Subnet a soho network

[MattJo.]

Hello,

Noob question alert. I am the "tech guy" at my company and I need to segment our remote office networks into subnets. I am aware that I could utilize VLAN's--and I may do just that at one or two of our locations that have newer switches, but I will need (to save some money) to subnet one or two others.

I understand in principle, subnetting, and I have played with a calculator, but I am not sure where to begin to implement one. I get that the computers on the subnet need to share the same mask and so forth. I have read several online tutorials. But can't seem to find a practical guide to implementing a simple two subnet LAN.

For example say I have LAN with a NAT gateway (that can do or be set to do classical routing) with 192 addressing. I want to segment the network into two subnets to provide one semi-public internet "kiosk" which is a PC running Ubuntu. Do I need, for example, another router between the NAT gateway/router and the PC or can I set up the NAT gateway to do routing and give each PC on either subnet the appropriate IP settings.

I would much appreciate some practical help/tutorial guidance.

[Essentially, what viper7977 did http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=2123&highlight=subnet+home+network is what I need to do, but was hoping not to involve additional networking equipment.]

thanks,

Matt

 

[claykin]

use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.128 to split a range into two subnets.

That said, you'll also need a gateway capable of setting up rules for you to communicate between the subnets (if thats necessary) and for both to see the WAN connection. Zyxel Zywall 2+ for the budget user or Zyxel USG series for the serious business user.

or, if you have a spare PC with 2 NIC's lying around setup Untange, Clark Connect, Smoothwall and dump your conventional gateway appliance.

Or leave your gateway as is and setup VLAN using smart switches such as the Netgear GS108T or similar.

 

[thiggins]

I think you're going to need to invest in some gear one way or another. Some routers (Cisco / Linksys RV series) support multiple LAN subnets and can route traffic among them.

Or you can use VLANs to separate traffic by adding a relatively inexpensive "smart" switch.

If you have a router that can be flashed with DD-WRT, you could use the VLAN capability in that.

 

[Az Syndicate]

I recommend you go the VLAN route. IMO, this can help you segment your network with out trying to figure out subneting, or worse yet trying to trouble shooting a routing issue with what ever routing protocol you choose.

Get one switch with VLAN capabilities, put it right behind your router and connect all you other switches to it.