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Connecting to unknown network

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by dpiscott

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Background: We've got a product that consist of a rack of 2-6 Windows PC's all networked together with a standard domain and fixed ip/subnet scheme. The master PC runs W2k Professional and acts as the controller of the entire system using our own custom built software.
This system will be shipped to various customers with various network schemes. We need the ability to connect our network to the customers network to allow file tranfers to our system. The master PC is really the only unit thatneeds to be accessed from the customers network
I need a hardware solution that I can mount to the back of our cabinet that can be configured to match the companies network scheme. I do not have the option of adding a second NIC to the Master PC.
I've played around with some routers but I'm not sure what kind would be best. I'd appreciate any advise you guys can give.

10 replies

by homekeys

Modem? You could try a modem and write somthing that dials out and transfers the files or you can dial in and get the files. That why it could be an analog phone line plugged into the sever. I have a friend that did this solution for an edu.
pro
-clients do not have to have internet.
-do not have to worry about clients network design in any shape or form.
con
-security clients may not like people dialing into thier network
-if the files are large and there are billions of them dialing is slow

ttfn

by dpiscott

Unfortunately a modem would be too slow and it would require a phone line to be dedicated to the system. Most of the files that are being transfered are going to be large data files. For the majority of our customers, an ethernet infrastructure will already be in place.

by clearsmashdrop

Your clients are going to be the ones to allow you access, since you are coming into their network. Have you thought about trying a USB ethernet device? Im assuming you cant put in a second NIC inside the PC.

by clearsmashdrop

I just want to add strength to Joeseph's warning below. This sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. If you have a 2-6 computer network and you are plugging it into someone else's network, then there are lots of issues to worry about.
Conflicting IP address, names, trusting domains, etc.

by dpiscott

Let me add some info so everyone doesn't think I am just trying in invade my customer's networks. We sell printing systems for commercial printers. Our system is composed of one or more print heads, each controlled by it's own PC. A Master PC manages and coordinates all of the PC controllers. These are all networked together and installed in a single cabinet. As far as we are concerned it is a self contained unit and there is no need for it to be connected to anything else.
Our customers will create the print jobs on a separate workstation (attached to their own network) and will need to transfer those files to our system for printing. Typically this can be done by floppy or CD. Several of our customers have wanted the ability to do this over the network. We have a fixed private IP system (10.x.x.x) and I do not want the customers to change this. It will our customers decision to attach to our system and ultimately their responsibility to make it happen.
What I want to do isfind a way to help them do that without having to reconfigure our settings for every customer we have. This can lead to a support nightmare.
Here is my current thought. If I put a gateway router outside of our cabinet and connect our switch to the LAN side of the router and leave the WAN port to be able to connect to theirs. This way they can assign whatever IP address to the router that they want. I realize that not all networks will be compatible with ours and we can live with that.
Ideally we would like to set it up so that they can have a PC of their choosing on their network sharing a folder with the print jobs on it. The press operators could use our master PC to copy the jobs locally to our system. That way our system couldn't be accessed externally.
I hope this clears up my reasonings behind my question.

by joseph moore

Well, I don't see how you can just send a full network of machines to a remote site, have the admins at that site plug the boxes in, and expect connectivity to work. Conflicts will happen.
Say your machines use IP addresses of 192.168.1.1-6, the standard internal Class C address space.
And say that the client you sent these machines to ALREADY uses those IP addresses on their own machines. Once your machines are plugged into a switch or hub at this remote office and turned on, your machines AND their machines will detect IP address conflicts. This will impact your machines connectivity AND the customers connectivity!
In other words, havoc!
You are gonna have to be in communication with the customer BEFORE you ship your machines out tothem. I would ask the customer what IP addresses THEY have available, what IP address range they use internally. From that point, you can set up your machines properly.
With proper IP addresses planned out and set up, then you could achieve proper routing. And with routing set up correctly, you could then (once the customer gives you access to their network from your office via VPN or some other method the CUSTOMER has established) be able to connect to your machines remotely to do whatever maintenance you need to do.
And file transfer from your machines to theirs is easy, once the IP routing is set up. YOu could run a local FTP server on your machines, and give the admins on the customer site login/passwords to send/retrieve files from your FTP server.

Anyway, I just think you need to think more about the setup here.

by wlbowers

If you have a spare usb port you can add a nic. Several manufacturers have a usb to ethernet adapter and they work great.

Good Luck Lee

by wlbowers

Cisco router. Starting at the 1720 series. Has slots for cards to match configuration and tons of software variables.

Contact Cisco and they can help you design the hardware and software solutions.

Good Luck Lee

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