Help "specing" home network

[dangerstat]

Hi All,

Well I think it's finally time to properly sort out my home network and replace / upgrade it all.

I was hoping you guys could walk me through what I need and how to achieve it.

Basically I have to two systems which I access via ssh or VNC to do development on, but I don't want them to be on all the time (just when I want to use them). One is a Intel Mac and the other a multicore standard desktop with a decent GPU (for CUDA work).

Now at the moment I use a relatively high performance PC to do the remote dev work which seems pointless? I was thinking of replacing it with a low power Atom based machine whose sole duty is to access the other machines - and perhaps play a video or two. How easy is it to WoL so that if I'm on the atom machine and need some extra "grunt" it'll startup the other machines so I can ssh into them?

Also at the moment I have a USB attached Laser printer which I want to be able to access from any machine on the network - is there such a thing as a USB - Network print server?

With repsect to the network itself, I'm just using one 8 port swtich to connect all the machines, but I want to move to a situation where I have all the local machines connected in a trusted way (is that a DMZ?) and a seperate area for things that are connected to the web with little filtering. How do I achieve this?

I'd appreciate any help and advice as I'm really a n00b with respect to setting up a "proper" network.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Easy things first - USB > Network print servers do exist. Run you about £30 or so.

Wake on Lan is not difficult, even easier if you do not want to do it over the WAN which can become a Pain in the ass. Assuming your NICs/Motherbaords support it this should be childsplay. Integrated NICs will WoL easily, an expansion NIC will no doubt need the WoL cable connected to the motherboard.

No idea about macs but some wiki blurb seems to indicate you can do it:

Mac hardware (OS X)
Modern Mac hardware features integrated WoL functionality, controlled via the OS X System Preferences Energy Saver panel, in the Options tab. Marking the Wake for Ethernet network administrator access checkbox enables WoL.
Apple's Apple Remote Desktop client management system can be used to send WoL packets, but there are also freeware and shareware Mac OS X applications available.

You can DMZ with a Layer 3 switch and VLANs but it is easier to just do it on a router that supports DMZing, cheaper too.

 

[dangerstat]

Easy things first - USB > Network print servers do exist. Run you about £30 or so.

Wake on Lan is not difficult, even easier if you do not want to do it over the WAN which can become a Pain in the ass. Assuming your NICs/Motherbaords support it this should be childsplay. Integrated NICs will WoL easily, an expansion NIC will no doubt need the WoL cable connected to the motherboard.

No idea about macs but some wiki blurb seems to indicate you can do it:



You can DMZ with a Layer 3 switch and VLANs but it is easier to just do it on a router that supports DMZing, cheaper too.

What does "layer 3" mean?

Oh and thanks very much for the commenets on the USB > printer server comments and WOL mac.

 

[iaind]

Remember with USB print servers to check the compatibility - as USB printing isnt 100% standardised, especially if your printer's a bit obscure or a multifunction.

A layer 3 switch is one that can also do routing (normally between VLANs)

 

[dangerstat]

Okay I still need loads of help on this if that's okay, as I'm going to configure this all this week.

So I want it to look like this.

Four machines (LC1, LC2, LCS1 and OC1) and NAS will be connected to a 10/100/1000 switch (standard cheapy netgear jobbie). One port will be connected to another 10/100 switch, this in turn has a mobile broadband router connected to one port accepting wireless connections from one specified MAC address (that belonging to my laptop). I want the laptop to be able to connect via SSH, VNC, SFTP and WoL all the machines connected on the 1000 router but I want to filter very carefully anything that passes betweek the 10/100 swtich and the 10/100/1000 swtich - so do I need to replace the 10/100 swtich with a L3 one?

 

[bigredshark]

Okay I still need loads of help on this if that's okay, as I'm going to configure this all this week.

So I want it to look like this.

Four machines (LC1, LC2, LCS1 and OC1) and NAS will be connected to a 10/100/1000 switch (standard cheapy netgear jobbie). One port will be connected to another 10/100 switch, this in turn has a mobile broadband router connected to one port accepting wireless connections from one specified MAC address (that belonging to my laptop). I want the laptop to be able to connect via SSH, VNC, SFTP and WoL all the machines connected on the 1000 router but I want to filter very carefully anything that passes betweek the 10/100 swtich and the 10/100/1000 swtich - so do I need to replace the 10/100 swtich with a L3 one?

No, a layer 3 switch could be bodged to do the job but a firewall is the device purpose designed for the job. A proper firewall will be expensive though (a Juniper SSG5 will cost you maybe £300 for example, a Cisco ASA from around £200) so it depends what you're prepared to spend (then again, a layer3 switch would cost twice that)

 

[Ultim8]

and for the WoL part you can do it on newer macs by going into the System Preferences Energy Saver panel, in the Options tab. Marking the Wake for Ethernet network administrator access checkbox enables WoL.

And you can now get apps on you iphone, blackberry and maybe symbian based phones that can send the "Magic Packet" to the device although im not sure how this would work outside of the network as the router would receive the packet but how it determines which machine to turn on i dont know. but from within the network you can get an app on the atom system as you said that will send the "Magic packet" to the correct computer to turn it on.

HTH

Ulti