I have a domain setup with about 50 Network Printers (I know, ridiculous), addresses 1-30 filled from Routers/Switches/Servers, about 80 or so PC's, 30-50 Laptops, a VPN Server w/ 20 Addresses in its Pool, and some other various networking devices strewn about.

My problem now is that with our occasional Ghostcast sessions to setup our new PC's, Guests on our wireless, and more and more devices coming in -- we have just about run out of addresses so we want to tack on more. I was wondering what the BEST approach to this would be (how to do it would be nice), and any other input.

For a temporary solution I configured another router with a static address to our internal network, and then used the routers DHCP to assign a new subnet to a different switch. This is allowing 20 or so PC's to work off a separate subnet while maintaining communication with both the net and the Domain. I was a little worried the DHCP "server" on the router would knock down our other DHCP server, but I guess since it's one hardware and one software they coexist w/out problems?

idk; I never really had to spend much time in this arena, but would like to know.

Thanks,

~Brennen

You could setup a Class B network for extra host addresses. I'm not sure what hardware or programs exist for that (besides using a linux box), as my experience is limited to Class C networks. There's probably Class B routers somewhere out there, but Class A would work as well.

Your solution will be fine as long as you keep that new DHCP server on the new subnet. That is the reason they are coexisting. But this is a patch, of course.

I recommend you start talking to your network admins and business managers. Sounds like your organization is due to upgrade the networking gear and expand your addressing scheme. This will involve money and some down time.

Some questions:

Do you know CIDR? - I'm crap at it.

Do you have a Switch?

Do you know how to configure VLANs?

I suggest that you configure a few VLAN's and subnet them accordingly. Something like

VLAN 1 - Printers

VLAN 2 - Servers

VLAN 3 - Desktops

ETC.

ETC.

Then, provided it's an internal LAN and you don't need a PUBLIC IP you could have something like VLAN 1 10.10.10.0/16 VLAN 2 10.10.20.0 /16 VLAN 3 10.10.30.0/16 ETC ETC then just route between them. Looks like you're doing that already. But there's always a neater way to do it.

Its called NAT....

NAT out from your router to the inside. Setup VLANs and DHCP pools for those vlans. Plan your network drops accordingly. Or as other have suggested, just setup a supernet. I would setup multiple vlans and use inter vlan routing.

Thanks guys. I had used a Wireless Router with DD-WRT for my ghost casting purposes. We are definitely due for an upgrade and we will be forking out the money. As of right now our entire second floor has its cabling coming in at one place, and we plan to have all of that on a separate switch. I think we will be ok once we get to that point. My main concern was the second DHCP server not causing any problems.

Thanks!