Networks

Ask something
Question Locked

Small Media Network

0 helpful
11 replies

by tcapp_bcast-it 1 view

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Hello,
I am fairly new to setting up a network from scratch... Here is my sitation. I have about 10 internal computers and servers which need to share a gigabit connection for sharing video and media files. 4 of them will have static ips for the outside world and I have a 5th IP for the rest of the computers.

If I take the Charter Business Class Cable Modem and plug that into this router:
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1154659755942&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=5594254480B10

take the output of that router and put it into this switch:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1160628689062&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=8906295123B18

will this all workout?

I will have gigabit connectivity between all the internal computers and internet access at each station?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

Tim

11 replies

by Former member

Now all you need to do is draw up a plan,
1) Where are the computers going to go.
2) Where are the servers going to go.
3) Have you got long enough cabling for the computers/servers/switch and router (also the right cabling).
4) Have you got a cool room for the servers.
5) Have you got enough power supply sockets.
When you have all of this sorted then you can connect bit by bit and test out the connections the way you want it.
This what i do before anything else.
Hope this helps you.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by tcapp_bcast-it

That is all set, the biggest thing I feel i'm going to have trouble is with all this routing and layer 2 and layer 3 stuff...

Ideally, would I just be able to give the router the 5th static IP and use the 4 static computers directly with the static external IP on the computer?

Also should I use the DHCP server in the switch or in the router...

Thanks!

by Former member

My buffalo router connected to Internet and "DHCP" enabled. Switch is Netgear and the computers (all) go through through this. The router will/should pick up on the ip addresses of your computers. If not you can find the ip addresses of your computers with this:
Viewing Your IP Address Information
There are several ways you can determine your IP address information:
IPCONFIG
1.Start / Run / cmd
2.IPCONFIG /ALL
This opens a command window. One advantage is that you can send the information to a text file (IPCONFIG /ALL > c:\ip.txt)
But sometimes the window shows much information you need to scroll around to fine it.
VIEW STATUS
1.Control Panel / Network Connections / Double click the icons for your network (If the network has an icon in the system tray you can also just double click on that icon)
2.Click on the Support tab
3.Click on the Details button

WindowsXP Command Line Utilities
While there are a lot of command line utilities in WindowsXP, here are some that I have been using lately.
bootcfg - Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.
driverquery - Displays a list of all installed device drivers and their properties.
getmac - Returns the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols associated with each address for all network cards in each computer
gpresult - Displays Group Policy settings and Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) for a user or a computer
netsh - You can use commands in the Netsh Interface IP context to configure the TCP/IP protocol
schtasks - Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time
systeminfo - Displays detailed configuration information about a computer and its operating system

Additional TCP/IP Related Parameters
The additional TCP related parameters are not necessary in most cases, and you shouldn't expect any drastic improvements, however we added them for those of you who like experimenting. You might be able to gain that last bit of performance, or customize your TCP/IP behavior even more with those. Keep in mind you should familiarize yourself with what the parameters mean and how they affect your connection before changing their values
MTU
Setting MTU overrides the default MTU for the network interface it is added to. Note that if EnablePMTUDiscovery is set to 1, TCP will use the smaller value of this local MTU and the "Discovered" MTU of the underlying network connection. If you'd rather use only the MTU value specified here, you'd have to disable PMTUDiscovery, which would prevent your system from detecting the network MTU.
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
MTU="1500" (DWORD, valid range is from 68 to MTU of network).
Note: For Windows XP PPPoE, there is an additional location for MTU that might need to be adjusted (to 1480, or up to 1492 as per the PPPoE specs), depending on the PPPoE software you use. Check the following location in the Registry:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NdisWan\Parameters\Protocols\0
ProtocolMTU="1480"
Just a little information for you to try out and to change (if needed).

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.

by jellimonsta

These 4 systems that have public IP's, will they see much ingress traffic? If you are expecting them to see a fair amount of inbound traffic, you will want to ensure your router and Internet connection will suffice.
You can assign the first static public IP to the outside Interface of your router. You will then want to create a DMZ and specify the public systems and ports 'open' to the world. I would highly recommend you make use of the firewall functions.
If you want to ensure you router can keep up, you may want to utilize your switch DHCP server abilities (however, I did not note DHCP server abilities on that switch, only client).
Good luck.

by tcapp_bcast-it

Hello,

the static IPs are for a media playback server that has a web interface...

You can take a look at it now: the current address

http://155.42.126.4/

So I really only need to open the web server ports...

We will most likely not be doing large transfers, just standard web access to the server..

If I used the switch as the DHCP server, where would I give it the external IP to use for all of those computers?

by jellimonsta

You should not assign a public IP to your switch, but rather a static (ex. 192.168.1.1) in your internal range.
You would want the public IP on your router outside interface.
If you do not expect a great deal of traffic, you may be able to get away with using your router for DHCP (it will simplify things if you wish to use the WiFi also).

by tcapp_bcast-it

Last question I promise!
What does the amount of traffic have to do with the router?

Thanks

by jellimonsta

Processor and RAM. Just like your PC, the busier it is, the beefier it needs to be. If you are expecting a lot of traffic, you need to either beef up, or unload as many additional services off the router (i.e. DHCP, firewalling).
Regards.

by jellimonsta

To rate the answer so I get the thumbs up if the answer was useful. ;)

This discussion is closed to new replies.