Small network setup


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I'm helping a friend set up a small network in his restaurant after he got internet installed.  He used to have a peer to peer through a router but wants to incorporate his new internet router.  I was going to plug the cable that went to his office PC to the internet router as well as his computer. My question is really around his original router since I haven't set up a network with 2 routers.  I'm assuming I would set all the PCs up with a 192.168.0.x address with the gateway being the internet router.  Do i set the original router to give out IPs in that same subnet or does it have to be a new one?

 

I drew a very rough sketch of what he currently has set up, if that helps.

Vigneto's Network.pdf

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why do you think you need 2 routers?  At a loss to why you would need more than 1 router, you only have 1 internet connection and I count 3 pcs and a printer.

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I think the second router is unnecessary unless the AT&T is crappy (I don't know them) or unreliable. If that's the case, you can use a secondary router to connect the 3 PC's and the printer. The IP addresses can be served by the AT&T router. The 2nd router will have the DHCP server disabled in this setup and also will use the AT&T router IP as Gateway and DNS (you can use other DNS if needed).

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As others have said, how about a switch or AP instead of a 2nd router ?

If you want a better router than the Uverse gateway - you can always put it into bridge mode, and put in a nice router, but again,  this isnt necessary for what you are dealing with - its not like they will be using it like a home user would.

The ATT Uverse gateway has a guest network capability, so you can have (2) isolated WLANs & if distance is a problem, throw in a small access point, or whatever is needed.

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Are you using the 2nd router as just an AP..  Seems odd since you don't really show any wireless clients other than guest access.  And why do you show 2 ATT routers?  Plus another router?

 

 

This is how I would setup such a tiny network.

 

post-14624-0-37447200-1408189628.jpg

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I think he wants to keep the peer to peer between the original router and the other router. The original router what is the router model ? Is it running dd-wrt or something to that effect ? IS it setup as a vpn ? How is the original router setup? What was the peer to peer connection used for?

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OK, the reason for the second (original) router is because of the existing wiring.  Everything is wired up to it as before the internet was added it was used for the peer to peer network between the 3 PCs and the kitchen printer.  The wireless AT&T routers were put there by the AT&T installer because of where the phone connections were.  The one marked "guest" can be ignored.  It's going to sit off the network for customer access.  The one next to the office PC will be his internet gateway for his network.  The separations in my drawing are physical.  Station 1 is at the bar (this is a restaurant if you haven't guessed by now :) ), Station 2 is the waiter's station and the Office PC is in the back office.  All the wiring goes to the bar area to the router there.  There was one cable that went back to his office that connected his Office PC to the router.  Since he added internet he just connected his PC directly to the AT&T router and disconnected the cable back to his peer to peer network.

 

So in summary, the router is not necessary per se, it's just there from the previous network and rewiring everything is not in the cards.  Offroadaaron is right, the router would just work as a switch so I think that will be my solution there.  So I should connect the one cable coming from the front of the restaurant to the AT&T router which would connect the new switch and on to the other 2 PCs and printer.  Then I can connect his Office PC to another port in the AT&T router.  Does that sound correct?

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If you want to use the old router as just a switch.. Then sure you can do that, turn off its dhcp server and its wireless and its just a switch.  Turn off its dhcp and leave its wireless on and its an access point.

 

If you don't use its wan/internet port and don't let it hand out dhcp pointing to itself as a gateway then its just a switch.  Is that router gig?  Do you need wifi from it?  if not I would replace with a gig switch to be honest.  I would have to assume the new att is gig?

 

BTW - I don't really agree with the use of P2P to describe this setup.  While he might not have a central server (active directory), etc.  Not really the right context for the use of the term if you ask me.  He has a local network - be it there a gateway off the network(no internet) or not..  P2P has come to mean file sharing with torrents, etc. Peer to Peer would me to me the sharing of resources of the different nodes in the network be it sharing tasks in a common function like distribution of a file, or working on an application, etc.

 

What he has here is just a local network - just like everyone else on the planet has in their home.

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If you want to use the old router as just a switch.. Then sure you can do that, turn off its dhcp server and its wireless and its just a switch.  Turn off its dhcp and leave its wireless on and its an access point.

 

If you don't use its wan/internet port and don't let it hand out dhcp pointing to itself as a gateway then its just a switch.  Is that router gig?  Do you need wifi from it?  if not I would replace with a gig switch to be honest.  I would have to assume the new att is gig?

The router doesn't have wifi so I'll just use it as a switch.  I haven't been able to see what type of router it is.  I'm going there later today to help him with this but yesterday when I was looking at it they were open and I didn't want to be prying around too much with customers around.  

 

The main purpose of this is to get his Office PC on the internet but also be able to grab report files that are generated on Station 1.  The Stations don't really even need internet, although I figure as long as they're connected might as well have it for patches, etc.  Also, in the future he may be able to do his credit card purchases through internet instead of phone, like he currently does.  He would need different hardware though, so that's not a priority now.

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If you don't want the machines to have internet - just create a static IP on them and don't setup gateway.  No internet ;)  But you could still share files, use the printer, etc.  But sure always good to keep them up to date.

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If you don't want the machines to have internet - just create a static IP on them and don't setup gateway.  No internet ;)  But you could still share files, use the printer, etc.  But sure always good to keep them up to date.

OK, I think he did want them with internet access for future proofing and any updates.  Sounds like I have a plan now.  I just have to change the existing PCs over from static to DHCP.

 

post-2250-0-99325900-1408198627.png

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yup that works..  Is that old router gig?  If not really would update it unless your stations and office machine are so old they only have 10/100 nics.  Printer is most likely not gig but if you want to move files between the stations and office pc and they support gig and your using only 100mbit switch you really putting a hit on your file xfer speed..

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yup that works..  Is that old router gig?  If not really would update it unless your stations and office machine are so old they only have 10/100 nics.  Printer is most likely not gig but if you want to move files between the stations and office pc and they support gig and your using only 100mbit switch you really putting a hit on your file xfer speed..

I'm not sure yet.  It did look like a Linksys E1500 but I didn't take it out to look.  Frankly there's few files that he wants to get to and they're mainly small reports.  He's been living with the speeds up to now so I don't think it'll be an issue for him of it's not gig.  Also, the 2 stations are point of sale units and they're not new at all.  I actually got him 2 dedicated touchscreen Sharp POS's that we were testing in our office that were being thrown away and his "computer guy" (who's been fired since) told him he couldn't use them.  After a huge runaround it was because he would only support the network with machines he sold him and he sold him some pretty average hardware for about $1,000.  I told him it was a rip-off but he didn't have another option if he wanted to continue service with this guy.

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