Router or switch? Please advise

[G.I.O.]

I'm running W2K on two computers. They are part of a video FTP system
and they sit in a rolling "crash cart" so they can be offloaded from a
small van and moved into a temporary location where a given event is
taking place.

Assuming there is access to the "house" network via a cat5 connection I
would need to connect both systems at the same time and still have them
talk to each other on their own little network so I can move files
around, etc.

Do I need to include something like a Linksys router to accomplish this
or one if these 1in-5 out switches I now see advertised for about half
the money. I'm confused as to why one over the other or is the router
always the way to go?

Thanks for any help or advice you can provide.

 

[Phillip Windell]

Configure the machines with addresses that are already compatible with the
in house LAN.
Use a switch.

 

[G.I.O.]

Phillip:

Not sure I understand. If I was to plug into, say, a Cat5 jack in a hotel
meeting room or college
classroom somewhere just what would I need to know or do? My assumption is you
just plug in as if you were giving a lecture. Do I need to have more
information before I can access their network and, ultimately, the internet?

 

[Rod Carty]

Phillip:

Not sure I understand. If I was to plug into, say, a Cat5 jack in a hotel
meeting room or college
classroom somewhere just what would I need to know or do? My assumption is you
just plug in as if you were giving a lecture. Do I need to have more
information before I can access their network and, ultimately, the internet?

If you connect a switch port on your switch to a switch port on the
building network you either need a crossover cable to do it with or a
switch that will autosense or has an uplink switch on it. A switch or
hub's port is designed to have a computer plugged into it.

 

[G.I.O.]

So then is it best to use only a single computer connected to the "house" jack and
simply move the files that need to the FTP'ed over to the machine?

Is this case, is there any way to have my two computers networked to each other or
would I need
to simply move a hard drive cable (say an external USB type) to move the data?

Thanks!

 

[Rod Carty]

So then is it best to use only a single computer connected to the "house" jack and
simply move the files that need to the FTP'ed over to the machine?

Is this case, is there any way to have my two computers networked to each other or
would I need
to simply move a hard drive cable (say an external USB type) to move the data?

Thanks!

Connect your two computers to ports on a small switch you put on the
cart with them. Share files, printers, etc as you wish between them. Use
a crossover cable from your switch to a house jack to connect your
computers to the building network. You may find your computers will find
a DHCP server on the house network which will give them IP addresses
automatically, if not you will have to manually configure them with
addresses assigned to you at that location by the network admin person.

--
Rod C--
http://www.en-consult.ca
http://www.ciay.cathought to myself, "Where is the ceiling?!" <<
The preceding humor inserted by QuipSig
http://www.en-consult.ca/quipsig/

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

If the house jack is plugged to the WAN jack on a router, wouldn't that
work and give you the NAT protection of the router?

 

[Rod Carty]

If you're talking about using a second NAT router on the cart so that
the computers on the cart are separated from the rest of the network in
the building but still giving Internet access, it does work; I've set
this up in a couple locations in the last couple years. The Wan port
plugs into the building's LAN with a straight-through (non crossover)
cable and the LAN ports on the router connect to the computers on the
cart. This does give you Internet access when the router is configured
to work on the building LAN but the computers in the building can't
access those on the cart without additional configuration. It's a
minimal level of security though, only enough to keep basic computer
users from getting around it.

If the house jack is plugged to the WAN jack on a router, wouldn't that
work and give you the NAT protection of the router?

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

Well, could this minimally basic computer user ask how they could get
around my router?

 

[Phillip Windell]

Well, could this minimally basic computer user ask how they could get
around my router?

The minimally basic user isn't even going to know anything about it. The
router is "transparent" when going from the "cart" to the "house". But the
"house" will not be able to go the other direction to the "cart".

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

This is the setup I hope to use when Junior goes to college next month.
Each floor of the dorm has it's own DHCP server, according to the
school, and they recommend a switch in each room and "frown" on routers,
according to the info we've received. But I think it's the way to go.

 

[Rod Carty]

I agree, it's a good idea to use a router in the dorm rather than just a
switch. Keeping the other students out of the computers in the dorm room
is a good idea. I'm not sure why the college people prefer a switch
rather than a router, perhaps it's more support for them or something. I
doubt the college would give access to servers in their network from the
dorm rooms or anything; without full control over the dorm room
computers to ensure antivirus, etc. protection is installed they'd only
be asking for big troubles. There's a limit on how many switches you can
daisy-chain together before delays cause problems for everyone on the
network so I would have expected them to prefer routers - they isolate,
or reset, those timing issues between the WAN and LAN ports. Even the
relatively small college here, which I work on from time to time, had to
deal with their network growing large enough that it had to be segmented
with routed links on a couple of the longer legs.

Having a DHCP server on the college side makes it easy. The only thing
to watch for is if the IP address served up by the college DHCP is the
same subnet as the DHCP server in your router. If your son plugs it all
in and it works then don't worry about this, but if it doesn't then have
him check what network address was given by the college's DHCP server
for the WAN port and make sure it's different than the one the router's
giving out to computers on it's LAN ports. For example, a Linksys router
by default will use a network of 192.168.1.0 with a mask of
255.255.255.0 and hand out addresses starting at 100. That means
computers will typically have addresses like 192.168.1.100 and so on. If
the first 3 numbers are the same on the WAN port then you have to change
the router's DHCP server settings to use a different network number.

This is the setup I hope to use when Junior goes to college next month.
Each floor of the dorm has it's own DHCP server, according to the
school, and they recommend a switch in each room and "frown" on routers,
according to the info we've received. But I think it's the way to go.

--
Rod C--
http://www.en-consult.ca
http://www.ciay.caare the odds of that? -- Bill Muse <<
The preceding humor inserted by QuipSig
http://www.en-consult.ca/quipsig/

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

Their response to why they frown on routers is that some people
misconfigure them and broadcast their own DHCP signal to the network at
large. Only way I could see that happening is if you plugged the school
port into the LAN outlet on my router rather than the WAN.

 

[Phillip Windell]

Their response to why they frown on routers is that some people
misconfigure them and broadcast their own DHCP signal to the network at
large. Only way I could see that happening is if you plugged the school
port into the LAN outlet on my router rather than the WAN.

Yes, that is the right way to do it wrong
Yes it would really create a mess for the school and you should do it their
way.

Switches are cheap add one to the cart. Then just switch the cable to which
device you need in which situation (switch at school, NAT box when at home).
Only one or the other device would be used at a time. If the cart already
has a switch between the machines and the NAT box, then just physically
bypass the NAT box when at school and just plug the cable that, would
normally to the router, into the school's wall jack. It really isn't a big
deal.