XP as a router?

[b0redom]

Hi All,
Sorry if this is really badly explained but.....

I've got the following setup:

Internet <-- Router / switch 1<------ XP Box ---------> switch 2<---- PC3
                       ^   ^---------- PC 1
                       |-------------- PC 2

So basically XP box is on two switches. I want PC3 to be able to see PC1 + PC2 + Internet and vice versa.

From XP box, both NICs are able to see (ping) machines on both switches.

Switch 1 uses 192.168.0.x
Switch 2 uses 192.168.1.x

Do I need to turn anything on in XP to allow routing? I'm guessing I'll need to add a static route to switch 1, giving the default route to 192.168.1.0 as the 192.168.0.x interface on XP Box.

Hope someone can decipher all this and help :-)

Tom

[b0redom]

*edit* PC1 + PC2 should be plugged into switch 1, but I can't work out how to do   in this forum :-)

[Funkstar]

Why are you wanting to set it up this way?

Why not just have everything plugged into the first router as per normal?

btw, [code ] blocks are your friend

[b0redom]

Aha, [code ] :-)

The reason is that the connection between xp box and switch 1 is a fast wireless one. Basically I've got two physically separate networks I need to join, and have been banned from drilling holes in the wall.

One of the boxes plugged into switch 2 is an appliance which only has a hard wired ethernet port, so wireless everywhere is not an option.

I did have powerline network bridges, and whilst they worked initially, after a day or so the throughput dropped to 20kbps, so I had to RMA them.

Cheers...

Tom

[directhex]

xp makes for a truly dreadful router - it's a home OS, it's not designed to do it

[b0redom]

Well there's nothing else I can use. Linux/BSD steadfastly refuse to work with the wireless kit I can get hold of. :-(

Tom

[Funkstar]

so switch 2 is really a wireless Access Point with a built in switch then?

Why no just daiy chain that directly onto the router?

[slugs]

why did you not connect switch 2 to switch 1? Is there any specific reason you need different subnets.

I likely to end up using Internet connection sharing to get the routing working. You will the use the IP address of your XP server as the default gateway on the Switch 2 devices

[slugs]

sorry just read the statement about drilling holes in the walls. therefore Internet connection sharing is your way forward. To let the Switch 2 Segment gain access to the Internet via Switch 1's router

[Kezzer]

Well there's nothing else I can use. Linux/BSD steadfastly refuse to work with the wireless kit I can get hold of. :-(

Tom

Usually there are open source drivers for most models of routing hardware. I've used many different devices with OSs such as smoothwall and they've all been fine.

Did you actually search for the drivers if they didn't work with the bog standard OS?

[b0redom]

Hi,

Funkstar: The XP box is connected to switch 1 over wireless - switch 1 is a combo adsl/switch/wireless box.

Kezzer: As far as I can tell, there are native drivers for almost no wireless cards. Some will work with ndiswrapper, but opinions are mixed as to whether that's a good idea or not, and I've never personally managed to get it working - I find it usually hangs my server.

The card I'm using is a WN311N - it's based on the Broadcom pre-n chipset, so I think the chances of finding anything working on it in the immiediate future are pretty remote.

Tom

[b0redom]

So the answer for posterity is:

Setup a network bridge, and set up all the devices on the 192.168.0.x/255.255.255.0 subnet.

Windows (at least XP Pro) can bridge two network interfaces by selecting and right clicking, followed by selecting 'Bridge Connections'.

The bridge will then have a single IP address, and BOTH network cards will listen to it, passing traffic backwards and forwards to the right hosts seemlessly.

As a side note, I have created a VMWare host on the box too without any problems.