BuRR

I currently have a 4 port router, and was thinking about the best way to get the house wired up for access in every room... sad eh?

Anyway - I have decided that Wireless is a no-go, and hard-wiring is the way for me.

Does anyone have any recommendations for the hardware required? An 8-port router maybe.

My ISP is Blueyonder and I have a standalone cable modem, with Ethernet connection.

Gedi

Your router can probably accomadate 254 machines.

All you need to to is route your cables where ever you want around the house, using hubs where nessesary if you want to expand above the 4 ports your router provides.

MattW

May I ask why?

BuRR

From experience through jobs I've dealth with at work.

BuRR

So I could add a hub in an upstairs bedroom, for example, and connect the Xbox AND PC in there (through the hub) to the single RJ45 cable running up there?

ScoobyJawa

I've got a Netgear 4 port router, which has one PC into it, then another lead into a Belkin 8 port Switch which has room for my 2PC's, soon to be 1 (sis getting other) and my Xbox

IanW

Steve,

I have similar here. Upstairs I have a small 8 port hub plugged into the router, tehn I have a single drop cable going downstairs to another hub allowing access to hardwaired machines downstairs as well.

I do also have a secured (as much as you can) wireless LAN avaliable here when I want it, I only turn it on when i need to use it

Ian

Bajie

@ IanW

What security do you have on your Wireless.
I've got a Netgear router and use a Buffalo Airstation for wireless.
Hard wiring was not an option for me.
I also only turn on when I'm surfing.

BuRR

Well, I plugged a 8-port hub into the router last night, and although the client PC could ping the router, and log into the web admin interface, all Internet Access was VERY slow indeed.

Are there any special setup requirements router side?

Gedi

I would be a little apprehensiive about using WEP and consider looking into running the network on VPN.

WEP uses an RC4 encryption scheme with a key that can be 40, 60 or 128 bits in length (some newer models offer 256) I'll not go into the design of WEP, but I will say that it can be easily broken with programs such as Kesmet or Airsnort.

Tips
Apply heavy security policies to all machines
It would be wise to pre-enroll mac addresses.
while changing defaults such as SSID, change the password on access points.
Turn off DHCP and assign static addresses
Make sure hardware has upgradable firmware
Consider configurations that are closed, if not use an access poiont that does not broadcast an SSID
consider 802.11a which operates at a different frequency. People (war drivers) won't be a likely to stumble accross it.

These are tips I can recommend as I have to admit, I do have a WiFi detector in my car that is always switched on, and I do use other peoples networks dependant on what I am doing on the net.

IanW

Gedi has basically covered what I have done to secure mine, used strong passwords, left no defaults such as SSID.

Haxzer

Buy a hardware firewall, plug the router into the RED interface(External), run the hub into the GREEN interface(Internal) and get it to spit out DHCP, easy and V secure.

Unless you sad like me and have a Windows2000 server running Exchange... ;-)

Rgds

Matt

BuRR

Is this set up ok? (I'm on Blueyonder)

*Sonic*

Burr

hide your IP address LOL

BuRR

Don't care

Its not that any more

Gedi

BuRR, there is nowhere near enough information there to make a conclusion on security.

A few tips though:

You have your DHCP server running. Turn it off and use static addresses for your machines. You can then keep a track of what connects and with what mac address. (tools like arpwatch will do this for you. Not sure if that is available for windows, or what the equivilent will be. Google will tell you)

You don't need to enter your DNS servers, simply entering the routers LAN address (192.168.0.1) will suffice.

You can turn off rip. rip is a routing protocol and considering you have no more routers on your LAN for this one to communicate with, there is no reason to have it running.

BuRR

Thanks for your thoughts. I have an Xbox connected to this router, and the setup is how Dr NIC recommended me to set it up (the Xbox wouldn't chat to Xbox live otherwise)

I'll try giving each PC its own IP.

Thanks again.

BuRR

and tbh... my question was not about security (its a wired network, and not wireless)

I just wanted to know how to best connect a hub to my router.

Gedi

lol, how did we deverse off the original topic???

Hopefully your up and running. Just remember to make sure the x-over switch on the hub is set correctly and it will all work as if all machines were plugged striaght into your router.

Hubs are layer 1 devices. Basically repeaters which take incoming packets and broadcast it down all the ports. All you need to do is plug it into the wall and your up and running. No config nessesary as with switches and routers.

BuRR

Thanks again.... but as I have said before. All my hub has is an on/off switch. Pinging internal IP's is fine, but it gets lost when trying to get out on the Internet.

Gedi

ok, lets finally get this right with some troubleshooting starting with main concerns.....hehe

(y or n)

1. The machines connected straight into the router have full access to the net?

2. The machines connected to the hub have full access to the net?

3. The machines connected to the hub can ping each other (i.e. only other mahcine on the hub)?

4. The machines connected to the hub can ping the machines connected to the router (i.e. the machines not connected to the hub)

5. The machines connected to the hub can ping the router?

6. The machines connected to the router can ping the router?


I know some of these questions sorta repeat themselves, but we can make a better analysis the more info we have. From this we can understand whether its a software or hardware issue.

Oh btw, make sure you don't have ICMP (internet control message protocol) blocked anywhere. This will drop your ping requests.