I just moved into my fraternity house a couple days ago and have been setting everything up for living here. There are about 70-80ish guys living in with me, and thus our internet connection has always been slow.
I have been trying to figure out how to speed things up, so i went to where the router (and what i thought was going to be a somewhat fast probably business class connection, the network switch, and then a few wires to hook up all 50ish rooms.
when i got down to the room it was located i was flat out wrong.
rather than one business class connections, we had 7 slow DSL connections going into a big black metal box.
I opened up the box and there are two UPS sitting in it, on top of a gateway computer that is no (yet no one knew existed), and then 7 combinations of switches and routers just thrown into the box (no wire management what so ever.
hell, when i even opened the box, a router and switch fell out...
I am now on a quest to fix this problem, however there are several things i need you guys to help me with if possible
The Biggest Issue:
Right now everyone is on different networks, making file sharing between computers impossible. Is there any way to get everyone to be able to connect to other people's computers while still having multiple internet connections?
Edit: Also, i know it is possible by setting everyone's IP manually and disabled DHCP. Then having each router be a gateway with a different IP. but i am only here for a couple of years, and most people take their computers to class too. So i am trying to find a way to keep DHCP running rather than manually doing everything. It would take way too long to set up everyones computer, and tell them how to use their computers if they take it to another network (i.e. redoing their IP address).
Issue Two:
I have a server i brought which i was originally going to use as a bit-torrent seedbox (seeding linux distros of course) for the house. Basically, everything that would be downloaded would be done only on that box, and then when the file is done downloading you would pull it from the finished downloads folder and take it off the server.
The reason why I think this would be better than just everyone DLing on their own computers is that it really decreases the traffic inside the network and can also run 24/7 so other people do not need to keep their computers on.
However, at the current moment in time, we suffer from the biggest issue, which is being on 8 different networks in the house, (each with only a maximum of 8 computers on it). so it makes it impossible to all connect to the server. Does anyone know how i can wire the switches together without fucking things up.
I thought about it but if you are running several internet connections as well, how would it manage the internet connections? would you have to get a router that has multiple WAN ports?
i have also been looking into replacing all the connections with one business class (or something similar) connection, but all that is really available is DSL. And those DSL connections dont seem to be fast enough to support everyone off one connection.
Anyone have any idea on how to go about this problem? or better yet, know an ISP whom's connection is great enough to support the bandwidth we use in the Purdue University area?
lastly, i have been trying everything to find out what that server does, however i cant find it on any of the networks (god saying that makes me cringe). anyone have any idea what its doing? i cant see it being very useful for our house (in which, there arent that many techy people.. and the alumni dont give two shits about us). i really couldnt care less about the server.. just curious.
I have been trying to figure out how to speed things up, so i went to where the router (and what i thought was going to be a somewhat fast probably business class connection, the network switch, and then a few wires to hook up all 50ish rooms.
when i got down to the room it was located i was flat out wrong.
rather than one business class connections, we had 7 slow DSL connections going into a big black metal box.
I opened up the box and there are two UPS sitting in it, on top of a gateway computer that is no (yet no one knew existed), and then 7 combinations of switches and routers just thrown into the box (no wire management what so ever.
hell, when i even opened the box, a router and switch fell out...
I am now on a quest to fix this problem, however there are several things i need you guys to help me with if possible
The Biggest Issue:
Right now everyone is on different networks, making file sharing between computers impossible. Is there any way to get everyone to be able to connect to other people's computers while still having multiple internet connections?
Edit: Also, i know it is possible by setting everyone's IP manually and disabled DHCP. Then having each router be a gateway with a different IP. but i am only here for a couple of years, and most people take their computers to class too. So i am trying to find a way to keep DHCP running rather than manually doing everything. It would take way too long to set up everyones computer, and tell them how to use their computers if they take it to another network (i.e. redoing their IP address).
Issue Two:
I have a server i brought which i was originally going to use as a bit-torrent seedbox (seeding linux distros of course) for the house. Basically, everything that would be downloaded would be done only on that box, and then when the file is done downloading you would pull it from the finished downloads folder and take it off the server.
The reason why I think this would be better than just everyone DLing on their own computers is that it really decreases the traffic inside the network and can also run 24/7 so other people do not need to keep their computers on.
However, at the current moment in time, we suffer from the biggest issue, which is being on 8 different networks in the house, (each with only a maximum of 8 computers on it). so it makes it impossible to all connect to the server. Does anyone know how i can wire the switches together without fucking things up.
I thought about it but if you are running several internet connections as well, how would it manage the internet connections? would you have to get a router that has multiple WAN ports?
i have also been looking into replacing all the connections with one business class (or something similar) connection, but all that is really available is DSL. And those DSL connections dont seem to be fast enough to support everyone off one connection.
Anyone have any idea on how to go about this problem? or better yet, know an ISP whom's connection is great enough to support the bandwidth we use in the Purdue University area?
lastly, i have been trying everything to find out what that server does, however i cant find it on any of the networks (god saying that makes me cringe). anyone have any idea what its doing? i cant see it being very useful for our house (in which, there arent that many techy people.. and the alumni dont give two shits about us). i really couldnt care less about the server.. just curious.