Network Question

Xein · 20 Jul 2016 at 20:39

The new apartment I'm moving to comes with internet but it only has an ethernet socket, after a bit of googling I found out that you can connect a router to the ethernet socket via the WAN socket and it will effectively work as a normal router would.

But my question is, (which I couldn't find on the forums either as my knowledge of networking is pretty poor) if I connect the router to the ethernet socket in the apartment and create a wireless connection via the router, will the other ethernet ports still work and output a connection?

Thanks in advance.

bremen1874 · 20 Jul 2016 at 20:47

'other Ethernet ports'?

Xein · 20 Jul 2016 at 20:50

bremen1874 said:
'other Ethernet ports'?

The remaining three on the back of the router.

bremen1874 · 20 Jul 2016 at 20:52

Yes all on the Ethernet ports on the router will be available. If you need more buy a network switch and connect that to one of the router's Ethernet ports.

Xein · 20 Jul 2016 at 20:53

bremen1874 said:
Yes all on the Ethernet ports on the router will be available. If you need more buy a network switch and connect that to one of the router's Ethernet ports.

Awesome, thank you

neodude · 20 Jul 2016 at 21:15

Generally routers come with 1 WAN port and 4 LAN ports, so surely you meant to say "The remaining four on the back of the router"? Either way, as stated above, they will all work.

bremen1874 · 20 Jul 2016 at 21:18

Quite common to get routers where one of the LAN ports can be retasked as an Ethernet WAN port as an alternative to the built in modem.

joeyjojo · 21 Jul 2016 at 08:33

This is the right idea, using a router means you can hide all your stuff behind NAT, but you might still need some advice from the management on setting up your router.

For example, it will need to know its IP address, subnet, and gateway addresses. These will depend on the rest of the building's LAN.

Xein · 21 Jul 2016 at 17:53

neodude said:
Generally routers come with 1 WAN port and 4 LAN ports, so surely you meant to say "The remaining four on the back of the router"? Either way, as stated above, they will all work.

Yes, sorry my bad

bremen1874 said:
Quite common to get routers where one of the LAN ports can be retasked as an Ethernet WAN port as an alternative to the built in modem.

Sweet.

joeyjojo said:
This is the right idea, using a router means you can hide all your stuff behind NAT, but you might still need some advice from the management on setting up your router.

For example, it will need to know its IP address, subnet, and gateway addresses. These will depend on the rest of the building's LAN.

So, what you're saying is, its not as easy as just connecting it up? There's further steps required?

Steveocee · 21 Jul 2016 at 18:17

I would imagine the socket connects back to a main switch with a router handing out DHCP over the network.

I think you will be fine either connecting a PC directly to said port and taking an IP from the flat structure or you can put your own router in and use NAT and have your own network.

Points to consider;
Your IP range will need to be different to the infrastructure you are connecting to. I doubt they would use 192.168 space but something to be aware of.
If you put a router in chances are you will end up with a double NAT, not a problem as such until you need port forwards.

**unless they hand out public IP addresses to the residents at which point you'll be fine and the above won't matter.

bremen1874 · 21 Jul 2016 at 18:18

Yep, there's a very good chance it'll just work without any additional configuration. Only worry about complications if it doesn't.

Xein · 21 Jul 2016 at 18:22

Steveocee said:
I would imagine the socket connects back to a main switch with a router handing out DHCP over the network.

I think you will be fine either connecting a PC directly to said port and taking an IP from the flat structure or you can put your own router in and use NAT and have your own network.

Points to consider;
Your IP range will need to be different to the infrastructure you are connecting to. I doubt they would use 192.168 space but something to be aware of.
If you put a router in chances are you will end up with a double NAT, not a problem as such until you need port forwards.

**unless they hand out public IP addresses to the residents at which point you'll be fine and the above won't matter.

Seems way past my networking knowledge, so I'm hoping its going to be the latter and be an easy set up, apparently everyone has their own connection but seeing as you're fitted with an ethernet socket I'm going to go with its a split connection between the other apartments (which is a bit naff as no doubt the connection will be terrible) even though they have promised its a high speed connection.

bremen1874 said:
Yep, there's a very good chance it'll just work without any additional configuration. Only worry about complications if it doesn't.

Fingers crossed that it'll work without any issues.

joeyjojo · 21 Jul 2016 at 18:38

Steveocee said:
...or you can put your own router in and use NAT and have your own network.

I've never seen a router than can get its IP by DHCP. Is this something you only get on better routers?

Xein said:
Fingers crossed that it'll work without any issues.

Anything that uses port forwarding probably won't work (well). Like console gaming, file sharing, etc.

The term to search for OP (I didn't know this actually) is 'router cascading'. The idea being the building will have a router, and you will be plugging a second router into that one.

Xein · 21 Jul 2016 at 18:45

joeyjojo said:
I've never seen a router than can get its IP by DHCP. Is this something you only get on better routers?

Anything that uses port forwarding probably won't work (well). Like console gaming, file sharing, etc.

The term to search for OP (I didn't know this actually) is 'router cascading'. The idea being the building will have a router, and you will be plugging a second router into that one.

You, Sir, are a life saver. Thanking you kindly. I'll have a read up on that now.

joeyjojo · 21 Jul 2016 at 19:03

Xein said:
You, Sir, are a life saver. Thanking you kindly. I'll have a read up on that now.

Specifically a WAN to LAN cascade, not LAN to LAN. The former means you're master of your side, the latter means being able to see (and be seen) by the other devices in other flats etc.

That's what I would start with anyway but I've never tried this personally!

Xein · 21 Jul 2016 at 19:08

joeyjojo said:
Specifically a WAN to LAN cascade, not LAN to LAN. The former means you're master of your side, the latter means being able to see (and be seen) by the other devices in other flats etc.

That's what I would start with anyway but I've never tried this personally!

It seems really easy and straight forward, I'm going to initially test it with just connecting it up and seeing what happens but if that does not work I'll use the cascading option as it seems really simple to set up and configure.

Thanks for the info

Steveocee · 21 Jul 2016 at 21:24

joeyjojo said:
I've never seen a router than can get its IP by DHCP. Is this something you only get on better routers?

It's a very basic function. You have just probably never looked for it. Anyone using their own router with a virgin superhub in modem mode does it.

pepp77 · 21 Jul 2016 at 21:30

Yep as others have said it is a simple case of plugging the wan port into the socket and letting it get a DHCP from the buildings network.

It is 99% certain you will get a private wan IP address rather than a public one so yes anything requiring NAT will be a problem.

Also as someone else has said I have never seen a router that cannot be set to dhcp on its wan port and I have used well over 50 different models.

joeyjojo · 22 Jul 2016 at 13:07

Steveocee said:
It's a very basic function. You have just probably never looked for it.

Probably not.

the-evaluator · 22 Jul 2016 at 13:31

joeyjojo said:
I've never seen a router than can get its IP by DHCP. Is this something you only get on better routers?

I've never seen a router that can't get its IP by DHCP.