network connection question

[Handruin]

I'm trying to figure out how to get both my machines to communicate at a reasonable speed. I fugured out why the transfer between both my machines is so slow, now I need help figuring out a way around this issue.

My current setup has 1 cable modem connected to a 10/100 switch (not a router) along with my two computers.

I'm allowed two dynamic ip addresse and both my machines are capable of getting onto the net. I'm also able to connect to each machine over the network.

Now the problem is when I want to transfer large files between the two machines. Right now, both machines are some how sending all the data they communicate through the cable modem because I get transfer rates between my machines equivalent to 12KB per second which is rediculous.

Is it possible for me to have both machines on the net and allow them to utilize their 100/full connection over my switch? Seems like a routing issue, except I don't have a router. Is my only way to solve this issue is to purchase a router to keep internal traffic between my machines separate? I'm guessing another method is to install a second NIC into eahc machine, but I'd rather not.

 

[freeborn]

Would you be willing to install a second NIC in one machine? If you are then you could connect the cable modem to the second NIC in one machine and enable network address translation (NAT). This will allow the dynamic IP address the cable modem provides to be shared between the two computers. I must admit I'm real rusty in the Linux world and have been using M$ OS's (I maintain an MSDN subscription at work so have access to the OSs for testing purposes) so I cannot say how to make it work under Linux. Under current Windows the simplist way to do waht you wish is to enable Internet connection sharing. Your high speed network connects your two computers and one computer acts as the gateway to the cable modem.

At home I have 5 computers networked with a low end server running Windows Server 2003 with NAT enabled and configured (I use the reserved non-routable 192.168.0.x subnet within the house and whatever my ISP provides for the public IP) . The server has two NICs where as all other computers only have one. I get the full 100Mb connection within the house and share my 1Mb internet connection through the server.

I hope I haven't rambled too much here... its late and I need sleep. Oh, you could probably use an old 10 base NIC to connect to the cable modem.

Free

 

[Handruin]

Thanks freeborn. I am running winXP on both my machines, so I can do as you mentioned. Is that the only way for me to get around my issue?

I do have another 10/100 NIC kicking around in my closet, but if I connect my machines up in this fashion it renders my switch useless. I guess I was hoping I didn't have to do it this way. It might be easier for me to just purchase one of those linksys routers.

Thanks for the info, I might go ahead and give it a shot anyway.

 

[honold]

buy a cheapo linksys hardware router and you'll be more secure in addition to getting full ethernet speed without having to crack the cases

 

[blakerwry]

would it be possible to assign two IP's to each computer? oh wait.. no i dont think windows can do that... (1 DHCP and 1 static on the same NIC)


Um.. yeah... I'd go for the router...

If you had a hub I'd say it's possible to use a non routable protocol like NETBEUI (without the TCP/IP wrapper). But that probably isn't going to work with a switch.


btw it seems that your cable modem isn't doing as good a job as mine was... I was atleast going to the cable modem and no further when I was using a similar setup. This limited me to the maximum speed of my cable modem (3Mbps)

 

[Mercutio]

Stupid Windows XP trick: If you've got ieee1394 on both machines, you can use that as your local network. Works very well. If you can find the right %$$ing cable.

Otherwise, yeah, you should probably do the 2 NICs + ICS thing. It'd work better for your setup.

 

[P5-133XL]

Get yourself a router/firewall: You need the firewall protection if you are using a cable modem - The router comes free.

 

[Howell]

Get yourself a router/firewall: You need the firewall protection if you are using a cable modem - The router comes free.

I agree. Or you could build a smoothie.

 

[blakerwry]

would it be possible to assign two IP's to each computer? oh wait.. no i dont think windows can do that... (1 DHCP and 1 static on the same NIC)

Can anybody tell me why this is so? If you can assign two(or more) static IP's to a single NIC then why couldn't you assign a DHCP IP and a static one?

Can linux utilize a DHCP and a static IP on the same NIC?

 

[Mercutio]

If you have both DHCP and a static address on the same interface, there's a very good chance for the sort of settings conflict that would make one or the other unworkable

eg - You have an assigned DNS address from DHCP and a static one you've configured. Which one gets precedence? Does one overwrite the other? Get the idea?

 

[blakerwry]

If you have both DHCP and a static address on the same interface, there's a very good chance for the sort of settings conflict that would make one or the other unworkable

eg - You have an assigned DNS address from DHCP and a static one you've configured. Which one gets precedence? Does one overwrite the other? Get the idea?

why would that come into play, since you can have 2 static IP's.. couldn't you ask the same questions?

