What can I do to improve my Network? (Flowchart pic included)

[off1c3r]

Hi

Long time reader, first time poster. I would like advice as to what I can do to improve my network. I was thinking about creating some VLANs based on the great and easy to follow guide that was posted up in the How to.

Down to business...

I have Roadrunner Cable. 30Mbit down/1Mbit up.
From my cable modem, I go directly to my aging BEFSR81 Router. (I would love to get a replacement, just not sure what to get. This router has had the lowest latency I've seen for any replacements I tried in the past, but I want one with a 10/100 wan at least).

My main gigabit 'zone' is dual procurves 1800 series. My wireless router is set to switch only which is a WNDR3700 (mounted far away on the ceiling).

Procurve 1, 2 and the Netgear router all have static IPs based on the BEFSR81s IP range. All device IPs are assigned from 192.168.1.2 up to 192.168.1.250. All subnet masks are the same.

I guess my question becomes.. should I replace my BEFSR81? (Price not an issue, within reason). Should my procurve 2 be going directly to my router instead of to procurve 1? Should I change anything with the IP ranges or settings? Should the Voip box be on the gigabit routers (procurves) instead of the top level router (I did that because I thought it would have a better priority). I guess any advice I would appreciate. I designed this network a couple years ago and I kept upgrading/moving devices.. but now I think its time for some change.

Again, I appreciate any advice.

 

[thiggins]

What improvement are you looking for? If everything is working fine, there is no need to change.

 

[overdrive31]

Get rid of the old BEFSR81 which only has a 10mbit WAN port to begin with, you're missing out on 20mbit of bandwidth of the 30mbit you're paying for. I would say make one of the Procurve's the gateway or use the Netgear(which has good QoS configuration for VoIP) and find a cheap wireless N router for your access point.

 

[off1c3r]

What improvement are you looking for? If everything is working fine, there is no need to change.

If the way my ips are assigned is good and the best way then thats fine. I was curious about my 2nd procurve.. If it should be connected directly to my router, or stay connected to procurve 1?

Also I was considering adding Vlans. Was considering a model from the how to. The xbox, wii, and gaming devices to have its own. My Voip on its own. Maybe all the Network storage (14 TB worth) on its own with all PC's maybe? Not sure how to go with it, but I have a feeling a bit more organization would help me..

Get rid of the old BEFSR81 which only has a 10mbit WAN port to begin with, you're missing out on 20mbit of bandwidth of the 30mbit you're paying for. I would say make one of the Procurve's the gateway or use the Netgear(which has good QoS configuration for VoIP) and find a cheap wireless N router for your access point.

Thats the thing.. I thought the 10mbit wan limit would have prevented me from downloading at the speeds I do. I can reach 3.2MB/sec download speeds and not be limited by roughly 1.5Mb/sec. I was thinking about using the netgear as the main router, but it would be a .. hassel to put it nicely to remove it from where I have it mounted. I would rather just buy a new one. I was looking at some of the Cisco small business routers.. maybe the RV042? Just not sure what to go with but I Know I want to get a 10/100 wan, low latency, good security top level router.

Thank you both for replies..

 

[GeneralEclectic]

Instead of Just Another Router and if you have an unused PC sitting around, you might consider Untangle (free) which has a far richer feature set than any affordable router. There's a small learning curve with it, but for the most part it sets itself up on installation with usable defaults, and asks for information that you already know.

For a network like yours, almost any old P4 or better PC with a gigabyte of RAM and a 20GB or more HDD will work. The only thing you may need to add to it will be good (non-Realtek) network cards. Something like the Intel Pro1000/T (ebay, used ~$6) works great.