3 pc and two 2.5 Mbits Internet connections... and a LAN

S

Starriol

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
191
Well, the situation is the following: I've installed a LAN on 3 PC.

2 new ones and an old one.

Each of the new PC has it's own highspeed cablemodem internet connection and I want the old PC to be able to access Internet for low bandwith uses.

Is there anyway to combine the 2 connections into one faster internet connection accesible to each of the 3 PC?

I mean, if I'm downloading from one of the new PC, can I download at the top speed allowed by the two connections?

If that is not possible, I need to have each of the new PC with a connection and have one of them share the connection with the old one.

The problem I have now is that only two PC are on now, the other one is not being used. Each of them has it's own connection and they are on a lan.

But when I shut down either PC, the other gets off the net. I suspect that only one connection is being used.

All the 3 PC have windows XP sp 2 installed by the way.
 
Each of your two "new" PC's has two ethernet ports? Like this?
Code: 
Modem1     Modem2
 |            |
 |            |
 |            |
 |            |
PC1 -------- PC2
If so, that's an interesting configuration and I'm wondering what the details are.

The best answer, unless you have some special need this doesn't address, is to use a router such as the one linked above to simply share one modem connection between two PC's.
 
I can't use a router because I made my client but a simple switch, so I can't make him buy a router because I will look very unprofessional.

So I need to find a solution with the current hardware.

You misunderstood me, Kumquat, I actually have 3 PC on this lan.
Looks like this:

Modem1 Modem2
| |
| |
| |
| |
PC1 -------- PC2 ------------- PC3

PC 1 & PC 2 are the new ones. PC3 is an old one.
EDIT: I can't make the graphics ok. Modem 1 is connected to PC 1 and modem 2, to PC2.
All 3 PC are on a LAN

So how can I dos this with a switch?
 
Well, that's the 'professional' way to do it and the best way to avoid config problems in the long run. Best to fudge it and get the client to buy the router.
 
Starriol said:
I can't use a router because I made my client but a simple switch, so I can't make him buy a router because I will look very unprofessional.

So I need to find a solution with the current hardware.

You misunderstood me, Kumquat, I actually have 3 PC on this lan.
Looks like this:

Modem1 Modem2
| |
| |
| |
| |
PC1 -------- PC2 ------------- PC3

PC 1 & PC 2 are the new ones. PC3 is an old one.
EDIT: I can't make the graphics ok. Modem 1 is connected to PC 1 and modem 2, to PC2.
All 3 PC are on a LAN

So how can I dos this with a switch?
Click to expand...
What's unprofessional is screwing it up in the first place.

Unless I'm missing something drastic, the "smart" thing to do would be to have one modem plugged into a router, and have all 3 PC's on a single LAN behind it.

Why do you have your client paying for two cable modems?!

I want to make sure I'm understanding your setup. Tell me if this is right:

PC1 and PC2 each have two ethernet cards/ports
There are no firewalls/routers between Modem1 and PC1 and between Modem2 and PC2
 
Ehh, the definitions of server and router aren't exactly black and white, I have machine sitting on my desk doing NAT without issue, and its only a VIA EPIA 600 Dual NIC. I actually used OpenBSD this last weekend as a firewall/router at http://iasg.ece.iastate.edu/CDC/ , and it worked out quiet nicely, I was actually suprised at the load the 2GHz Celly with 256MB ram could handle, without a single problem. It was tracking about 15000 States at max, with snort running doing alerts to syslog. A number of large comercial companies actually use OpenBSD for there firewall. http://www.openbsd.org/users.html#com

For a setup like this, you could easily use an older machine you find at an auction or garage sale. I was simply pointing out its another solution. There is also a way of doing essientially the same thing with Linux, but it involes a bit more work from what I looked up (using iproute2). Another solution is getting a prebuilt unit that can utilize multiple uplinks using something like this
 
Xipher said:
Ehh, the definitions of server and router aren't exactly black and white, I have machine sitting on my desk doing NAT without issue, and its only a VIA EPIA 600 Dual NIC. I actually used OpenBSD this last weekend as a firewall/router at http://iasg.ece.iastate.edu/CDC/ , and it worked out quiet nicely, I was actually suprised at the load the 2GHz Celly with 256MB ram could handle, without a single problem. It was tracking about 15000 States at max, with snort running doing alerts to syslog. A number of large comercial companies actually use OpenBSD for there firewall. http://www.openbsd.org/users.html#com

For a setup like this, you could easily use an older machine you find at an auction or garage sale. I was simply pointing out its another solution. There is also a way of doing essientially the same thing with Linux, but it involes a bit more work from what I looked up (using iproute2). Another solution is getting a prebuilt unit that can utilize multiple uplinks using something like this
Click to expand...
The point was that this guy is averse to installing a $30 router because it will look unprofessional.... and now someone is suggesting installing another PC (an OpenBSD machine doing NAT and load balancing is certainly a server IMO).
 
I was simply pointing out another solution, I don't see any way too do what he asks except the suggestions me and you have given him. He might be able to get redundancy by connecting all three to the switch, and having 2 default routes on machine 3. If Windows supports that, it should use the first one while its up. When the machine is shut down, it should notice, every time when it sends packets to the first default route, and try using the backup route.
I haven't tested this though, don't even know if Windows can even have a second default gateway added.
The unprofesional comment wasn't really about the router either, it was about buying more hardware after he made a mistake.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top