How to establish a single network using two switch

[Andy_91]

HI All,

I have a Cyber Cafe with 10 computers.
I have two internet connections via Sify....
First Five Computers are connected via a Dlink Switch and the next five are connected via a Net gear Switch.

Now My question is that using mutiple ISP's Can i share the network between all my 10 computers.

If yes.

Please tell me how.

Awaiting your reply.

Thanks in Advance

 

[Comissar]

First, why do you want to use 2 ISPs?

You can just run a crossover cable between the DLINK and the NetGear, and the two will appear as one LAN and use the same ISP connection and IP space - it just adds more LAN ports (but uses up one port on each for the crossover cable). You can do this multiple times, but for performance reasons, don't daisy chain them, have all of the other switches connect to a single "top" or master switch in a tree structure. Then connect the top switch to the ISP router. At that point, every PC would be sharing the bandwidth available from the single ISP connection.

Connecting via 2 ISPs takes some work and probably a smarter router than you have there, since each ISP has it's own IP address space, and your user PCs aren't capable of selecting which one to use on their own. You would need a single, far more expensive router that was aware of and connected to both ISPs at the same time, and would also need to be capable of receiving substantial routing information from the ISP using the BGP protocol, something that would need to be professionally configured. Most ISPs won't even allow this on small cable or DSL connections, unless it's part of a business class service at a much higher monthly rate.

I hope that helps.

Stan

 

[Andy_91]

The Reason i have 2 ISP is for better Internet Speed.

If all my 10 machines share a single Internet then the speed on a single client machine is very slow.....

Hence require two ISP's.

I do not have a ISP router is a Cabel Connected to my Swicth directly via the Provider......

And My issue is that i cant afford an expensive Router...

Lets See if using a Simple Cross Over Cable will work or Not.

Thanks for the Help.

 

[Kewlx25]

You will have a problem with having two NATs/Routers broadcasting on your switches. Assuming you have DHCP setup on the routers (default settings) they will both try to assign IP addresses. A computer can only be assigned by one router at a time and the one that responds first will be the one that the computer uses. It's completely possible that ALL your computers will use one router for the internet if one router responds consistently faster than the other.

You can setup your computer manually with static IP addresses or even assign manual IPs on each router for each computer based on the MAC addresses and deny internet access to any other computers. This will make sure that each computer will stick with the ISP you want.

No, your computer's cannot "automatically" load balance the dual internet connections. There are some routers you can buy which do just this. Also, these "dual" port routers can sense and ISP drop and will switch all traffic over to the working ISP. This would be transparent for new connections, but current connections would break since each ISP would have a different external IP.

Since $$ is an issue, sounds like you're sticking with your two current routers. The easiest way for setup would be the manual IPs and set one router to be 192.168.0.1 and assign IPs in the ranges of 2-127 then set your 2nd router to 192.168.0.128 and use IPs 129-254 for the computers. Since the default subnet mast is 255.255.255.0, this will make sure your computers all see each other.

 

[Andy_91]

You will have a problem with having two NATs/Routers broadcasting on your switches. Assuming you have DHCP setup on the routers (default settings) they will both try to assign IP addresses. A computer can only be assigned by one router at a time and the one that responds first will be the one that the computer uses. It's completely possible that ALL your computers will use one router for the internet if one router responds consistently faster than the other.

You can setup your computer manually with static IP addresses or even assign manual IPs on each router for each computer based on the MAC addresses and deny internet access to any other computers. This will make sure that each computer will stick with the ISP you want.

No, your computer's cannot "automatically" load balance the dual internet connections. There are some routers you can buy which do just this. Also, these "dual" port routers can sense and ISP drop and will switch all traffic over to the working ISP. This would be transparent for new connections, but current connections would break since each ISP would have a different external IP.

Since $$ is an issue, sounds like you're sticking with your two current routers. The easiest way for setup would be the manual IPs and set one router to be 192.168.0.1 and assign IPs in the ranges of 2-127 then set your 2nd router to 192.168.0.128 and use IPs 129-254 for the computers. Since the default subnet mast is 255.255.255.0, this will make sure your computers all see each other.

Thanks for the help.

First i have two Switch and not two Routers.

I wanted to ask one question here ....

1. My Current Setup is

Swicth Number 1 :-> Dlink( 5 computers connected)
Swicth Number 2 :-> Netgear (5 computers Connected)

If i connect this two switches using a Cross Over Cabel will i able to view all the 10 computers in the Network? and is that advisable to do that.

Also if i have to assign manual IP address to my Computers while using a Swicth can i do that ?

Thanks in Advance.....

Andy..

 

[Kewlx25]

Thanks for the help.

First i have two Switch and not two Routers.

I wanted to ask one question here ....

1. My Current Setup is

Swicth Number 1 :-> Dlink( 5 computers connected)
Swicth Number 2 :-> Netgear (5 computers Connected)

If i connect this two switches using a Cross Over Cabel will i able to view all the 10 computers in the Network? and is that advisable to do that.

Also if i have to assign manual IP address to my Computers while using a Swicth can i do that ?

Thanks in Advance.....

Andy..

you said "Now My question is that using mutiple ISP's Can i share the network between all my 10 computers. "

You need multiple NATs to connect to more than one ISP unless you get a Dual WAN NAT that can load-balance/Failover(which can be bought)

 

[cochin1818]

Hi Andy
i have also the same problum, did you got any solution for this. i am also like to connect 5 systems in one switch and another 5 in another switch ( I am using two internet connection). and i have only one printer. so how can we give print command from all of this commputer( i installed printer in one system)

Thanks for the help.

First i have two Switch and not two Routers.

I wanted to ask one question here ....

1. My Current Setup is

Swicth Number 1 :-> Dlink( 5 computers connected)
Swicth Number 2 :-> Netgear (5 computers Connected)

If i connect this two switches using a Cross Over Cabel will i able to view all the 10 computers in the Network? and is that advisable to do that.

Also if i have to assign manual IP address to my Computers while using a Swicth can i do that ?

Thanks in Advance.....

Andy..