Need Help on Networking a Small School

T

TheRoots

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Oct 20, 2004
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I'm currently having a problem trying to setup a network system for a small school.

The school wants to expand it's inetwork by adding 4 more web cams and 2 more computers connected to the internet.

The school has a Linksys Wireless B router /w a 4 port swtich. 2 ports are being used by a couple of webcams and the other is used for a printer.

They had some guy come in there do some wiring for some wall jacks in a couple of classrooms that are more then 100 meters away from the router. One of the wall jacks is a splitter that splits into the wall jack in the next classroom.

The switches I'm using are Linksys EZXS16W and EZXS5W.I wanna know how do I set this up. How should the connection be made. I never dealt with switches and splitters before. My only experience is with wireless routers and access points.

The setup I tried is this

Dsl modem-Wireless B router- 5 port switch-wall splitter-16 port switch- wall splitter-wall jack-computer.

There was a connection but there was no internet acess on the computer. Is there some sort of setting i have to enable on the router or is there some port thats desinated for a switch to switch. I noticed there was uplink port for each switch. Is that used for switch to switch connections? Also the 16 port has only one led on FD/COL on the port thats connected to splitter.

I'm sorry if this is confusing. I'm very confused and I have no idea how the hell they setup the wiring.
 
i dont have much real world experience, just some book knowledge (9 months into my first tech job)

1. you say the wires are over a hundred meters? 100 meters is max for UTP cabling (according to EIA/TIA)

2. you say you cant get net. but can you ping the router from a computer that won't connect to the net?

3. "One of the wall jacks is a splitter that splits into the wall jack in the next classroom" I've never tried this, but I'm told a splitter actually works. but, i could be wrong and this is part of your problem.
 
t00thless said:
i dont have much real world experience, just some book knowledge (9 months into my first tech job)

1. you say the wires are over a hundred meters? 100 meters is max for UTP cabling (according to EIA/TIA)
Click to expand...

185 meters.

2. you say you cant get net. but can you ping the router from a computer that won't connect to the net?
Click to expand...

For the orig poster. have you properly setup the computer? Gateway and DNS as the router that you can ping?

3. "One of the wall jacks is a splitter that splits into the wall jack in the next classroom" I've never tried this, but I'm told a splitter actually works. but, i could be wrong and this is part of your problem.
Click to expand...
Splitters work as long as the wiring is proper, only half the cables inside a typical cat5 is in use usually.
 
as long as your able to ping and recieve responses back from the router then that means the connection is generally working. Splitter is working(although second jack might not be)



heres how you generally use a splitter

=>---------------------------------<=

On each end of the cable theres a splitter. So it would go
Switch > two Wires going from switch into splitter > Splitter > Wire > Splitter > Two wires coming out > PC's
 
I've always been told 100m or about ~300ft but I saw on wikipedia it said 5e is 350m?!?!! W/e it may be I still stick to the ~100m old-school limit.
 
Ruffy said:
as long as your able to ping and recieve responses back from the router then that means the connection is generally working. Splitter is working(although second jack might not be)



heres how you generally use a splitter

=>---------------------------------<=

On each end of the cable theres a splitter. So it would go
Switch > two Wires going from switch into splitter > Splitter > Wire > Splitter > Two wires coming out > PC's
Click to expand...

The splitter in the class room from my understanding has one wire going to wall jack next door and one wire that leads to the switch in the dsl room. I also tried just to connect the computer directly into the splitter but the same problem... the computer said it was connected but I couldn't access the internet.. I never got to check out the router, because I had go back to college. Is there any particular setup for the router.
 
I've done several school networks, overhauling some, and doing some from the ground up. Currently I'm in phase 2 of a network project at a small magnet school on an exclusing island...laid down the ethernet network last winter, implementing Pre-N/MIMO wireless in 2 weeks to blanket the school.

I hate splitters, throw them away.

