3 site network suggestion

[John Doe #2]

Hey, i'd like to hear some suggestions for this networking setup. I have three houses that want to connect together to share resources, files, etc etc. Two can be easily connected by ethernet cable on a 10/100 network, and the third by way of 802.11b/g bridges. I have connected sites both physically and by wireless before, so that's not really an issue, but i am curious about the network topography in this particular situation.

Each house has its own internet connection and is wired internally with 10/100 switches. At present it is not really possible (line limitations etc) to get a single internet connection that would serve all of our needs, so each house will have its own connection. All currently have routers which are set to assign DHCP.

I can easily get the three houses connected together and on the same network, BUT I am not sure how to set it up to not have the internet connections/routers interfere with eachother?

I was thinking of puttingeach house on its own block of 255 ip addresses, such as 10.0.0.x 10.0.1.x and 10.0.2.x respectively, with a subnet of 255.255.0.0. but the router issue is my main problem.

Thanks!

[John Prophet]

Not sure.

But since you have done it before...tell us a little about the whole "hooking sites together with wireless" deal..because we have had many discussions about it..trying to figure out how far apart would be feasable etc and if it had to be line of sight.

Besides, if you reply, others will think we have some cool conversation going, so they will check it out and one of them will answer the original question! lol.

JP

[John Doe #2]

I have hooked up a number of wireless sites before to the same internet connection, but have never really dealt with difficult situations .... i think all of them have had line of sight .... All you really need is an access point, an antenna and mounting equipment, a cable to connect the two. Most of these sites have not been too far away though, I've been able to visually see them with a pair of bonoculars!

The two locations which I am connecting in this case are only two blocks a part. One house, with a higher roof (the highest roof for miles around with great line of sight!), is going to have an omnidirectional antenna. The other house is going to have a parabolic dish.

These are student housing cooperatives, right now we are just trying to connect the three of us, but we're also building our network so it could eventually encompass a larger community networking project.

[phenious]

I think you can setup the routers to only allow net access to certian MAC addresses. If this is the case you could set each router to only allow net access to the MAC address that are in that House or area.

-: phenious :-

[John Doe #2]

That would probably work rather well, although one issue might be that the mac addresses might change as people move in or out every term. That could be an issue.

[vass0922]

If you want all 3 houses to be able to talk to each other, BUT on different networks you'll have to have a router in each house to be able to talk to the different networks.

10.0.1.x can't talk to 10.0.2.x directly
So if anything you could use a wireless/router combo box but thats up to you.
Either way you'll need a
wireless <--> router <--> students
type connection

errmm.. wait
you said 255.255.0.0.. that means they're all on the same network as its a class B network.
If thats the case I wouldn't suggest having multiple DHCP servers because they'll get confused.
If you want a dhcp in each house I'd suggest putting each house in their own network (believe it would be 255.255.255.0) to give you 255 addresses (ugh I hate TCP/IP )

Oops reread the question

On a linksys router you can filter out IP's to be allowed access....

Pretty cheesy though, the PC's default gateway SHOULD be set correctly to only go through the LOCAL router for I-net access
IF they're pulling from the correct DHCP server.

[DVNT1]

I suggest running two IP addresses on each computer or at least a 2nd protocol.

One IP address for the local LAN and Internet access, the 2nd IP address that is only for the wireless connection. Each LAN subnet would need to be different from the other LAN subnets.

example:
Site1 LAN: 192.168.1.0 /24 (Gateway and router LAN IP: 192.168.1.1)
Site2 LAN: 192.168.2.0 /24 (Gateway and router LAN IP: 192.168.2.1)
Site3 LAN: 192.168.3.0 /24 (Gateway and router LAN IP: 192.168.3.1)

2nd IP range for all wireless comms: 10.0.0.0 /16 (no gateway defined)

[John Doe #2]

Thanks I think you might be right, putting each house on their own network and then connecting them by way of a router would probably be the better solution than running all of them on a single class B network, especially if multiple DHCP servers and connections are involved!

[vass0922]

Hmm interesting idea DVNT.. would be nice to have a real dhcp server though

Wouldn't that require each PC to have a NIC and a wireless card though?

[DVNT1]

Originally posted by vass0922
Hmm interesting idea DVNT.. would be nice to have a real dhcp server though

Wouldn't that require each PC to have a NIC and a wireless card though?

No computers would need a wireless card if there was a WAP on the network.

I can't think of an easy way to use DHCP unless you have additional routers similat to how you mentioned.