Network Lan and Internet question (setup help)

Shateiel Kruess · Post by **Shateiel Kruess** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 1:38 am

I wonder if anyone who has more knowledge in networking can possibly help me with this little problem. Some friends of mine are having a lan party, and we usually never had to use more than a 4 port Linksys Network router. Since the number of attendees grew, we got another Linksys router, and from what I read about it, it's suppose to be stackable for at least 2 of those routers together, so they both should work. My question is how do I properly set the network up? To make internet work for everyone and such. We are running on Cable. We got them working once, be we forgot how to do it properly, and we can't seem to get it going again.

Calus · Post by **Calus** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 3:00 am

Get a HUB!

Post by **Martin Blank** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 3:55 am

No, don't get a hub. Hubs are dumb devices that are very poor at handling bandwidth.

Here's your setup.

One router (Router1) will be plugged into the internet connection (DSL, cable, whatever). The other router (Router2) will be plugged into Router1. Router1 will function as the DHCP server for the network. Log into Router2 and turn off the DHCP server function, as requests will pass through to Router1, and this will reduce the chance of IP address assignment collisions.

Any computer should be able to plug into any of the remaining ports on the routers. You should have no problems with this setup.

asp55 · Post by **asp55** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 4:16 am

Hubs are indeed evil cretins. (As they have no packet management ability, many many packets will collide in a hub)

Since you have 2 linksys routers, just do what martin said. Effectively you're turning router 2 into a switch, making life good.

For future referance though, just get a switch when you want to add more connections, switches are fun.

*rubs his cisco catalyst 2900*

Post by **Martin Blank** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 4:18 am

Router/switches are more flexible, though.

Calus · Post by **Calus** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 4:21 am

Damn lasyness, and the fact that i'm trying to make it easy on him with going into building a server. Yes i uses a combation of everything.

asp55 · Post by **asp55** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 4:43 am

While that is very true, but in all seriousness, you only need 1 router, after that, switches are save you some money, and are quite effective.

Post by **Martin Blank** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 5:48 am

Switches save $10 on a four-port. Not worth the lack of flexibility to me.

EvilElf · Post by **EvilElf** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 5:54 am

Hubs only use I see is either big paper weight, multi-port repeater, or used on a Lan without Internet being shared.

asp55 · Post by **asp55** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 7:07 am

Hey $10 is $10, what do you really need more than one router for?

/me notes his switch -catalyst 2900- has much much more thank 4 ports...why would anyone get just a 4 port switch?

/me ponders this, then remembers that he got his switch for free from work...and its a thing of beauty

Post by **Martin Blank** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 1:46 pm

Why do I need a PS2 Y-cable? Why do I need these extra IDE cables? Why do I keep spare hard drives around?

Because you never know when you'll need them, and it's a lot less hassle than having to buy something new when you could have had the additional functionality in the first place for a few dollars more.

I do use a hub here at home, but the two laptops that are on it are very low-bandwidth systems. If I were using it at a LAN party, it would get crushed by the traffic.

TopCat · Post by **TopCat** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 1:47 pm

[quote="asp55";p="117555"]/me ponders this, then remembers that he got his switch for free from work...and its a thing of beauty[/quote]

My boss says you're a bad bad man for stealing from your work and the company (cisco) who sells the routers, for you got it at a bulk discount and that's not right, because you are not part of the place! (We had an argument recently

)

Anyway, he said he's using linksys. Those usually come with a special "uplink" port, which is just like crossover, although you use patch cable with it, because the crossover is done internally.

cabledsl router with 8 port switch. That, doesn't have an uplink.

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 2:21 pm

Modern routers are phasing out uplink because they can automatically detect and switch to uplink when required.

TopCat · Post by **TopCat** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 2:28 pm

is that going to phase out crossover cables? l33t.

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