Dne, 20. 04. 2011 11:25:27 je Jochen Schulz napisal(a):
Klistvud:
> And here's what I need advice for:
>
> I'm planning to purchase a wired (consumer grade) switch since I've
> heard they're inherently more robust than (consumer grade) routers,
> and I'm planning to connect it *directly* to our cable broadband
> modem. Then, the two families would connect their respective routers
> (we have some spare wireless routers) to this switch. The various
> computers and network printers would then be connected, in turn, to
> these routers.
You are looking for a router (OSI layer 3), not a switch (OSI layer
2).
It needs to have three distinct interfaces (1xWAN, 2xLAN). If it runs
something like OpenWrt you are completely free about its
configuration,
e.g. you can put each interface in separate networks, enable or
disable
routing between them, filter traffic to your liking etc. It should
even
be possible to use some QoS features in order to share the bandwith
between the families (subnets).
Using a router is precisely what I'm trying to avoid here. There are
multiple reasons for that, let me state just a couple:
1. Having had a router for the last 5 years or so, I've come to the
conclusion that a single router, with a single configuration interface,
can not accomodate our differing needs (the other family uses strictly
Windows and needs UPnP, we strictly use Debian and hate UPnP; resetting
the shared router by one person has broken a download or some other
internet-related task for the other person many a time; we both need so
many ports forwarded that the 20 available ports of an average router
simply aren't enough; and many other "social" issues). That's why I am
looking for a "zero-configuration" solution in which there is no
configuration interface and consequently no potential conflicts can
arise.
2. Consumer grade routers are flaky at best; cramming a firewall, port
forwarding, NATting, dhcp, routing and what not into a 32 MB device
apparently wasn't such a great idea, technologically, and was, yet
again, dictated by marketing concerns only. I need something robust. I
need something you can fire-and-forget. That's why I'm trying to avoid
(consumer grade) routers like the plague. I have four already, and they
are nothing to get excited about. I'd rather have a good switch or even
hub than a consumer-grade router doing my broadband sharing.
3. Segment independence. I want to be able to use my network segment no
matter what is happening on the other segment. With one central router
serving both segments -- no matter how separated they may be internally
to the device -- this can't be achieved. It's still just one flaky
device serving both, and when it goes down, it takes everything with
it. With a sturdy entry point, I'm hoping this could be completely
different?
4. Connecting the routers *downstream* of the switch (that's the whole
idea) would hopefully halve the traffic passing through them, and so
should ease their work (making them lock up less frequently).
What I had in mind is something like this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6823201_use-switch-hub-instead-router.html .
Unfortunately, there are many posts on the Internet affirming that such
a configuration can't and won't work, because a switch can't give out
two IP's if your ISP just gives you one. So, in doubt, I turned to this
list for advice. I don't want to buy a switch (or the wrong switch)
only to discover that it won't work in that configuration.
I think even a simple Linksys WRT54GL would suffice. AFAIK you can
disable the bridge between the switchports and thus configure each
switchport as a separate interface. If you want GBit-Ethernet you can
build something yourself using a Routerstation Pro, for example. Take
a
look at OpenWrt's Table of Hardware.
Alix and Soekris boards come to my mind as well, but IMHO they are too
expensive.
J.
--
If I could travel in time I would show my minidisc to the Romans and
become Caesar until the batteries ran out.
[Agree] [Disagree]
<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
--
Cheerio,
Klistvud
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com
Certifiable Loonix User #481801 Please reply to the list, not to
me.
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