[X4U] Attaching A Router To Router

[Allan Hise]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005, revDAVE wrote:
> On 2/14/05 12:53 AM, "Allan Hise" <allan at hise.org> wrote:
>
> > Yes, this is possible. I would try just using a switch (or, less
> > desirably, a hub) first, especially if the network uses DHCP (and the IT
> > guys allow the 2nd MAC address on the network). That would make things
> > much simpler, and cheaper.
>
>  thank you Alan.  Supposedly - this friend already bought a switch and tried
> to set up for 1  hour unsuccessfully... Can you provide a few tricks that I
> can relay to him...?

Matthew Barr mentioned in a different reply to be sure that the switch
connects to the router via the uplink port, and the two PCs connect to the
switch via their normal ports. In this case, 3 'normal' cables (as opposed
to 'crossover' cables) are needed.

That is the only trick to an ethernet switch.

I guess it also assumes that the switch will auto-sense speed & duplex
(most these days do) and that the PCs and router will also (again, most
relatively modern PCs should)

> > Otherwise, just setup the router to use NAT and the 1st router will see
> > the two machines as having the same IP address. Of course, this is easier
> > said than done and implementation depends on the router. And depending on
> > how the network is set up, you may end up with NAT upon NAT... (it works,
> > but can be ugly).
>
>  can you tell me what NAT is... And how to implement it? (  enough at least
> to get me started...)

NAT is Network Address Translation. For example, my ISP gives my DSL
router a public IP address. For example, 123.456.789.012
I want to have my two macs, my wife's PC, our squeezebox, my newton and
the web server to have access to the internet. So I assign those a
'private' IP address (either with DHCP or static), for example in the
192.168.1.xxx range. So the router uses NAT to translate the 6 internal
LAN addresses (192.168.1.xxx) between the one public address.

If my ISP would give me 6 public addresses
(123.456.789.012-123.456.789.018, for example), I would not need to use
NAT and each device could have it's own presence on the internet.

Implementation is purely up to the router. Probably every Home/SoHo
consumer-grade router sold these days has it built-in and already active.

>  thanks for your help

Hopefully some of this will help. Because of the many variables, without
knowing some things it is only guesswork at this point. Can you tell us
what his ethernet network settings are?

Allan