Network Setup Help

IceQB

IceQB

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I have donated a few PC's (duo cores 5) to a school my sister teaches at.
Went a checked there setup and its a mess.
So sis asked me to help them out, if they wait on the dept to help it could only be "maybe" end of the year.

So this is the lab setup.

1 x Windows 2003 Server with AD
32 x PC's
2 x printers
2 x 24 port Dlink switches
1 x Mega Telkom 4 port wireless router

So what i want to do:
- Hook the PC's 16 a piece to the 2 x switches
- Connect the one switch to the other
- Connect the 2nd switch to server
- And the server to the adsl router
- The 2 printers i would share from the pc's its connected to

Would this setup have them all connected & allow internet access?
Also might have to replace some network cables.
 
Server2003 can be set as an Internet Gateway yes,and the rest you specified would work as described too
 
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Should be fine, just plug the wireless router in one of the switches as well, unless you want to add/utilize a second interface to/on the Windows 2003 server and setup routing and NAT there, but it would just be easier to let it do what it does ( ie leave the routing, firewalling and inet access for the router)
Unless you go SBS 2003 and want to use ISA then you could add a second network interface and let ISA do the routing etc...

Easiest would be to setup 2003 AD server to be DHCP and DNS as well. Setup DNS to forward all DNS queries to either a ISP's DNS IP or your Router IP. (Router should forward it to ISP IP anyway)
DHCP setup on Win 2003 Server: set the client range, set DNS server IP as AD server IP, and Gateway IP the Wireless Router's IP...
Remember to switch off DHCP on Wireless router...

Sample IP config for network:
Lets say you want to use this range: 192.168.0.0/24 (192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0)

Server IP: 192.168.0.10
Printer IP's 192.168.0.20 - 30
DHCP range setup on server: 192.168.0.100 - 160
Wireless router IP: 192.168.0.254

So gateway to the internet for any device on the network will be the wireless router's IP...
 
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Thanks guys, good to know I was on the right track.
Will sit later tonight and jot everything down with a few diagrams.
 
ShawnStar said:
Should be fine, just plug the wireless router in one of the switches as well, unless you want to add/utilize a second interface to/on the Windows 2003 server and setup routing and NAT there
Click to expand...

Server has 2 lan ports.
 
Will also stick to the OS's they have as its all lisenced.
Am off tomorrow, so will setup & let you know if it all worked out.
 
ShawnStar said:
Should be fine, just plug the wireless router in one of the switches as well, unless you want to add/utilize a second interface to/on the Windows 2003 server and setup routing and NAT there, but it would just be easier to let it do what it does ( ie leave the routing, firewalling and inet access for the router)
Unless you go SBS 2003 and want to use ISA then you could add a second network interface and let ISA do the routing etc...

Easiest would be to setup 2003 AD server to be DHCP and DNS as well. Setup DNS to forward all DNS queries to either a ISP's DNS IP or your Router IP. (Router should forward it to ISP IP anyway)
DHCP setup on Win 2003 Server: set the client range, set DNS server IP as AD server IP, and Gateway IP the Wireless Router's IP...
Remember to switch off DHCP on Wireless router...

Sample IP config for network:
Lets say you want to use this range: 192.168.0.0/24 (192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0)

Server IP: 192.168.0.10
Printer IP's 192.168.0.20 - 30
DHCP range setup on server: 192.168.0.100 - 160
Wireless router IP: 192.168.0.254

So gateway to the internet for any device on the network will be the wireless router's IP...
Click to expand...

This setup is perfect. There will not be wireless though cause you have disabled dhcp on the router (im assuming that wont be a problem).

Im also not quite sure what the capabilities are of the Telkom Mega router. Anyone know if this will creat a bottleneck? Im assumng it will be fine seeing as you are going to use the Server as an internet server.
 
As this is a school, you'll need some means of controlling Internet access.

You can block unsavoury web sites with Smoothwall and URL Filter. Best of all, it is free, you just need a spare PC (Pentium3 800MHz with 512Mb RAM and 6Gb HDD will be fine) and an hour or so for the initial setup.

Trust me, you will need a content filter.
 
Wireless not being used so not a problem.
I assume Smoothwall goes between the server & the adsl router.
Hmmm, 6GB hd... I have a P4 I could fix up for that.
 
bond007 said:
This setup is perfect. There will not be wireless though cause you have disabled dhcp on the router (im assuming that wont be a problem).

Im also not quite sure what the capabilities are of the Telkom Mega router. Anyone know if this will creat a bottleneck? Im assumng it will be fine seeing as you are going to use the Server as an internet server.
Click to expand...

Wireless will work 100%, just because you disable DHCP on the wireless router does not mean you disable wireless, wireless clients will grab their IP from the DHCP server... which will be the Domain controller...
 
IceQB said:
Wireless not being used so not a problem.
I assume Smoothwall goes between the server & the adsl router.
Hmmm, 6GB hd... I have a P4 I could fix up for that.
Click to expand...

You should place smoothwall between your switch and router, and then make the smoothwall internal interface IP as the default gateway for your clients, again, specify this in the DHCP config on the AD server)
 
PsyWulf said:
...if the DHCP is set to serve to both lan ports ;)
Click to expand...


Why would you want to use a second interface on the Win 2003 server? Only if the server will be the firewall (which it seems it will not be, either use the wireless router as firewall or Smoothwall box, but in both those scenarios there is no need to utilize the second interface on the win 2003 server...)
 
I assume it to be a server board.
Has 2 lan interfaces onboard.
I did not check server machine specs.
 
IceQB said:
I assume it to be a server board.
Has 2 lan interfaces onboard.
I did not check server machine specs.
Click to expand...

Most server boards have two interfaces. You should only use the second interface if you are planning on actually loading Proxy/firewall software on the Win 2003 domain controller, but installing any firewall software on a Domain controller is asking for trouble... usually a nightmare to support...
You can always team the two network connections on that server to create a "single" network connection to one of the switches... if it's a 100Mb switch the server will then have a 200Mb link to the switch and your clients 100Mb each...

(or better yet, if the switches have uplink ports they are usually 1Gb, use one to link to the other switch and the other for the server, but then again the switches might already be 1Gb?)

Then just use the Wireless router as Gateway/firewall or another pc loaded with smoothwall.. your choice, smoothwall will give you more control who and what can access the internet, not to sure what router you have and it's firewall capabilities...
If you use smoothwall then that pc will need two interfaces, one connecting to one of the switches and other port to the wireless router, in that case wireless will not work as it's sitting behind the firewall... well, you could set it to work but just complicating things, want to keep it as simple as possible I presume
 
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