Subnetting for Simpletons

I need some peace of mind on subnetting. Our consultant is unavailable till Monday and I need peace of mind so that I can get some sleep.

Our mac fanboy has persuaded the management that he needs to run on a different subnet to the pcs. He will need to to see the printers etc attached to to our switch. I have gotten this far with the work.



Do I need another router for this to work, or can it all be done on the Draytek Router.

What was his reasoning behind needing a different subnet?

Solely because I run the network and he doesn't. This has been an ongoing thing for years and he has gradually worn the managers down through whining about the network being slow and unresponsive. When asked for specifics he just moans some more and reckons he should run the network. There are no technical reasons but the management buy it to keep the peace and lumber me with the agro.

I have even heard on the grapevine that he also wants his own broadband connection because he is not allowed onto the router admin panel, but we'll see.

Tell management that they're being stupid. Either they trust the person they appoint to run the network, or they don't. If they don't, then I'd stop doing it for them.

The setup in the OP would put all the machines in the same subnet, they're just connected to separate switches (and then to the same switch in the Draytek).

Some more info to clear things

All pcs and macs currently run 192.168.0.*. The idea is to move all the macs to 192.168.1.* and keep the pcs as they are. The macs will need to see all network appliances on 192.168.0.*. Even the SBS Server and exchange (dont ask!)

So where is this link done. On the router? Or is another router needed.

growse said:

Tell management that they're being stupid. Either they trust the person they appoint to run the network, or they don't. If they don't, then I'd stop doing it for them.

Click to expand...

They don't want to know. Which is why I'm applying for jobs elsewhere, then macboy can have all the fun he wants.

You'd either need a router with two ethernet interfaces, or an adsl router with two ethernet interfaces. If you go with the former, you could plug one end into the 192.168.0.0/24 network and set it's default gateway to be the adsl router.

Big "I think that's right" caveat on all of the above.

Your Mac fanboy is shamefully uneducated in this matter.

Swiftly hit him with a large object.

(I think..)

The Draytek Router has four ethernet interfaces so that's no worry. But I cant find any subnetting options in the admin interface.

Iv'e googled and looked at the Draytek website but all I get is the theory of subnetting and nothing on actually setting it up.

WotDa said:

Your Mac fanboy is shamefully uneducated in this matter.

Swiftly hit him with a large object.

(I think..)

Click to expand...

lol. That's part of the problem. I once threw a pen and some *words* at him in a fit of anger. Wasn't a good idea but felt good at the time

joey1211 said:

The Draytek Router has four ethernet interfaces so that's no worry. But I cant find any subnetting options in the admin interface.

Iv'e googled and looked at the Draytek website but all I get is the theory of subnetting and nothing on actually setting it up.

Click to expand...

No, the Draytek is basically a router with a single interface, connected to a 5 port switch. ie there's only a single routing interface.

joey1211 said:

The Draytek Router has four ethernet interfaces so that's no worry. But I cant find any subnetting options in the admin interface.

Iv'e googled and looked at the Draytek website but all I get is the theory of subnetting and nothing on actually setting it up.

Click to expand...

Those 4 ports you're referring to are just ports that form a switch.

In your diagram you need to put the Draytek on 1 subnet or the other then you need something to route between the 2 nets. If you have a Windows 2003 server then you could maybe add another network card, give it an address on the Mac net and the install and configure Remote Access and Routing and use that to route between the 2 nets, you'll also need to add a static route on the Draytek telling it what IP address it needs to use to get to the Mac net ie the IP address of the extra card you added to the server.

Also, dependant on the model of Cisco/Netgear you might be able to get 1 or the other to perform the routing.

Hmm, this sounds beyond my knowledge. I'll wait for the consultant to come back to me on Monday.

Thanks for the help. Time to move on to pastures new and learn this stuff. Not much scope in a 30 employee company.

Slightly different approach but don't those DrayTek's support a port-based VLAN system?

You could set it up like this:

Port 1 - > PC Network
Port 2 - > Mac Network
Port 3 - > Switch with shared stuff on it

And just tell it that port 1 and 2 can't communicate with each other, but can both pass traffic to port 3. Not sure if it would do quite what you're looking for but its just another suggestion

or if this mac user is as dumb as he sounds, just tell him that hes now on a different subnet (even though he isnt). If he doesnt have access to the routers and such, how will he ever know hes not?

Need a better router for what you want to do.

I think the best way to do this would be to just use vlan's and buy a decent cisco router capable of routing between them.

That way you could use the switch to connect them all into, if anything needs to go over to the other vlan it goes through the router.

Macboy gets his subnet

EDIT: Wij's suggestion basically the same idea if the router has that functionality

lol. Yeah, i'll give it a go and I hope I get another job soon. But probably a bad idea. His biggest bugbear is that the pcs show up in his network neighbourhood equivalent on OSX. Who cares? Do some work.

Just pick the most expensive part that does the job and tell the management thats what you need to do it. They will soon fob him off.

WotDa said:

Your Mac fanboy is shamefully uneducated in this matter.

Swiftly hit him with a large object.

(I think..)

Click to expand...

Macs are large, and have the benefit of being both heavy *and* expensive.

You don't need vlans, or a better router - a small cheap linux box with two NIC cards in it will do this. If you're switch can do VLANs it's a bonus, as you'll only need a small cheap linux box with a single NIC to do what you want.

And when I say what *you* want, I of course mean what the now unconcious macboy wants.