If you need to get a long home run to a wing or extension or some "el" of the school, fiber is the first thing you'd want to try. But taking into consideration that it's a small school, and possibly fiber is out of the budget, what you want to so....is take that long home run you're doing....and bring it to a wiring closet or someplace...and place another switch on the end.

So what I'm describing...is.
DSL Router==> first top level switch. Into that top level switch, you probably have other switches or computers plugged directly into it....and you'll have this long 100m home run.....on the other end of this long 100m home run...you'll place another switch. Also into that other switch, you'll plug in whatever computers are down at this end of the school.

Switches will "boost" the signal a little bit, think of them a bit like repeaters. At 100m (roughly 330 feet), ....you'll start to get signal degradation (attenuation)...well, having a switch at the end will help boost up the signal a little bit.

Even though you're at a small school, the equipment you're using is a bit lightweight. The school project I'm working on now, I used an APC wall hung cabinet (locking) in the computer lab to house the patch panel (48 ports) where all the network cables we ran come to...a Linksys/Cicso RV016 router, Linksys/Cisco SRW224 web managed switch, and a Linksys/Cisco SR224 switch.

The RV016 router supports VPN connections so I can remote in and work on computers, and their school software support can VPN in and support their product, as well as staff to remote into their workstations at the office. It also has more robust SPI over basic routers, and is rock solid/high availibility, and has the horsepower to support heavy use (533MHz CPU and 32 megs of RAM, versus the typical 100-166MHz and 2-4 megs of RAM for humble home grade routers)

SRW224 managed switch..I used this to create VLANs...so the office network is separate from the rest of the school network...keep the kids out.

SR224 switch uplinks to the SRW224 using the built in gig-bit uplinks.

APC 1U battery backup unit to support all the above.

Linksys/Cisco business grade gear can be had at good prices for schools too.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
So what I'm describing...is.
DSL Router==> first top level switch. Into that top level switch, you probably have other switches or computers plugged directly into it....and you'll have this long 100m home run.....on the other end of this long 100m home run...you'll place another switch. Also into that other switch, you'll plug in whatever computers are down at this end of the school.
Click to expand...

^^ This is what you want. The 100m run really should be fibre though (supports 1 or 2Gb) but cost may just put this out of your budget. If not, remember this 100m run needs to be a crossover cable, not a straight through!

I work as part of a team that has Cisco 2950s, Gbics (fibre connectors for the Cisco 2950s) and fibre in almost every school out of the 50 we manage. It costs more but the uptime is just amazing. We have a couple of HP switch nocking around and they are good too and cost a lot less so if budget is an issue look at these.
 
I am doing something very similiar for my Fire Dept. (we are opening a new house in 2 weeks) I need to have support for VPN but was going to use Windows to set it up. Would you recommend instead using the RV016, my problem is that I only have a $400 budget on the network components (and there it would go). We only have 16 drops but will only be using 10, could I get away with just the router or do I need to get a cheap switch for VLANS/ printers and such.
 
i agree that your equipment is too lightweight for the task.

the school may be small, but it wil expand its IT sometime, probably sooner rather than later.

i volunteered in a similar situation... the school was running about 30 computers behind a linksys router, and sharing an internet connection by forwarding/accepting vpn traffic over the linksys router to another small campus as well.

it was NOT what you call a fast setup, but i was only asked to build the mail server so made my suggestions and worked on my own project.
 
jmmahon1224 said:
I am doing something very similiar for my Fire Dept. (we are opening a new house in 2 weeks) I need to have support for VPN but was going to use Windows to set it up. Would you recommend instead using the RV016, my problem is that I only have a $400 budget on the network components (and there it would go). We only have 16 drops but will only be using 10, could I get away with just the router or do I need to get a cheap switch for VLANS/ printers and such.
Click to expand...

You can shop for the RV042..it's less expensive, and I believe by now the latest firmware should support having a built in PPTP server....I've only dealt with the RV082 and RV016 models.

I'll tell ya what, I love these routers...rock solid, good features, FAST, and for the money, I've not found other routers with the same level of features.

Maybe scour eBay for some bargains.
 
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