LAN Setup

[okstate_student]

I am a student employee at a research lab and we are trying to set up a local network for file sharing between scientists. Our workstations are connected to a hub then to a cisco 2620 router that is connected to our headquarters by a T1 line.

We do not have any IT support personnel, so we are not sure how to go about setting this up. If anyone could help us find some information we would greatly appreciate it.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

not sure if this is what you are asking, but basically, you need to assign an IP address to the interface where the hub is connected to. This IP address will server as the default gateway for your clients. Let´s say your clients use network 192.168.1.0/24, you could assign IP address 192.168.1.1/24 to the Ethernet interface where the hub is connected to.

Regarding connectivity to your headquarters, is the connectivity already established ? If not, in general a /30 subnet is reserved for that purpose. The serial interface of your 2620 could look like this:

interface Serial0

ip address 192.168.12.1 255.255.255.252

encapsulation ppp

The remote end would have to configure IP address 192.168.12.2.

This will establish basic connectivity between your local clients and headquarters.

Regarding the routing, if there are additional remote networks that your local clients need to connect to, you could use either static routes or a routing protocol such as RIPv2.

HTH,

GP

[okstate_student]

Thank you for replying to my question. Connectivity is alread established with headquarters and the default gateway is setup in the manner you have described. Also, all of our computers have assigned IP addresses and names that we are not allowed to change. The way we are setup now, Scientists log on to their local workstations, not to a domain. With this setup in mind, how can i create a lan using the current router and hub setup? It seems to me like this should be easily accomplished, but then again, i am just beginning to learn about networking.

Thank You

Kevin

[chuck.price]

With your current hub/router arrangement you have already established a basic LAN. Can your workstations communicate between each other? If one of your users were to create a shared folder on their workstation the other users should have the ability to map to the same way as in a domain environment.

[mjcole_mcp]

Kevin you are not providing enough detail. What I understand is the following:

1. You have a bunch of PCs at a branch site connected to a hub.

a. What are the IP addresses of the PC at the branch site?

b. What is the subnet mask at the branch site?

c. Are there any links besides the T1 to the outside world? I.e. besides the 2620 is there any other way to send packets anywhere? Are there multiple links, i.e. is there a T1 and any backup ISDN links?

d. What is the OS on the branch workstations.

2. The hub is connected to a 2620 router.

a. So everything is on one Ethernet LAN? I just want to be clear, there are NO redundant links, no redundant LANs?

3. The 2620 is connected via T1 to head office.

a. Are there any other routers besides the 2620 at the branch end and the router in head office? In short, are there any other subnets, or networks to worry about?

b. Does head office connect to the Internet or does each PC dial into it? If head office does not have the Internet connection, what is the head office IP address range and subnet mask?

I am guessing by your posting that you are trying to get a bunch of Windows PC to talk to each other. One thing to be mindful of, SMB uses UDP broadcast packets, broadcast packets will NOT go across a router, just as switches partition colision domains, routers partition broadcast domains. Hence you will not be able to use "Network Neighbourhood" (can you tell I'm Canadain?) to view systems on the remote side of the WAN link.

Finally what are you trying to achieve? Domain membership? Password authentication? File sharing? (if so, how, by SMB or FTP?) Email? (Where is the MTA?)

There are all questions you should ask yourself, then you should consider how these things are going to work in a perfect world. Then when you have all of that done if you still cannot sort things out, post a reply and I am sure someone a lot more competent than myself will be able to help you out. :)

Michael

[lloydt]

File sharing can be done several ways but you must first determine many factors to implement the correct solution;

1) What type of files to be shared, text, doc, images, database?

2) Who has access to what files or better yet who should not have access, basically are there any security issues?

3) What type of operating systems do your workstations use i.e. Windows? Linux?

4) How many worksations are there and will there be more in the future?

Typically, a "workgroup" will allow you to share common files with limited (share level) security for 20 or so workstations at a time.

If you have more workstations than that or require more security then you may consider a server for centralized authentication and domain management (Microsoft)

Answer the above questions and others will be able to help more effeciently. It sounds as if you have network addressing done which is good but you have some way to go before you can actually share files.

Hope this helps.

[m.pandey]

All the info provided is not enough to work with.If possible mail the existing network setup to proceed further and come out with viable solution in your case.

Regards.