Home Networking

[w0lv3r1n w0rm]

Hey guys!

 

I have a quick question about my home network and I was wondering if you guys might have any ideas.

 

Right now I have my home network set up for wireless and wired throughout my house, connecting my personal computers, roommates' computers, Xbox, and it's working great.

So, what I want to do is add a downloading server to my network as well as testing area, where any computer with a virus or any other problem can go so it doesn't affect the whole network. My goal for these two areas to be separate from the rest of my home network. Now setting it up the wireless I have no issue with, create a guest WiFi account and isolate the two. Where I am having issues is the wired portion.

I would ideally not like to use two different routers but I will if that is the only way.

 

If you guys have any idea or need any clarification, let me know.

 

W0rm

[alpenwasser]

Hm, what you wish to do might be feasible with a switch that can create different

VLANs. I've never done this myself though. There are quite a few switches that

support this, for example the Cisco SG300 line IIRC.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

[w0lv3r1n w0rm]

Thanks!

 

Ill look into those switches!

[alpenwasser]

Alright, got some sleep, a few more notes...

Not sure what your level of knowledge is, but:

A while back when I stared doing research for building our home network

I used this video. You might have to search a bit, but somewhere in there

he also covers VLANs (what they are, how they work).

Also, you might find the manual for the SG300 useful, Chapter 13 is all

about VLAN management: link (pdf)

Since the SG300 are managed switches they have a ton of capabilities,

so the manual is accordingly hefty.

And I have noticed that the SG200 series has VLAN capability as well,

see Chap. 12 in its user guide: link (pdf).

It's not quite as complex as the SG300, and costs quite a bit less too.

I highly recommend going over the two user guides and finding out which

of the two series is more appropriate for you (I'm not overly familiar

with either product, I just researched them a while back because I was

considering getting one, but it turned out I didn't need them and an

unmanaged switch was sufficient for my purposes).

Also, of course, Cisco is not the only company that makes these kinds

of products, but these two series are the ones I did my own research on.

I'm sure Netgear and other manufacturers make corresponding products

as well, but I'm not very familiar with their product lineups, so you'll

need to do some digging on your own for that.

[w0lv3r1n w0rm]

Thanks, I think this will solve my problem.

I just need to save up for a managed switch.

[ziogref]

you could do a dodgy sort of setup and have a wan router and have you existing network as is, running a a cable from your good network into a second router, plugging into the wan port, this way (from my understanding) you will only get internet access and you cannot access other computers. I did this for a while, whilst learning about home networking, the router will not allow the WAN ip be on the same subnet mask as the built in DHCP settings. so they will have to be changed. also you could install DD-WRT (i use this) and that has support for vlans (depending on the router). i use a TP-link WDR-4300 ($90 AUD, will be cheaper in the US and Canada)