Subj : Re: Network setup
To   : ALL
From : Frank Reid
Date : Mon Nov 04 2002 12:10 pm

===========================================================================
RE: Network setup
BY: Ben Carpenter (1:106/2000)
===========================================================================

BC>  Could some one give me some pointers and setting up or rearranging a
BC>  network.
BC> 
BC>  I have several computers on a network and a router connected to a DSL
BC>  connection.  Every thing is working fine, but I want to divide the
BC>  computers in to 3 different work groups that all can connect to the DSL
BC>  internet connection but can not see or communicate with computers in an
BC>  other work group.
BC> 
BC>  Does this require special hardware or is it a software function or
BC>  both?  Please give some details if you can.

How "rigid" are the security constraints among the three networks?  If you
truly do not want to allow any traffic shared among different networks, the
only solution is to add a router (or firewall) with multiple interfaces, so you
can block traffic.

If it's purely esthetic, e.g. so the kids can't see your Network Neighborhood
resources from their computers, you might be able to subnet the IP network
used by your router.  Typical DSL/cable routers use the non-routable (private)
IP address space 192.168.0.0/24 (192.168.0.0 - 192.168.0.255, with a netmask
255.255.255.0 or standard Class "C" subnetting).  Without modifying the router
configuration, you can "chunk" that network up into four 64 host blocks on the
workstations, each using a subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, as follows:

Workgroup1    192.168.0.2   - 192.168.0.62
Workgroup2    192.168.0.66  - 192.168.0.126
Workgroup3    192.168.0.130 - 192.168.0.190
Workgroup4    192.168.0.194 - 192.168.0.254

I've omitted the network and broadcast addresses in each range, so these should
be the usable addresses for the workstations.  This is untested, and there are
two questions I have in advance.  First, because you can only populate a single
address on the router (192.168.0.1), will the workstations be able to find the
default gateway at 192.168.0.1 from the three higher subnets?  Second, because
Windows network is pretty pervasive unless RPC activity is blocked, will the
workstations still be able to "see" each other across the subnet boundaries.

The real solution is a multiple interface hardware router or firewall, but I'd
be curious of your results if you give this a try.

Frank

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