Connecting two seperate networks

T

trueimage

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2002
Messages
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The goal of this project is to be able to share access to a server with samba shares on it over a LAN/WLAN not over the internet with VPN etc. This will be a media server and streaming video / music will need the LAN/WLAN speed.

Here is a description of the networks as they exist:

House 1:
Media Server (wired cat6)
Other computers (wired cat6)
Gigabit Switch with Jumbo Frames
WRT54g (wifi disabled)
Cable modem

House 2:
2 Laptops (wireless G)
1 HTPC (wired cat5)
WRT54GS
Cable modem

The two houses are about 75 feet apart or less (directly across from eachother, no front yard, on a small cul-de-sac)

We are each paying for our own internet connection. I would like them to continue to use their own connection.

The two solutions I have come up with are:

a) I setup an encrypted Wireless connection and they may disconnect from their wifi and connect to mine to access the media server when they want to (annoying, and if they forget to connect to their own afterwards, their internet connection goes unused)

b) Transplant their cable modem into my house, and buy a twin wan load balancing router and share the connection wired/wireless between my house and theirs. This has the downside of another piece of hardware and them having their modem in my house all the time, not sure if this is a problem, or a strain on the cable network, as I already have HDTV STB Cable, upgraded high-speed (10Mbps vs 6Mbps) and "digital phone" voip service via the cable co.

Any other solutions / ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.
 
option A seems the most doable with the equipment you already have. Your limitation as with any network, especially wireless, will be bandwidth. Setting up your wireless as a bridge to their network would allow them to access to your media server, but they wont be streaming the HD tv shows you downloaded off a torrent anytime soon.

option B would be hell to implement if you havent done anything like it before.


Option C -

If you just want to send files back and forth and set up a few shares load up dd-wrt on the routers or set up an endian/IPCOP box and create a small VPN connection between the two houses.

Option D-

get a spool of STP and run a line to your switch...bam problem solved.
 
The simple way - buy another network interface card for the media server and connect that to their network
 
you could also get 2 pringles cans and point them at each other.
 
This will be a 1.5TB (to start) server, so streaming is the goal, not copying.

dx2 said:
Option D-

get a spool of STP and run a line to your switch...bam problem solved.
Click to expand...

I can't see any way to run the cable across the street, if we were neighbors on the same side, this would be simple.

Vette5885 said:
The simple way - buy another network interface card for the media server and connect that to their network
Click to expand...

How easy is this? Their wired or wireless network would come along with a WAN connection, which may confuse the server with my WAN already being there. Can I set it so the 2nd NIC only does LAN?
 
protias said:
you could also get 2 pringles cans and point them at each other.
Click to expand...

The problem isnt with the signal or the connection per se, it is how can it be connected all at once.
 
trueimage said:
How easy is this? Their wired or wireless network would come along with a WAN connection, which may confuse the server with my WAN already being there. Can I set it so the 2nd NIC only does LAN?
Click to expand...

well, if you go for this route, then why not make 1 of the wireless routers an AP and connect to the router at your place (for their network). i dont know how to do this, but i dont think it is that terribly hard.
 
trueimage said:
How easy is this? Their wired or wireless network would come along with a WAN connection, which may confuse the server with my WAN already being there. Can I set it so the 2nd NIC only does LAN?
Click to expand...
How much WAN traffic does your server see anyway?

You should be able to set the default gateway to your own. Just make sure that you and the neighbor have different network addresses - for example, you have 192.168.0.1 and they have 192.168.1.1.
 
I did this a few years ago with a neighbor across the road from me. Ended up picking up a pair of Linksys WAP11's and put them in a bridge mode (later changed them to AP and AP Client mode to keep one of them available for other clients). Worked fine, just creates one big lan segment. I'm sure you can do the same with G or a pair of those Pre-N APs.

As far as the twin internet connections, I'm sure you can setup something to balance them or just set each person's DNS/Router on each machine to their respective cablemodem (as someone mentioned above I believe).
 
It may be too slow, but look at Hamachi. Unless you already have and have ruled it out. :D

hamachi claims to be zero configuration and it almost is.
 
You could also setup a VPN connection (gateway to gateway) if your devices support it or you have a MS server running at both sites. PPTP or ISAKMP.

There's prob some freeware software that will let you setup a VPN tunnel between the two.

Neither of which would fall into the "easy" catagory.
 
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