Dne, 20. 04. 2011 11:25:27 je Jochen Schulz napisal(a):
Klistvud: > And here's what I need advice for: > > I'm planning to purchase a wired (consumer grade) switch since I've > heard they're inherently more robust than (consumer grade) routers, > and I'm planning to connect it *directly* to our cable broadband > modem. Then, the two families would connect their respective routers > (we have some spare wireless routers) to this switch. The various > computers and network printers would then be connected, in turn, to > these routers.You are looking for a router (OSI layer 3), not a switch (OSI layer 2).It needs to have three distinct interfaces (1xWAN, 2xLAN). If it runssomething like OpenWrt you are completely free about its configuration, e.g. you can put each interface in separate networks, enable or disable routing between them, filter traffic to your liking etc. It should evenbe possible to use some QoS features in order to share the bandwith between the families (subnets).
Using a router is precisely what I'm trying to avoid here. There are multiple reasons for that, let me state just a couple:
1. Having had a router for the last 5 years or so, I've come to the conclusion that a single router, with a single configuration interface, can not accomodate our differing needs (the other family uses strictly Windows and needs UPnP, we strictly use Debian and hate UPnP; resetting the shared router by one person has broken a download or some other internet-related task for the other person many a time; we both need so many ports forwarded that the 20 available ports of an average router simply aren't enough; and many other "social" issues). That's why I am looking for a "zero-configuration" solution in which there is no configuration interface and consequently no potential conflicts can arise.
2. Consumer grade routers are flaky at best; cramming a firewall, port forwarding, NATting, dhcp, routing and what not into a 32 MB device apparently wasn't such a great idea, technologically, and was, yet again, dictated by marketing concerns only. I need something robust. I need something you can fire-and-forget. That's why I'm trying to avoid (consumer grade) routers like the plague. I have four already, and they are nothing to get excited about. I'd rather have a good switch or even hub than a consumer-grade router doing my broadband sharing.
3. Segment independence. I want to be able to use my network segment no matter what is happening on the other segment. With one central router serving both segments -- no matter how separated they may be internally to the device -- this can't be achieved. It's still just one flaky device serving both, and when it goes down, it takes everything with it. With a sturdy entry point, I'm hoping this could be completely different?
4. Connecting the routers *downstream* of the switch (that's the whole idea) would hopefully halve the traffic passing through them, and so should ease their work (making them lock up less frequently).
What I had in mind is something like this: http://www.ehow.com/how_6823201_use-switch-hub-instead-router.html . Unfortunately, there are many posts on the Internet affirming that such a configuration can't and won't work, because a switch can't give out two IP's if your ISP just gives you one. So, in doubt, I turned to this list for advice. I don't want to buy a switch (or the wrong switch) only to discover that it won't work in that configuration.
I think even a simple Linksys WRT54GL would suffice. AFAIK you can disable the bridge between the switchports and thus configure each switchport as a separate interface. If you want GBit-Ethernet you canbuild something yourself using a Routerstation Pro, for example. Take alook at OpenWrt's Table of Hardware. Alix and Soekris boards come to my mind as well, but IMHO they are too expensive. J. -- If I could travel in time I would show my minidisc to the Romans and become Caesar until the batteries ran out. [Agree] [Disagree]<http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>
-- Cheerio,Klistvud http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com Certifiable Loonix User #481801 Please reply to the list, not to me.