is not necessary. But subnetting is simple in your case. You can use Variable Subnet Masking which would break your network down into chunks but why bother? You're already using non-routable addresses (RFC1** so why not make the new network another RFC1**8 address. You're using NAT and using 192.168.0.0 as your address space. It's a 16 bit block which you have access to 192.168.0.* to 192.168.254.*. So use another network in the range such as 192.168.1.0 as a new network with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.

Of course this means you'll need another interface on your router that goes into a new switch that you attach the new PCs to. Or you can set up your current switch with VLANS and feed that to your router.

Hope this helps....

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by Blackcurrant In reply to

Hi Joematus, thanks for answering. After reviewing the answers given here, we have decided that unless we experience any network congestion we do not need (yet) to create a subnet. Thanks again

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by Blackcurrant In reply to How to setup a subnet

My network is connected via Cat5 and is 100Mbps

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by CG IT In reply to How to setup a subnet

I had to subnet out our network and had a limited budget to work with. On Joe Moores suggestion, I opted for a VLAN swtichs. Went with some old Intel 510T with the stack module 24 port switches with VLAN and that worked like a charm.

Windows 3.11 box????

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by Blackcurrant In reply to

Hi D.R., thanks for answering. After reviewing the answers given here, we have decided that unless we experience any network congestion we do not need (yet) to create a subnet. Thanks again

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by wmr02 In reply to How to setup a subnet

Unless you are running into performance problems you should not have to subnet you network. I am running a network with over 200 devices (mostly typicla office automatin tasks) on a single subnet. If you have users that use a lot of bandwidth then by all means use a router or vlan switch to break your network into two subnets.

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by Blackcurrant In reply to

Hi WMR02, thanks for answering. After reviewing the answers given here, we have decided that unless we experience any network congestion we do not need (yet) to create a subnet. Thanks again

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by Blackcurrant In reply to How to setup a subnet

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