Enable Your Employees To Focus On The Core With Intuitive Onscreen Guidance That is With You At The Moment of Need.
Course Of The Month
3 days, 1 hour left to enrollBecome a Premium Member and unlock a new, free course in leading technologies each month.
Solved
Set up a Network for Two Zones or Floors
Posted on 2012-03-23
I need to replace a somehow fried network setup, and need suggestions on how to recreate it, given the described building layout, situation, and the (what should be plenty of) equipment on hand.
Building Layout:
• Zone 1
• Zone 2 (with a working cable modem)
A single Cat6 RJ45 cable connects the two zones, as no wireless signal can cross between the two zones easily, due to construction materials (think super bank safe or something…)
Equipment:
• One (1) NETGEAR FS116 16 Port Fast Ethernet Switch with Auto Uplink (10/100)
• Two (2) ASUS RT-N12/B Wireless-N Routers, both upgraded to DD-WRT v24 preSP2 [Beta] Build 16785 (mini build)
• The one (1) aforementioned cable modem
I don’t think I need to (nor want to) buy any more equipment.
Desired Outcome:
A wireless signal must be accessible in each zone (so one DD-WRT unit per zone), and any PC in either zone must be able to find PCs and print to printers in the other zone. Seamless roaming between the two zones (e.g. as one passes immediately from one zone to the other) must be possible without loosing the connection. All PCs need firewalled internet access, and I’m thinking hopefully on a single subnet (mask 255.255.255.0) around 192.167.1.X for simplicity, for both zones of the building. I’d also like as many wired ports to be available as possible in Zone 2 (near the cable modem), as there are more electronics (printers, internet appliances, etc.) in that zone.
The 500-point question:
Including connectivity and DD-WRT mode (e.g. router, gateway, switch, AP, etc.) settings, how would you set up this network to achieve these results?
Best setup provided (that I can accomplish per the description) wins.
Building Layout:
• Zone 1
• Zone 2 (with a working cable modem)
A single Cat6 RJ45 cable connects the two zones, as no wireless signal can cross between the two zones easily, due to construction materials (think super bank safe or something…)
Equipment:
• One (1) NETGEAR FS116 16 Port Fast Ethernet Switch with Auto Uplink (10/100)
• Two (2) ASUS RT-N12/B Wireless-N Routers, both upgraded to DD-WRT v24 preSP2 [Beta] Build 16785 (mini build)
• The one (1) aforementioned cable modem
I don’t think I need to (nor want to) buy any more equipment.
Desired Outcome:
A wireless signal must be accessible in each zone (so one DD-WRT unit per zone), and any PC in either zone must be able to find PCs and print to printers in the other zone. Seamless roaming between the two zones (e.g. as one passes immediately from one zone to the other) must be possible without loosing the connection. All PCs need firewalled internet access, and I’m thinking hopefully on a single subnet (mask 255.255.255.0) around 192.167.1.X for simplicity, for both zones of the building. I’d also like as many wired ports to be available as possible in Zone 2 (near the cable modem), as there are more electronics (printers, internet appliances, etc.) in that zone.
The 500-point question:
Including connectivity and DD-WRT mode (e.g. router, gateway, switch, AP, etc.) settings, how would you set up this network to achieve these results?
Best setup provided (that I can accomplish per the description) wins.
[X]
Welcome to Experts Exchange
Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.
- Help others & share knowledge
- Earn cash & points
- Learn & ask questions
-
3
2
5 Comments
On the DD-WRT DHCP-Disabled Router...
Lemme guess... (for kicks)
Router, and LAN ??
would I want it in Router, Gateway, Bridge, or Access Point mode?
would I want to plug the cable that connects to "the LAN side of the DD-WRT DHCP-Enabled router" to the WAN side or the LAN side of the DHCP-Disabled router?
Lemme guess... (for kicks)
Router, and LAN ??
Active today
you plug in the dhcp enabled wan port to the cable modem and the wan port of the dhcp-disabled router to a lan port on the dhcp-enabled router (or the switch (doesn't matter)
as for the other question I'd use router mode and set the channel to a low channel on one and on a high channel on the other (just in case)
as for the other question I'd use router mode and set the channel to a low channel on one and on a high channel on the other (just in case)
If I want the computers to be able to share files, etc., then wouldn't I want to hook the DHCP-disabled router up to the dhcp-enabled router via LAN ports? Otherwise, the firewall would get in the way, right?
(DD-WRT can actually let me reconfigure the WAN port to act as a LAN port... something perhaps worthwhile here...)
(DD-WRT can actually let me reconfigure the WAN port to act as a LAN port... something perhaps worthwhile here...)
Featured Post
Question has a verified solution.
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question
PRTG Network Monitor lets you monitor your bandwidth usage, so you know who is using up your bandwidth, and what they're using it for.
ADCs have gained traction within the last decade, largely due to increased demand for legacy load balancing appliances to handle more advanced application delivery requirements and improve application performance.
Here's a very brief overview of the methods PRTG Network Monitor (https://www.paessler.com/prtg) offers for monitoring bandwidth, to help you decide which methods you´d like to investigate in more detail. The methods are covered in more detail in o…
Monitoring a network: why having a policy is the best policy? Michael Kulchisky, MCSE, MCSA, MCP, VTSP, VSP, CCSP outlines the enormous benefits of having a policy-based approach when monitoring medium and large networks. Software utilized in this v…
Suggested Courses
Course of the Month3 days, 1 hour left to enroll
Earn Certification
Cisco CCNA R&S: ICND2 v3
$197.00$177.30
Earn Certification
Cisco CCNA Data Center: DCICT
$197.00$177.30
695 members asked questions and received personalized solutions in the past 7 days.
Join the community of 500,000 technology professionals and ask your questions.