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two NIC's in a system

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by georgelawlor

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My desktop has a 10/100 NIC and a gigabit NIC. I want to run our Netgear wireless MP3 player through a Dlink wireless router to the 10/100 NIc and our LAN (two desktops and a laptop) over the gigabit NIC via a Dlink gigabit switch. The Netgear MP3 server runing on my desktop is able to select which NIC to use.

IF the gigabit NIC is disabled and the 10/100 NIC is cabled to the Dlink wireless router (being used as an access point, NOT a router) and the Netgear server has the 10/100 NIC selected the music plays perfectly.

Once the gigabit NIC is enabled the Netgear server will only let the music flow if a cable it connected from the Dlink gigabit switch to the Dlink wireless router and the gigabit NIC is selected by the Netgear server.

The IP address ranges assigned to these devices are 192.168.0.0xx for the LAN devices and the gigabit NIC, while IP addresses 192.168.0.1xx for the wireless and 10/100 NIC.

I really think this should function in the configuration I am attempting. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

The OS is Windows XP sp2, with 2 gigs of ram and lots of disk space on an HP Pavilion a1540n.

13 replies

by 1bn0

You should be able to just connect the Wireless router to your gb switch.

The four small dlink gb switches I just looked at all support 10/100/1000 on the ports.

Is there a reason you are trying to sepperate them. If not your just making thing more complicated than they need to be.

by georgelawlor

Firstly, the wireless router was added to allow guests access to our ISP should those guests arrive with a wireless enabled laptop. For that purpose the DLink DI-624 has been very useful.

Secondly, having allowed that access it seems wise to try to isolate it away from the LAN. Since the second NIC is available that seemed like a good approach.

Thirdly, it seemed like an opportunity to learn how to do something that appears to be more difficult than it first seemed.

George (still trying)

by cg it

one of the problems with dual NICs on the same subnet is that the O/S can not tell which path to use. The NIC relies upon a router to determine the path based upon the IP address, subnet mask, defaut gateway. You can provide 2 gateways assigning a metric to each gateway [network connections/local area connetion properties/TCP IP properties/advanced tab/default gateways,] but the metric determines which path the O/S will use. Using a metric for a gatway won't route traffic out the second NIC unless the first NIC goes down [O/S will always use the lowest metric path unless that patch is not available].

VLAN is a way to segment hosts into groups and then assign security ACLs to the groups, but on a consumer level, ther are very few switches and routers that will do VLAN and then the configuration is a lot of work.

Use the router inside your network as a router and create rules to open up the necessary ports through the firewall to allow what you want to allow or disallow through the router. OR you can get a router that you can turn off the firewall [block all ports unless allowed] but still have router function.

by georgelawlor

Hello to CG IT:

Thank you for that very good reply.

I thought that by using one address group 192.168.0.0xx and the other 192.168.0.1xx I was putting the NIC's and associated components on different sub nets. Further, since the Netgear server is able to select which NIC to use I figured we had it made in the shade. It seems that the OS over rides this setup though.

I do tend to be over cautious about the wirless rig and wanted to keep it away from the LAN unless there was a distinct purpose in having such a connection available. We are using Zone Alarm fire wall, and MAC address filtering on the DI-624 as well as WEP encryption (the most secure encryption available with the Netgear MP101).

Thanks again

George

by cg it

just hook up the WAN port of the wireless router to the LAN side of your perimeter firewall router. Give the WAN port a static address, subnet mask on the perimeter firewall router with the default gateway as the firewall router. create a subnet on the Wireless router that is different than the perimeter router. you can also give it a different subnet mask. you also want to restrict NAT redirect and filter IDent port 113.

your wireless network is now seperated from your wired network. If you use WPA on your wireless, then just give the key when friends come in, change when they leave. Also don't broadcast your SSID

by melmicke

A subnet needs aN IP and a mask. 192.168.0.1 & a mask 255.255.255.0 means the first three blocks are fixed and the subnet is all the addresses available in the last block from 1-254. 0 & 255 are pre-defined and reserved. Only one NIC should have a defined gateway in windows OS. The route command is used to direct traffic to the second NIC.

by georgelawlor

Thanks again CG IT:

I'm in that group of individuals who knows just enough to get himself into trouble. Your explanation looks and sounds like it will work but there are a few things I do not understand.

