Network Setup Problems
 

Ok if any network gurus have any input on how I should set up my home network to work as I need to will be greatly appreciated.

Here's the problem. I've got 3 computers at home, 2 are mine, one is my girlfriend's. We both submit galleries but are independant in business. So I just got a second IP address from my ISP for her, so that we stop being considered as the same person when submitting galleries.

Now, the network was previously simple and easy i.e all 3 computers connected to a linksys router, never had a single setting to play with and everything worked fine.

My question is, can the router do the job of grabbing both IP addresses from my ISP? Can it do the job a hub usually does?

I'd rather not go for a hub since I read that hubs are no security protection like routers are..

My ISP tells me the IP addresses are not static, however they look pretty static to me, they change maybe once a month but that's it.


I'm pretty confused on how to set this network up and good topics on the subject are hard to find... :helpme

Bump for you. I would like to know as well.

What kind of router do you have?

Der... a linksys.. sorry I cant read today.

I'd be surprised if your linksys will do that, presuming it's designed for home use and not a big business.

What you need is dual interfaces. Last time I needed to do something like that, I put two ethernet cards in a llinux box and had each one pull an IP.. used the linux box as the router/firewall.

Alternately if you are feeling brave you could always just take one machine off the router and put it directly on the net, although thats really begging for problems.

Yep linksys BEFSX41 is what I have.

Someone on another board suggested looking into setting up DMZ to make this work. But from what I read it looks like setting a PC on DMZ is the same as plugging it directly on the net, which I don't wanna do, I like my stuff as secure as possible.

If the IP addresses change every month, then you do not have static IP's.

Do they not offer that??

If not, you either have to change the IP every month in the computer, or get a new connection.

I have a linksys as well, and I think that I saw in it some place that you can set it up to give a certain ip to a port. But I am not sure. I have not been in it for some time, so I dont really remember.

Is it important that your 3 computers can talk to each other?

If not, I'd just go buy a $50 router and be done with it. You could probably even bridge the two together and get them talking with a bit of work.

Hmm.. my basic understanding is that the only IP visible to the outside world is the Routers IP anyway.. isnt that right?
You need a way to let the both IP's be seperate, yet share the same connection. Do some searches on the linksys help site or wherever for 2 seperate IP's? Hell if I know. I live alone and like it, lol.

My ISP only offers static IP addresses to commercial accounts and sells 5 at a time, and I don't need that much. So I have 2 dynamic IPs now.

And yes it is important that computers be able to communicate.

However, one thing that might make it possible is that it is not necessary to have both IPs working simultaneously since we don't submit at the same time.

So, when she sends her galleries I could make sure the network is plugged on the first IP my ISP gave me, and when I'm about to start submitting I just log in the router admin and fix it with the second IP. Anyone know how to make this solution work?

My ISP hasn't given me any infos on Default Gateway, Subnet Mask, or DNS for the second IP, are these usually the same as for the first one? Or maybe second IP is assigned by a second Gateway?

You'll need to plug two devices into a hub
or switch which will then plug into the cable
or DSL modem. If you want to stick with Linksys
routers only then indeed it will become plural -
"routers". If you have an old 486 or whatever
laying around in a closet it will make a real nice
router booting Linux from a floppy.
I use Coyote Linux on my router.
It's a floppy based Linux distro designed specifcally
for use as a router. In fact some of the routers
you see at Best Buy actually have a Coyote
or LRP derivative inside on a flash chip.
If I were setting it up I'd sell the Linksys or
give it to a buddy and setup some old POS
computer with 2-4 ethernet cards as the router.
With 4 cards I'd have one for each of the external
IP addresses and one for each of the internal
networks.
You'll have two internal networks so that you can determine
which machines go through which external IP.
With two cards I'd set up aliases under Linux so that
they appear to be 4 different cards.
You'll probably need a local Linux guru to
set it up for you. Try calling soemone with your
local Linux Users Group.
You might find someone who would do it
in trade for the Linksys router if you get
really, really lucky.

If you don't have any luck finding someone local
someone like myself could set up most of
the router config remotelly and walk you
through which wire gets plugged in where.
You'd need to get a computer with at least
a 1 GB hard drive though, then stick in
a Linux install disk and just do a minimal
install that I could then remotely access
and customize.

Thanks Raymor, very informative.

Actually as I re-thought my problem, if there is just some way that I could just log in the router's admin and switch the ip address as I need to, that would be awesome, even better than having specific IPs for each PCs.

As I was looking in the admin, it looked like the only way to switch IP would be to know exactly what that IP or maybe get it from another one of their DNS. When I called they said that it doesn't work like that though, so I don't really know how to find out what the second IP address is, any ideas?

most likely they are giving you the IP using DHCP.. so you might need to have a second device make a request while the first one is already active.. otherwise it will probably give you the same IP back.

If you can get the modem connected to the hub like the guy a few posts back said, that will probably work.

Change the setting to "obtain ip automatically".

After all I will end up just looking for a permanent static proxy address if that exists anywhere, if anyone knows anything about such a service, a link would be greatly appreciated. I don't really want a free service, I'd rather have something reasonably priced and that I can count on its reliability day after day.

Thanks for the help.