PCs with Wi-Fi internet access and LAN for storage/Printer network

[barnettgs]

Hello,

I'm doing this for a friend, and we were having difficulty making PCs see each other on the LAN network, especially with the NAS station. I did not have enough time to diagnose the problem the last time I was there.

I have a quick drawing as follows:

So these PCs got internet access via the WiFi connection from the BT Hub.

For the LAN, I think there is no DHCP as they are all connected to a LAN switch, so they would be given a static IP; however, Synology NAS Station can have its DHCP turned on if needed but since one of the printers use static IP, so what would be best IP range for that? As there is no host on that LAN so do I need to I assign a gateway IP?

I assume that IP ranges cannot be the same as the WiFi network, so therefore they would have to be something like 192.168.2.xxx?

 

[barnettgs]

Yes, these PCs have static IPs, as well as the printers and NAS. I agree it is messy.

The reason for this is that the BT Hub is on the far end of the large building because of where the fibre plate is installed, with the BT Extender in the middle of the building to serve the internet to the PCs on the other end!

You do have a point about simplifying the network; I think it can only be done by adding another BT extender with a LAN port on the end of the building where the PCs and printers are, connecting it to the switch to give out the IPs from the BT Hub. But does that mean if one PC sends a file to the NAS via the switch, it would have to go through the BT Hub via two Wi-Fi extenders and then come back to the switch network? That would have slowed down the large file transfers to crawling speed.

That was why the PCs are served by internet access perfectly via the WiFi separately; we just need to deal with the LAN network for use with the file transfers and printing.

 

[barnettgs]

From experience no, it'll take the shortest route and will only go through the switch.

Considering it's fibre though, I would still be tempted to get a long ethernet run installed, I would imagine WiFi going through an extender will hold internet speeds back, not to mention added latency.

Thanks, I'm just curious to know why it is a bad idea to run two different networks through the same PCs. Both networks (LAN and Wi-Fi) have no needs for each other.

 

[barnettgs]

I would still be tempted to get a long ethernet run installed, I would imagine WiFi going through an extender will hold internet speeds back, not to mention added latency.

On second thought, would a powerline do instead of a long ethernet run?

 

[barnettgs]

Thanks. Due to the length of the building, which would require a really long ethernet cable and the time to route it, etc., I guess I will try a separate subnet route first and see how it goes since both networks do not need to see each other.

 

[barnettgs]

Thanks for your suggestions.

You didn’t say how you were testing if the PCs can ‘find each other’, so a bit curious about that as there could also be some issues there with OS or software that are adding to or causing the problem.

Actually, I realised that one of the printers and the NAS were using different subnet IPs from the PCs, and that is probably why they do not communicate with each other. I will try to put the NAS in DHCP mode with a different subnet (from BT) and change the printer's static IP to join it.

Why not do away with the switch, replacing it with another router, operating in bridge mode? That way, you don't need anything static and you don't need to use wifi on the PC's.

I think the switch has 8 ports, but regarding getting a router and putting it in bridge mode, did you mean by Wireless Bridge?