 

[honold]

Can anybody tell me why this is so? If you can assign two(or more) static IP's to a single NIC then why couldn't you assign a DHCP IP and a static one?

Can linux utilize a DHCP and a static IP on the same NIC?

you can't do it via the gui, but you can use AddIpAddress() from a custom app.

in linux you could try doing an ifconfig after you get an ip via dhcpd/dhclient...

 

[Dozer]

P5-133XL wrote:
Get yourself a router/firewall: You need the firewall protection if you are using a cable modem - The router comes free.


I agree. Or you could build a smoothie.

I'd have to third this option. Ease of use+security+easy expandability = happy user. I'm running a D-link DI-704 Firewall/4-port router, which has been a dream to use/set up. The prices have come way down on them as well.

 

[Handruin]

I just bought the linksys 4 port router for $49 new. It was a piece of cake to hook up and it fixed my problem. One thing that annoys me is that this router is larger than my 8 port switch so the two units don't stack nicely....Oh well.

I was hoping to avoid the router bit, but since it fixes my problem and adds a layer of security, I know it will be worth the money in the long run. Now I have to read up on allowing certain ports through and so on.

 

[blakerwry]

I just bought the linksys 4 port router for $49 new. It was a piece of cake to hook up and it fixed my problem. One thing that annoys me is that this router is larger than my 8 port switch so the two units don't stack nicely....Oh well.

I was hoping to avoid the router bit, but since it fixes my problem and adds a layer of security, I know it will be worth the money in the long run. Now I have to read up on allowing certain ports through and so on.

That's one thing that I don' like so much about the linksys, they don't wall mount/stack as easily as other units

 

[Mercutio]

Why should it? Given linksys's market, there really isn't much need to daisy chain equipment.

When I do home network installations I typically wire 8 ports, usually four rooms with two ports each. Very few people need more connectivity than that in home/SOHO settings.

 

[Handruin]

Given the time span between the purchases of these two pieces of equipment, I can see why they don't match. I'll guess that all the networking components built near the time my switch was made fit together nicely.

Linksys does make a wall mounting option BTW. It's mainly for wireless, but I'll bet it works with the other components.

Looks like linksys is aware they don't fit...they even display it in this image:

I'm begining to doubt that stacking these units is a good idea, both my switch and router are very warm. Does anyone else notice their router running a little on the warm side? I don't recall my switch ever running this warm.

 

[Mercutio]

My router has two high rpm fans in it. One for each power supply.
A bog-standard linksys switch should be no warmer than room temp, and my wireless AP isn't particularly hot either.

 

[Handruin]

Ah, I should have clarified "router running a little warm" as linksys router.

I turned my 8-port switch on it's side so it sits vertically on the router and after 10 minutes they are both running at slightly above room temperature. It gets surprisingly warm if you stack them as shown in the image I posted. I would not recommend it to anyone. :-? I'm a little surprised at how warm both switches became from being stacked like this.

 

[P5-133XL]

I have a Linksys BEFSR11 and it is room temp (no warmth that I can detect). It is sitting on an Intel 8 port switch (slightly warm) and a sub-woofer is on top of the Linksys.

Merc - You are using a Cisco router: What do you expect but dual power supplies for redundancy. Oh, I alsmost forgot Linksys is now part of Cisco

 

[time]

It's a while since I've touched Linksys switches, but a couple of years ago some ran alarmingly hot. The inadequate thermal design relied on lateral convective cooling. If they're using the same half-baked approach again, I'm not surprised that turning it vertically helps so much.

 

[Mercutio]

I've got a few spare 8 and 16 port port switches. Linksys and Dlink. The linkys I still have are the old ones with the steel cases and... they really don't get hot. Are we talking about the old metal ones or the only sorta old plastic ones?

SMC's low-end managed switches get pretty warm.

 

[Pradeep]

I have a Linksys BEFSR11 and it is room temp (no warmth that I can detect). It is sitting on an Intel 8 port switch (slightly warm) and a sub-woofer is on top of the Linksys.

You have a subwoofer sitting on your router and switch?

 

[P5-133XL]

My linksys is a plastic one.

Pradeep,

No you have it slightly wrong: but that is because I didn't give you more info. Subwoofer on top, next is linksys router, followed by intel switch, and underneath all is a Cybex KVM on top of my desk.

The subwoofer is needed to keep everything in place: Specificlly the cords plugged into the Cybex KVM are heavy and have a desperate desire to pull the KVM (bottom most device) off the desk and with it all the others.