Network Setup

[RGoolsby]

Ok, I have been reading posts here for weeks now and I am finally getting my setup close to how it needs to be...

My question, and i didn't see an appropriate one throughout my searching, is about how to setup my networking.

What I have:
two network cards in the core; one on the mobo as well as a gigabit NIC.
modem from cable company
wireless router (w/DHCP turned off)
switch

I am curious about the best way to set up to ensure i can network boot and still have wireless acesss throughout my place.

I am thinking that these are my options... but let me know if there are better routes to take.

Option 1
Modem-->Wireless Router(DHCP off) -->Linux MCE    --> Switch --> Diskless MCEs
                                                 -->Wireless Laptops

Option 2
Modem-->Linux MCE --> Switch --> Diskless MCEs
                                            --> Wireless Router (DHCP off)


Last night I had the setup:

Modem --> LinuxMCE-->Wireless Router(DHCP off)--> Diskless MCE
                                                                   --> Wireless Laptops

and it worked (internet connectivity to everything) however upon a reboot i lost connectivity to the laptops... and through reading the posts it seems that I needed a switch in my setup... so now I am asking you all for advice...

Thanks in advance

                             

[teedge77]

If you have LinuxMCE set to be the gateway to the modem then you will lose connection to the internet when you reboot. option 1 seems the best to me. How many ports does your router have and how many MDs do you intend to have? You don't necessarily have to have a switch, if you are going to have enough ports from the router.

[RGoolsby]

I intend to have 3 MDs (at this time) and it made sense to me that I wouldn't need a switch... however I 2nd guessed myself upon reading through the forums.

There are enough ports on the router to use it for everything.


I lost connectivity on the laptops when the laptop rebooted, I did not reboot the core.  I did not do any testing or look to the cause (I had already been working with it for about 5 hours and I had hit my limit)


Theoretically this setup should work right?
Modem --> LinuxMCE-->Wireless Router(DHCP off)--> Diskless MCE
                                                                   --> Wireless Laptops


Is there anything special i need to do to ensure connectivity after a reboot? manually configure the ips and dns on the laptops?

[pixelator]

I have this set up
3 levels of my home are ethernet hardwired (basement, floor 1 and floor 2)

basement:
modem -> Core/LMCE -> linksys router (switch mode) -> 3Com 24port switch ------> floor 1 devices
                                                                                                        ------> floor 2 devices

on my floor 2, I also have a linksys wireless router (switch mode) that covers my whole home allowing wireless connections.

on the devices that lose connections after reboot, you may want to try to manually set the gateway address to point to the core.

as for needign a switch, any off the shelf linksys, dlink [and the like] routers typically have at least a 4 port switch built in.

[dopey]

pixelator, I would switch that around so you have the 24 port switch as close as possible to the core, unless the 24 port switch is only 100Mb and the router is 1Gb. What's the speeds of the switches? I know most routers are only 100Mb.

RGoolsby, If you use option 1 you will need to enable DHCP on the wireless router. However, this will cause the wireless connections to be on a different sub-net and inaccessible to the rest of the network. Option 2 is your best bet. You will always loose internet connectivity during a core reboot (it's serving the net to the rest of the network), but as soon as the core is back up so will the internet connectivity. One thin you need to do is make sure you do NOT use the External (WAN) port on the router. Connect the Core and the diskless MD's to the Internal (LAN) ports. That turns the router into a cheap switch. There should be other setting on the router you can set to actually disable the WAN port and operate in switch mode completely, depending on what router you have.

[RGoolsby]

Everyone thanks for the quick replies.  I think where I went wrong is where I was using the WAN port on the router perhaps. 

I'm assuming that using option 2 would still allow me to use the wireless router as an access point.  It would just recognize the cone on a LAN port and direct internet traffic via that direction?

[pixelator]

pixelator, I would switch that around so you have the 24 port switch as close as possible to the core, unless the 24 port switch is only 100Mb and the router is 1Gb. What's the speeds of the switches? I know most routers are only 100Mb.

That is only a portion of my network. I need the linksys there to host another vlan and subnet where I have a staging server for application Dev and testing. I posted only the portion that is affected by LMCE.

[totallymaxed]

pixelator, I would switch that around so you have the 24 port switch as close as possible to the core, unless the 24 port switch is only 100Mb and the router is 1Gb. What's the speeds of the switches? I know most routers are only 100Mb.

RGoolsby, If you use option 1 you will need to enable DHCP on the wireless router. However, this will cause the wireless connections to be on a different sub-net and inaccessible to the rest of the network. Option 2 is your best bet. You will always loose internet connectivity during a core reboot (it's serving the net to the rest of the network), but as soon as the core is back up so will the internet connectivity. One thin you need to do is make sure you do NOT use the External (WAN) port on the router. Connect the Core and the diskless MD's to the Internal (LAN) ports. That turns the router into a cheap switch. There should be other setting on the router you can set to actually disable the WAN port and operate in switch mode completely, depending on what router you have.

I can't see that turning DHCP on the Wireless router makes any sense at all? In any lmce system you ideally want the Core to be the DHCP server for all devices, including those accessing the LAN via the Wireless router. Just lock down the wireless router properly and your set.

[dopey]

totallymaxed, It would make sense if the router is before the core. If you don't do this the router will have the WAN IP and will not provide the core with another IP for it to connect to. Of course you could manually set things up in LinuxMCE, but why?

RGoolsby, Yes it would still allow you to use it as an access point. In fact that's pretty much what it'll be dumbed down to, an access point and a switch. I have a similar setup myself. The only difference is that I have two access point connected to the switch. The LAN ports on the access point that isn't connected to the core are still usable, but should really only be used for slow devices (ATA, for example) or if you have no other choice.

[RGoolsby]

Success...I went with option two and it works like a charm.  I think where I went wrong was def using the WAN port on the router.

Modem-->Linux MCE --> Switch --> Diskless MCEs
                                            --> Wireless Router (DHCP off / Not Using WAN Port)

[totallymaxed]

Success...I went with option two and it works like a charm.  I think where I went wrong was def using the WAN port on the router.

Modem-->Linux MCE --> Switch --> Diskless MCEs
                                            --> Wireless Router (DHCP off / Not Using WAN Port)

Yep... thats pretty much how we setup our Wifi routers. Glad you got your setup working.

[mrothwell]

OK - Now I'm a bit confused.

Here's my current setup:

Modem ==> wireless router ==> 5 port switch ( in the junction box ) ==> LMCE box
                                     ==> Main home PC                              ==> Future MD's
                                     ==> 2 laptops via wireless

The Modem is in the same room as the main PC and really can't move anywhere else.  I only have a single cat 5 in that room, so I need the router there to feed the main PC and the switch that is in the main junction box of the house.  From that box I connect whatever room needs to be connected, including the theater room (also only 1 cat 5 wire) where the LMCE box sits.  If I were to make the LMCE box the DHCP, then it would need to be running all the time, and I'm a tinkerer, so  I will shut that box down, but still need the rest of the network.  How could this be set up?  Isn't there a way to have a PXE boot device find the LMCE box that is not set up as a DHCP?

[teedge77]

its possible but takes a lot of work on your part and not all dhcp "servers" can be configured that way. pxe uses a combination of tftp and dhcp. most of the wireless routers just give out addresses. you cant really configure a lot more than that. you would need a redirect service to tell pxe where to get the boot image after it has gotten an address.


heres a good place to see if you want to try to do it that way or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment