Wireless / Wired Network Setup Query

[SilverBulletUK]

OK, got a problem....and I was hoping a few of you guys could help. please.

Could you please see attached picture, this is how I would l like my network setup. The red connections are wired and the black line is the vga cable to my TV from my MCE system.

The router can act as a DHCP server, and if needed so can "pc3" as i have Server 2003 as a resource.

I would like all the pcs on the same ip range (10.1.0.1, 10.1.0.2 etc...), and, all allocated from a DHCP server.

My preferance would be for the Router to be the DHCP server just for easy-of-use....

PC3 has 2 network connections, one wired CAT5 and other 54g Wireless.

Could someone please suggest a walkthrough/ guidance on how to set this up? :shiftyninja:

Cheers all.

[RogueSpear]

The way the diagram is now, you'd have to enable internet connection sharing on PC3. It'll work, but I've never been a huge fan of ICS and there's a catch - your router must be capable of using a subnet other than 192.168.1.0 because I think that's the only subnet ICS can use. I could be wrong as I've actively avoided using ICS at all costs.

My personal preference would be to get a wireless bridge for your other segment and just hook that into your switch.

[SilverBulletUK]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply.

I too woudl prefer not to use ICS, there just seems something 'wrong' about it....

The wireless switch sounds like a good idea, can you recommend one?

Just for clarity, The router and the MCE PC are located in a 'newly' furnished living room, so I cannot hard-wire the router to the other PC's im afraid.

I'd alsos prefer to have the router as a router just so If I add a laptop to the home later, I can connect wirelessly.

Any more ideas??

[tain]

I *really* like the WET54GS5. You could replace your existing switch with it.

Please note, though, that Linksys has apparently discontinued this product; I couldn't find a link on their products page. Nevertheless, I have one of these and it is easily one of the most capable wireless devices I've ever bought...not counting hacked WRTs

[sven]

an easy solution would be the wireless bridge as said before. i would suggest buying a single port one (like those advertised for use with the XBOX/PS2/etc, then connect it to a lan port on your switch. This will create a bridge between the networks, and will allow you to keep teh same ip address range.

Another way to to it (with the hardware shown) is to replace the switch with the router, then use a single port ethernet bridge (as stated before) just to connect the MCE Pc to the wireless network. this would also make your network more efficient, as it removed the bottleneck at the wireless bridge (which runs at 54 Mbps).

The way you have your network set-up in the diagram, Pc1, Pc2, and Pc3 have to share a 54Mbps connection to the router, and the MCE Pc gets its own 100Mbps connection. Pc1, Pc2, and Pc3 will connect between eachother at 100Mbps. If you set up your network like in way 2 (paragraph 2) then it will allow the 3 computers (pc1, pc2, and pc3) to have a 100Mbps connection to the router (and between each other), and MCE Pc will have a complete 54 Mbps connection to itself.

Also, method 2 will allow you room for expansion if you want to add a laptop because the 54 Mbps is shared between all the computers on the network. This will further reduce the speed between the 3 computers and your router, creating bottlenecks and problems. if anything seems confusing (which it might be) send me a PM and i can help make stuff clear.