fishman78

Howdy all,

I am trying to revise my network to have two seperate networks that don't talk to each other (2 subnets home/business). I know a layer 3 cisco switch would work, but that's a little out of my price range. Just wondering if anyone had some experience with something like this with a regular home router. When I look at the spec sheets to confirm functionality of these cheaper router/switch's the specs don't tell me much. Any advice would be great! Thanks!!!

Kurt

rfarris

Have you thought about just using something like Smoothwall.

Or even an alternative to a Cisco(not that ive got anything against Cisco), I came across Vyatta a week ago, haven't got around to trying it but looks interesting.

Vyatta Cisco Replacement Guide


Just something to consider.

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fishman78

Hey,

I looked into the smoothwall option, but it looks to me like it doesn't support more than one LAN on the free version. I can't seem to locate a link on their site to find the pricing for the pro version either. If someone could help me out on that one I would be grateful!

Kurt

Bviper

If you have two subnets then they won't talk to each other, at least the broadcasts won't. Windows file sharing and other applications where it does not specifically know the IP address won't be discoverable across the subnets so for a home/business it should work fine with any old switch.

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The Cubed Quad build log - Current CPU-Z results

fishman78

Thanks!! That seems to work. Neither computer can access files, but i can still ping each computer from both. Can you tell me why that works? I can't remember if a ping is layer 2, only affecting the NIC? Will this secure data between the two subnets (ie viruses and junk will not be able to copy over)?
Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it!!!

Kurt

Bviper

To save from a headache I'm simply going to use windows file sharing as an example.


Ok because each windows machine does not know the other windows machines on its network it must broadcast on that subnet. 192.168.0.255 (the last address in a network) is an example of a broadcast address. Seeing as you have two separate subnets there are two broadcast addresses, 192.168.0.127 and 192.168.0.255. A machine in the first subnet realizes its broadcast is 192.168.0.127 so it broadcasts to that, the machines on the second subnet are like hey, theres a message from 192.168.0.127, I'm not in the same subnet as that, so I should ignore it.

Thus when windows goes to find other windows hosts, the ones in a different subnet ignore broadcasts. The information is technically being sent to every single machine, but being ignored by the ones in a different subnet. You can still ping because you have the REAL ip, not a broadcast. A host will respond to its request from another on a different subnet if it is DIRECTLY talking to it.

A layer 3 switch would not send the information to all the computers, only the ports on the VLAN. Its like a different subnet, but reduces network congestion for large networks. You cannot ping across a VLAN unless you had ports be in multiple VLANS (but thats a whole nother ball of wax)

For your concerns over security it will not be full proof, but the most easily exploitable things like windows file sharing by viruses. Then yes it will protect against that.

I hope I answered your questions.

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The Cubed Quad build log - Current CPU-Z results

fishman78

Awsome! Thanks again +REP