The LAN is via a gigabit Dlink DGS-1008D, an unmanaged switch. I am not familiar with the term "Perimeter Firewall". Does this refer to Zone Alarm? I have already turned off SSID.

When you suggest connecting the WAN port of the Wireless router (Dlink DI-624) to the LAN switch, are you telling me that the WAN port will act like an uplink? I shall have to study up on providing a different sub net mask and NAT redirect.

Again, thanks for the response. It feels like we're on th road to sucess with this, I do appreciate your help. I will do some studying and hopefully be able to implement your instructions.

George

by cg it

you mentioned adding in a Wireless router that operates in a non-firewall role. I assumed you had some existing type of router in which you share your internet connection with your other computers [wired router]. That is 2 routers. with 2 routers, one of which is wireless, you have networks. The wireless network would not be able to see or access computers on the wired network by virtue of the wireless router's NAT/firewall/subnet.

by georgelawlor

Hi CG IT:

WE use the Dlink Gigabit switch to get to the DSL (connected to a Dlink switch port) and for the LAN. That way as long as the switch and the DSL are powered up any or all system (s)connected to a switch port can go to the Internet.

We did use a non wireless router as they were meant to be used, when I tried a Linux OS and that seemed to be the only way to get onto the internet with Linux at the time. While the router was in use our junk mail went up astronomically even though the router was set to not respond to pings. Ever since, we do not leave a system permanently connected to the ISP. WE connect each time we want to go to the Internet. We leave that connection for as long as we need it but we do disconnect when we no longer need Internet access. The ancillary security benefit here is that we get a new internet IP address each time we re-connect. It is tougher for the internet bad guys to keep track of us.

We are not using the Dlink wireless router WAN port since it does not go directly to the Internet. We are using the Dlink wireless router as an access point for wireless devices within our home. When a guest is given wireless Internet access I would add a connection from one of the wireless router ports to one of the Gigabit switch ports if I am ever able to get this setup running in the manner I want.

Yes I do tend to be over cautious when it comes to internet security, better safe than sorry!!!.

George

by cg it

Im surprised your ISP allows different computers with different MAC addresses to connect to 1 DSL line at different times. Without NAT you can't connect 2 computers at the same time unless you use the Windows ICS and then that computer must be on for other computers to use the internet connection.

I also can't see how spammers can send spam to you if you don't have a mail server. Spammers send to an email address, not a IP address. Hackers might want to find your address to try and bot the computers but all firewall/routers stop that. [see below on how firewall routers work]

One question, what's the point of having always on DSL if you must create a connection each time you want to use the internet. Time consuming. The consumer level routers today with the built in SPI firewall protection offer plenty of security from the internet. All inbound ports are close unless an outbound request is made. Every consumer level firewall operates this way.

If you have unknowns gaining physical access to your network and sending spam from your internet connection, hense the desire to thwart that by not having an active connection then that's unlawful entry and / or breaking and entering is a matter for the police.

If you want functionality, I would suggest you put in a perimeter DSL firewall/router, use your wireless router in router mode and put the LAN on a different subnet than those computers using the perimeter firewall/router LAN, enable the Windows firewall on each computer and create exceptions where needed.

by georgelawlor

Hi CG IT:

That has been my question all along, how do spammers relate my system being on line to my email address? We have never used Outlook Express as our mail client.

My wife's system is connected via the switch and because of her genealogy hobby she spends lots of time on line. She does send more emails than do I but she is super careful with email filters. She checks her email using web mail before downloading it, and dumps the spam right from the server. It has always surprised us at the amount of spam we get in spite of filters and the care we take to limit the spread of our email address. Lets face it, those spammers are good at what they do. I will try again with the new router and see if the spam increases as it did before. Thanks.

George

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