How to configure my home LAN

keymoo · 4 Jan 2008 at 17:33

Hi there,

I have 6 PCs at home, and have them all connected to a Netgear DG834G wireless ADSL modem. Some PCs are connected directly, others via wireless. The current topology is:

ADSL Router-->Home LAN

One of my PCs is an Ubuntu server running squid and dansguardian and I'd like to configure the network as follows:

ADSL Router-->ubuntu-server-->Gigabit wireless switch-->Home LAN

The bit that's missing is the gig wireless switch. Do such things exist? If not how else can I configure the network? I need it to be gigabit because the ubuntu server is running BackupPC and throws around a lot of data.

Any insights appreciated!
keymoo

PhillyDee · 4 Jan 2008 at 17:47

You could use a gigabit switch, and then use a wireless access point.
How many PC's do you intend to connect wired to the switch? As you can get wireless with a gigabit switch.

keymoo · 4 Jan 2008 at 23:37

I will be connecting 4 machines to the switch and 2 will be wireless, but this may change. Could you explain your configuration a bit more? Thanks for the reply.

tolien · 5 Jan 2008 at 00:05

Gigabit switch connected to the router, and connect whatever wired machines you want to that, then use either the wireless in the router or disable it and connect a wireless AP (either to the router or the switch)?

You'll be lucky to find a wireless network connection that will come close to maxing out 100Mbps, so it's not really relevant where the AP goes, and you don't need one if the 54Mbps that the router does is enough.

keymoo · 5 Jan 2008 at 21:05

Problem with that config is that I don't get a transparent proxy - I'd ideally like that. So, I guess from the lack of responses, there is no such thing as a wireless switch. I find that odd because all ADSL routers are essentially that with an ADSL modem bundled in.

I guess I could do it with a gig switch and an AP, but then that's two boxes when, ideally I'd like one. Thanks for the replies.

tolien · 5 Jan 2008 at 22:44

Ah, you didn't mention running a transparent proxy - connect the switch to the Ubuntu box (which is also connected to the router) and connect a wireless AP to the switch as well.

I find that odd because all ADSL routers are essentially that with an ADSL modem bundled in.

Not quite. What you're after is a switch with a wireless access point inside, an ADSL router is a combination of router, switch, ADSL modem and wireless AP.
Closest to a "wireless switch" you'd get is any wireless router with switch ports, connected to the Ubuntu box through the switch ports (rather than using the ADSL/ethernet WAN interface).

m_cozzy · 6 Jan 2008 at 11:11

Does it need to be transparent? can it not just be a standalone pc on the lan that you then use to set you browser to point to it? You could even block port 80 outgoing on the router for all other machines if you are worried that someone will try to bypass the proxy. Actually with cisco kit you can redirect traffic to another device, ie the proxy but whether a consumer grade router can do this I dont know.
My personal config would be

router -- gb switch

then a separate access point & all other clients plugged into the switch.