How to Use both Wireless and LAN at work. I want to Use wireless for web, and LAN for All Other Domain\File\print etc. is th

[jorel1973]

I want to Use wireless for web, and LAN for All Other Domain\File\print etc.
is this possible?
(using a win7 laptop)
Thanks

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

What kind of wireless?

Does your workplace have a policy prohibiting using an external network whilst connected to their network?
(Advanced Hint: Most workplaces do).

There are features built into Windows 7 to block exactly this sort of behaviour amongst users.

That's not to say you're doing something wrong, maybe it's just a configuration issue at the domain level stopping your laptop from doing it.

Speak to your workplaces IT Security Advisor and Domain Administrators via their FPOC.

 

[bill001g]

Its going to depend how the network is setup. I am going to assume you mean internet when you say web. You can not do what you say if you want to use wireless to get to the web pages and the ethernet to get to the files shares on the same server/ip address

First issue is to make sure you can actually get both interface active at the same time. Some laptops have power saving features that disable the wireless when the ethernet is plugged in.

Next be sure you get ip addresses in different subnets. If they are in the same subnet windows will not let you do it....i have heard you can hack this but not sure how.

So now the hard part. You have 2 network connection with 2 gateways say 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1. All work is now done with the ROUTE command. Delete the 0.0.0.0 route on the lan interface. At this point everything will go via wireless. Now put in routes for all the networks you want to use the lan and point them at the gateway for the lan interface.

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

Ideally... why would the workplace LAN + subnet even have a gateway configured?

I mean yeah, there's reasons, but if DNS resolution says 'Hey, it's outside this network', then it'll sort itself out without restoring to changing the routing table manually.

That said, good post (above) as it might be required.

 

[bill001g]

I was going to respond to your post and now I really have no clue what you are saying. How do you think DNS will resolve this if you have no gateway. DNS has no concept of inside the network or outside the network it purely resolves name to IP addresses.

Only once you have a IP address do you know if it is contained within your subnet or not. This is fundamental to how IP works. If it is outside your network it MUST be passed to some other device that knows how to get the traffic to the final destination. By definition this is a gateway so you cannot get out of your subnet without one.

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

Seriously?

All addresses inside the LAN should be in the private, possibly custom, subnet ranges.
If they're not then the LAN has bigger issues.

You can also have more than a pair of DNS servers, you could configure eight or more. (Internet hostname resolution, and Office LAN hostname resolution, with a back-up for each, and maybe an alternate for each, with a backup alternate for each).

Traffic that can only be routed via the Internet, if there is no gateway on the Office LAN, will never be routed via the network interface that lacks a gateway. 🙂

 

[bill001g]

I see you are not using the word GATEWAY correctly. All subnets have gateway address to leave the subnet. BUT all subnet gateways do not lead directly to the internet.

Why would you think a company only has a single subnet and then if they had more than one it would have to use the internet to somehow connect between them.

I know very well how DNS servers work but when it comes down to the only function they provide is the ability to translate a string of characters to a ip address. They in no way affect the path traffic takes though a network....and yes I know all about akamai too but that is so far outside a corporate network it does not even come close.

 

[Tabris DarkPeace]

DNS resolves to private internal LAN IP, doesn't matter if there's a gateway on the corporate LAN but it would help if it doesn't have one.
Most (if not all) corporate LAN's do not use Gateways in that way anymore, they all pretty much just route to 'The Internet'.

If a hostname resolves to a non private external IP address (from ANY VALID DNS Server) then guess what will happen?

Seriously, why over complicate such a SIMPLE task!

 

[bill001g]

You are a fool.

You got the discussion side tracked with DNS which has nothing at all to do with routing or path selection.

So when I have a building that has 20 floors and and each floor has its own subnet. The gateways out of each of those goes directly to the internet.....ya sure I believe you have any clue how things work. Most corporations what a joke.

I normally don't do this but since you will insist you are right....what network certifications do you have....I have CCIE in both routing and switching and in security. Go look that certification up and then try to say I am not correct.